From Fake Dreams
by Third Fang
Summary: Emiya Kiritsugu was happy living the rest of his short days. He had put his past behind him... until he began to dream of futures that had yet to be. Let it be known that the Magus Killer was not dangerous simply because he was dying and had no plans to fight.
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1: A new beginning to the end.

I do not own Fate/Stay Night:

o. o. o.

Emiya Kiritsugu was a man whose life could not be simply told. If one were to see him today, they would see a tired looking male in his early thirties who seemed to be trying to enjoy everything around him with a tired smile. He was a failure as a chef. He traveled a fair bit. He was fairly knowledgeable about military tactics and firearms. But most of all he enjoyed spending time with his son Shiro. The boy was not his own from what he told others, however the two got along so well that it did not really matter…

If one were to see him three years ago, they would have seen a cold calculating man. Emotionless, efficient, precise, ruthless… it would not be far from the truth to call him a monster in some ways. He weighed all lives on the scale of necessity, taking all into consideration and always tipping it so that the least amount of lives was lost. In doing so however, he paved a path of blood for himself that few could hope to match. A master of subterfuge and war tactics, and a practitioner of thaumaturgy, otherwise known as magic.

Emiya Kiritsugu was a Magus… and there was a reason why he was once known as the infamous Magus Killer…

However that was before the ending of the 4th holy grail war… before he rescued young Shirou from the verge of death and adopted him… before he was cursed by the corrupted Holy Grail and the spirit of Angra Mayuu that dwelled within it… before he lost his wife and sacrificed any chance of seeing his real daughter again…

It had been 3 years since the war. In the span of 2 weeks he had played the ultimate game against 12 other individuals paired up like himself and his temporary familiar Saber. The enigmatic king of conquers who desired to rule all… the mysterious and pompous golden king who claimed to own all… an insane cultist who sacrificed children and women for his own sick rituals and curiosities… contemptuous magi who participated only for glory… the noble dual spear wielding knight… the empty priest who gained pleasure only from the misery and suffering of others… it was a secret free for all war that left blood everywhere. He himself had had a hand in ending several of the other participants, and at one point had even destroyed an entire skyscraper in a failed attempt to kill the master of Lancer…

And yet at the end of that secret contest that claimed so many lives in the process… the only result was more lost lives as at the last second, immersed in the corrupted gelatinous liquid that spewed forth from the Grail and clinging onto his sanity and body as both were torn apart from the magical sludge, Kiritsugu saw what had truly become of their goal and the result of any wish that was made using it. He forced his summoned partner, the King of Knights, the legendary King Arthur… who happened to actually be a girl named Arturia and unaware of what had become of her prize, to destroy the grail in order to prevent the artifact from potentially causing mass genocide. Its original purpose, to grant the wish of the winning master and servant of the grail war, was disclosed to him to have been the ultimate monkey's paw, in that the now corrupted item now granted the wish in the form of absolute destruction.

Utilizing it to open the gate to Akashic Records, the swirl of the root, the source of all that has been and all possibilities, the goal of almost all who studied thaumaturgy, as well as realizing the 3rd great magic, were all meaningless to him. He had only participated because he had been hired to, and so he could have his wish granted… to have a world of peace without violence. A world where he would no longer have to sacrifice the innocent in order to save the masses. He was tired of knowing that in order to save the many, the few had to be forfeited…

He could still see the memories in his dreams on occasion. Waiting for his father, who had condemned an entire island's worth of people to death for his experiments, to turn his back on him so trustingly… and pointing the gun at the man's head. He was only a child at that point in time…

Talking to the woman who he considered his mother… who taught him everything he knew about hunting sealing designates and other targets, about pretty much everything after his father's death… flying the plane filled with 300 dead apostles above his head as he sat in an unmarked boat in New York… before using a rocket launcher and killing everyone on board…

Watching as his final order to Saber AKA Arturia destroyed the corrupted grail and caused a chain reaction that for lack of a better term nuked an enormous section of Fuyuki city, where he was living now… killing over 500 innocent people in the area in the process…

Stumbling through the inferno that he caused, looking at all the people that he had murdered, and crying tears of joy as he found that single solitary boy still barely alive… glad that he could save even just that single life from that accursed hell…

In a way he himself was rescued by the boy. It was really the first time he had actually saved anyone in his life. Before all he had done was kill people in order to preserve the lives of the many… however he had never truly gone out of his way to rescue an innocent. Maiya would have counted if it weren't for the fact that she was not innocent at all, a guerilla fighter raised at a young age… she became an assistant to his chaos since she was unable to do anything else with her life… until she was killed by Berserker in an attempt to protect Iriseviel… the homunculus… the living core of that war's holy grail… his wife…

"Iri…" The man sighed as he drank tea on the porch of his home and watched as Shirou stopped attempting magic for the night and went to bed. "What would you say in this situation…?"

He had told Shirou about him being a Magus about a year back and since then against his advice he had been teaching the boy the science of thaumaturgy… well he couldn't say that really. The boy's progress was nearly nonexistent. He could barely get any spells to work even though he seemingly possessed an above average magic circuit. The best the boy could do was gradation air, aka projection, and reinforcing. The former, being the ability to crate objects from pure prana, was nearly useless in the eyes of the magic world due to the fact that it was inefficient compared to finding and utilizing the original object, and the latter, the ability to enhance a base purpose to its fullest such as making food more nutritious or making sticks harder, was too unstable and uncertain for him to attempt right off the bat. He did seem to have a knack for structural grasp magecraft as well, the skill that enables the user to analyze the contents, structure, and purpose of the object he focused on, but that too was nearly useless as other than gaining the user basic information it did literally nothing. Still, it seemed to be all he was capable of doing at the moment. Shirou seemed to have no affinity for the basic 5 elements and it was near impossible for him in his current state to find out what the boy's origin was… hell it would have been unlikely to have found it out when he was in top condition…

The Magus Killer stared at the moon silently, his empty tea cup sitting next to him and the summer moon glowing in the distance. The local insects making for a rather soothing lullaby despite the hard location he was resting. He did not know what time it was at that point, nor for how long he had been sitting there… nor did he care. For not the first or last time the man felt his consciousness fading away in that sitting position, letting his deteriorating body's exhaustion once again get the better of him as he fell into a deep sleep…

_Gae Bo…_

_I ask… Are… master?_

_Ex… ber!_

The images and voiced slowly fogged his mind as if he was barely watching several movies at once and half the scenes were out of order. The actors and effects barely registering as he switched from one scene to another… however as he continued to watch with increasing interest, the voices and images gradually cleared…

_Sakura! Wh… happened to you?_

…_ave to keep her away from Zoken, otherwise he'll just use her and cause more damage._

… _the temple! We have to stop him before he completes the ritual!_

_Trace… on._

… _-less battles, meaningless war, meaningless happiness! This isn't what I became a hero for!_

… _ot! You've been making your nervous system into makeshift circuits every time you used magic? Do you even know how to use the circuits you already have?_

…_er should have been the one to survive. At lease he knew how the world worked and wasn't a fool… even if he was a faker like you…_

No… even in his dreams… this was too real… it couldn't be possible… he had made sure that the leylines of prana in the area would be destroyed in the next 40 years… 20 years before the next war should start… but then how is HE still here?

_I am the bone of my sword…_

_Helo Oni-chan… it's nice to finally meet you in person… Berserker…_

_Rejoice young man… your wish will finally be granted…_

Kiritsugu's eyes flashed open. The scene he had closed his eyes to had been replaced with a morning environment, complete with condensation all over the area and birds chirping in the distance. He barely registered the fact that the morning sun was looming over the horizon or the fact that his aching body was even more ailing than usual from the spot he had fallen asleep in.

"Old man. You fell asleep outside again." Shirou's voice enabled Kiritsugu to further himself from his daze.

"I'm barely 32 Shirou…" The man sighed as he rubbed the sleep from his eyes before looking at the boy with a small wry grin. The red headed 10 year old was already in his day clothes and had his apron on. "I take it you already made breakfast."

"Well you and Fuji-nee aren't." The boy puffed out his cheeks immaturely. "I've had enough fires in my life…"

The magus killer snorted at that comment. While the inferno he inadvertently created was indeed a horrible event, Shirou's experience with flames didn't end there as the kitchen had been the location of at least 8 fires since the boy moved in… though most of them were during a period of time when the local daughter of one of the local yakuza attempted to learn how to cook in their humble abode. To hear the boy retell the story was almost as if he had gone through a holy grail war each time. Luckily though, despite the age difference, the teen and the boy got along just like siblings, which was relieving for Kiritsugu. He had no doubt that when he did die in the near future that Fuji's family would handle his property and take care of Shirou in his stead.

… It also helped that they were very willing to buy the firearms and ammo he still had on him left over from the 4th war. After the Einzberns cut him off shortly after his betrayal he was left with only the small accounts that he had always hidden "just in case" which was enough to sustain the two and pay the taxes but he did want some extra cash to blow every now and then. He still kept his Thompson Contender though… leaving a mystic code in the hands of the Yakuza? He was dying soon… but he wasn't stupid.

"You and me both kid…" He laughed. "Do you have anything planned for today?"

"Not really." The boy shrugged. "I was just planning on coming back home and doing some more magic studying. I think I'm getting the hang of my circuits now. It's getting easier for me to focus through getting my circuit to work…"

Kiritsugu paused for a moment, letting the boy's words ring through his mind for several seconds. His dream was already fading away… however what Shirou said had caused one part to stick out barely… "Shirou…" The man asked carefully. "Tell me again how you are using your circuits."

The boy looked at him curiously. "Huh? I just calm down, take deep breaths and make my circuit. It hurts a lot… like sticking something hot and long down my back… but like I said I'm getting used to it now. I'm not going to complain…" He blinked before edging away from his father. "O-old man? Did I do something wrong?"

Kiritsugu said nothing as he thought about his dream… or what he could remember of it anyways. The scenes that were brought up were far too familiar to be a mere coincidence… and it terrified him to be perfectly honest. Another war… another massacre… despite his efforts to put an end to it all it would still continue.

… His dreams… they were both a blessing and a curse to the man because he knew he would die soon. He was virtually powerless…

"Dad?" Shirou asked again. "Why are you mad? I promise I won't do whatever it is again… please…"

Kiritsugu took a moment to try and understand what the boy was talking about when he realized the feeling in his face. He could feel it being hard… emotionless…

He was back in the persona he had thought he had discarded when he had rescued the boy those years ago…

Calming himself down, the cursed man relaxed his features. It wouldn't do to get excited just yet. From what he remembered from the dreams, he… no, Shirou still had time to prepare for everything. "Sorry… I was just… beating myself up for missing something like this." He laughed. "I'm glad I caught it though. Before you go to school Shirou, let's just quickly go over how you are supposed to access your circuit..."

o. o. o.

Some hours later:

Kiritsugu was sitting in his living room making a list of anything he could remember from the dream he had. Despite how much he knew he had seen, the list was rather pathetic. It was a shame that Shirou was only now barely starting to get the hang of using magic... he was fairly certain he remembered a spell that could be used to recall information from dreams. He shook his head... no, even then to learn even one spell for most magai took at least a few weeks to do, and he was fairly certain that a dream watching spell would not make it to his curriculum even if he was a halfway compitent teacher, which he was not.

So far he could only mostly remember basic things, such as the vague color of some of the servants he saw, the color of their weapons, some of their voices, etc etc.

However there were other things he remembered that were unnervingly specific. For example, he knew that the archer from his war was still alive and would most likely play some role in the next war... the thought of the servant's presence unnerved him. The monster possessed far more noble phantasms, relics and weapons that symbolized and represented the power of heroic spirits, than anyone thought possible.

He also knew that Shiro was definately involved in the oncoming war. The boy's red hair and stubborn personality was impossible to mistaken for anything else. Thank the root he had actually managed to fix his bad habit of turning his nerves into makeshift circuits, otherwise the only way the boy would manage to survive the oncoming battles was either by pure dumb luck or if heaven forbid one of the other masters took pity on him... which seems to have happened according to his dreams...

Ugh... this entire debacle was already giving him a headache. Prophesies and visions of the future weren't unheard of. Far from it... however they either tended to occur within people that happened to have magic circuits that were designed to tap into the Root, or when the individual established some sort of bond with a significantly powerful magical source. Random flashes on the other hand, were borderline impossible, especially if he was watching multiple possibilities of the same event... or at least he assumed so. Kiritsugu was not like most magus in the fact that he focused his studies more on the application of magic to get things done, treating it more like a tool where as most prefered to take on a scholerly approach and immerse themselves in research and try to learn and discover as much as possible... by almost any means possible.

He shook his head to clear his thoughts. It was pointless to think about other magi now. The only ones he had had a decent relationship with were the Einzberns... and he blew up that bond when he blew up the grail. If he did show up at the clock tower in England, he would need a damned good excuse for being there. Asians were not well recieved and that went double for freelancers, of which he once was practically the king of at one point. Unless he kept his visit low key, he would no doubt encounter some relative of a magi that he had killed back in his prime...

Though if he negotiated some kind of deal... he did have some tricks for breaking through bounded fields and combat tactics that he was fairly certain at least SOME of the pretencious pricks in the organization might be interested enough in to cut him some slack. He had enough experience with the Einzberns when he was married to Iri for 9 years to talk the noble talk at least.

Looking once more at the list, he glanced down at the last thing he had manged to deduce from his dreams. Shirou was constantly fighting in them... however the method he fought was almost always the same. Somehow, the boy had managed to come up with a form of projection that far surpassed everything that he thought was possible. He seemed to be at his strongest when fighting with two swords... the thinks... or maybe it was that red arm... regardless, projection was not as useless as it had originally seemed to the boy.

After what seemed like hours to the man mulling over everything he had written down, Kiritsugu put down his pen and slowly took the paper to his room. His old japanese style home was fairly large, however he took his time moving from one room to the other enjoying the spring afternoon to the fullest. Should he have more dreams, he would want it nearby to write more information as soon as possible. How many timelines was he watching, what were the abilities of the fighters, how had archer lasted so long... these were questions he prayed he could answer soon, not for himself but for Shirou. For the boy he had rescued from what seemed like hell itself who did not know that he was in the care of the man that was responsible for destroying his past life. For the boy who did not know what trials and horrors were waiting for him many years from now...

Kiritsugu's eyes narrowed once more, donning a face he had once more assumed he had forgotten the shape of. He had found salvation in this boy and he had rescued him. The man was powerless, and he would die long before the oncoming events... however that did not mean he would not do anything to affect those events.

Very slowly, the Magus Killer began to formulate his next steps...

o. o. o.

A/N:

So here's my new story. Sorry for those who were dissapointed in the lack of Oogakari and chaos that pervades my first and succesful story Y.A.W.A.L.E.H., but honestly this one seemed to fit better in my mind then the other Fate story with an Oogakari presence. I might slip in a joke or two for laughs, but for the most part this fic is going to be mostly dark, serious, and fit tones similar to the visual novel.

For those of you who are curious, I am planning on using this fic to kill time between chapters of YAWALEH and it's currently unnamed sequal so that the Naruto manga can give me more info on some characters/plots/pieces of info that I deem too important to just wing at that time.

For those of you that don't know of my previous story, read it if you are in need of a Naruto fic that's decently written, really fucking long, has epic fights, great humor, and overpowered O.C.'s... if you can believe it exists. The review count kinda supports the claim to a certain extent.

As for this story, I will be spending a fair amount of time with Kiritsugu and following how he deals with his new dreams before following up with the time between his death and the start of the war. Characters from Fate/zero will be making appearances and certain actions will be taken during this time. I hope you readers will enjoy what I will do here. Please let me know if it seems like I'm dumping too much information at times. I know how hard it is dealing with Natsuverse physics at times...

So anyways, please review. Worship the log. Eagerly await for both Carnival Phantasm and the Fate/Zero Anime that are coming out within the next couple of months, and review again.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2: Foundation

I do not own Fate/Stay Night and stuffs:

o. o. o.

_He dreamed of that man again that night. The man that he condemned with his childish dreams moments before his own death. He watched that man's story once more unfold before him. Growing up stern and tall, faithfully following the dreams that he inherited from his father without question._

_He watched as the man, as a teen fought and learned, pushing his way forward to help others without asking for anything in return. His friends and loved ones, who could not see things the way he did abandoned him as time went on, but he did not falter forging his path to become a hero, helping and saving everyone that was within his sight, not once truly valuing himself._

'_Was it so wrong?' The man often thought to himself as people distance themselves from him. 'No… there is nothing wrong about wanting to help others…'_

_Yet before long he was alone. His selfless deeds were deemed too suspicious by the world. Surely a man who constantly put himself in such danger so frequently had some agenda. No sane man would be that selfless…_

_But the watcher and the dreaming hero both knew that he was… for the hero in this story was an empty human. He could find no sense of happiness from within. His only joy came from helping others._

_So much was his love that the man had… after arriving at the scene of destruction that could only have been caused by some sick accident… made a deal with Alaya, the spirit of Humanity. In return for becoming a counter guardian and protecting the planet after his death, the lives of the 100 odd victims would be saved and restored…_

_If only he had known what he had truly condemned himself to at that time… for counter guardians were mere clean up spirits, summoned when the earth was on the verge of destruction and required a massive overwhelming force in order to counteract the threat. They were the cure…_

_And humans were often the disease. Time and time again after he was betrayed and murdered by one of the people he saved and put to death, the man's spirit was called to commit genocide against humanity. Guilty and innocent, man, woman, and child… so long as they were somehow involved, all who came across him were eventually put down in order to somehow protect humanity as a whole. He could not control his actions for his spirit now belonged to Gaia… all he could do was watch as his beliefs slowly eroded away, washed in the blood of those he had murdered until he became cold and bitter… desperate to escape the hell that he had condemned himself to unknowingly…_

_Despite the fact that the odds of it happening were borderline nonexistent… he deduced the only possible way to save himself… _

Kiritsugu woke up to Shirou constantly nudging him with his foot. "Come on. Wake up already old man. I need someone to calm Fuji-nee down while I cook." The boy sighed.

"I'm up. I'm up." Kiritsugu grunted as he slowly picked himself up. "Taiga's here already?"

The boy pouted. "Already? She got here late if anything. You slept in again."

_For good reason too…_ The man mentally commented as he rubbed his eyes. "I see. I'll be out in a moment, just… go ahead."

The boy sighed before walking outside the room again. "Please hurry up dad… you know how Fuji-nee gets when she's hungry and bored."

"Don't tempt me to take longer Shirou." The father laughed lightly as he waited for Shirou to get far enough away for him to do his next few tasks in private.

When the coast was clear, Kiritsugu reached for the notebook, which had evolved from that single piece of paper, from underneath one of the tatami mats in his room. It had been 3 weeks since the dreams started, and even though they occurred roughly every 2-4 nights the man had already discovered and deduced an extremely significant amount of information.

He determined that he was watching roughly 4 different potential routes of the 5th war. The first 3 were focused from Shirou's perspective… though on occasion he saw possible decisions or actions made in those 3 routes that ended in his son's rather unpleasant demise. It was fairly amusing… and disturbing to him when he realized that each of these 3 routes involved the boy… getting familiar with a different female, especially when he realized that one was his old servant Saber, and the other two were the daughters of Tohsaka… he could dwell on his son's potential love life later…

The 4th route however intrigued and terrified the man to no end. It did not cover the time of the war itself, but what happened afterwards. After this night's previous dream, he had no doubt that the enigmatic Archer of the new war was indeed a potential future of the boy he was taking care of. A counter guardian with the potential to be a heroic spirit in this day and age where heroic spirits were all but an impossibility… he didn't know whether to cry for joy or for remorse at what his son had become. To possess so much potential…

He shook his head as he continued to write his notes down. He had after a few dreams managed to train himself somehow into retaining all the random information he got while sleeping, and the results were not disappointing in the least.

He now knew how to train Shirou when it came to his offensive magic, and he learned a few other things about the boy in the process as well. His future method of projection and analyzing the structure of objects… Tracing… was in his own words absurd and brilliant. Because in his dreams the boy had focused on nothing but training in structural grasp and reinforcement for so long, he had developed his own advanced form of projection that was borderline sorcery if a real magus actually took the time to look at it. Being able to make borderline perfect copies just by looking at the original…

Other than Shirou's immediate combat potential, Kiritsugu learned some other things as well. Shirou's origin and element for example, were both 'sword'… which probably explains all the sword fighting and creating he had seen, yet he was unnaturally skilled in archery as well. He had made a mental note to have the boy train in both as soon as he could… preferably using Taiga as his trainer when it came to the bladed weapons.

The girl was downright relentless…

Shirou also had a surprisingly strong sensitivity for nearby magic. Most mages experienced this 6th sense by substituting it into one of their basic 5 sense in a way, most commonly by touch or by sight. Shirou on the other hand was able to "smell" nearby sources of prana to such a degree that Kiritsugu had on more than one occasion claimed the boy was part dog. The assassin was already thinking of training methods he could use to enhance the boy's skill with his senses in order to work with it more efficiently and quickly in times of danger.

In the mean time though, Kiritsugu had decided for the boy to focus on his strongest basic which while initially useless, enabled the boy in the future to use his greatest strengths… tracing. Time and time again he made the boy scan and analyze random objects to see how they worked. Washing machines, chairs, beams, computers, food. Every time he told the boy to look for their purpose and what they went through. For objects that had mechanical and electrical components, he told the boy to see how they worked and look for the parts that were wrong, even for the things that the child clearly had no idea on how they functioned or what their purpose was. These objects worked best for the boy's training since they had the most complicated internal properties, components, and purposes compared to others.

The boy was getting better with each passing day… he was no genius, far from it, however it was simply as if Shirou had been trying to figure out how to do those things in the first place and what and Kiritsugu was pointing him in the right direction. This was after all, the only spell the child could perform before he found out he had been making his circuits wrong after all so there was of course some proficiency shown in the spell already.

The Magus Killer was not a scientist by any means, however he did managed to scrape up a theory as to how Shirou managed to obtain the ability to copy any close ranged weapon he desired near perfectly just by looking at it. It had… in part, have to do with his other self not knowing how to use his magic circuit. By limiting himself only to 'tracing' and grasping the structure and properties of everyday items for almost 10 years, the boy had enhanced his ability to perceive and analyze physical objects to inhumane levels, going beyond the physical and enabling him to grasp history as well as intentional and mystical purposes and processes just as easily. While this alone was not truly something to brag about to the clock tower, when combined with his element and origin of 'sword', an unexpected phenomenon occurred at some point. Said phenomenon was that the boy somehow manages to subconsciously trace and store the data of anything that can fall even vaguely under the category of 'sword' without using any prana at all. This included axes, lances, pretty much any sort of short ranged weapon. His dreams indicated that barriers and shield like tools could be recreated as well… but at a higher cost. The boy could also trace other objects as well, including somewhat complicated ones like flashlights and television remotes, however they did not come as natural to him as say a kitchen knife.

And taken to its highest level… the boy would eventually be able to produce something that has only been done by humans a total of 6 times in recorded Magi history… he would be able to create a bounded field that reflected his inner world, temporarily overwriting the natural world around him and turning the land around him into the ultimate tool… a reality marble.

Unlimited blade works it was called. An endless empty field devoid of life save for those who were drawn into it. The sky was littered with immeasurably huge gyrating gears and the field was likewise littered with all the weapons jutting up like tomb stones that Shirou had witnessed through his life and stored here. The only distinctive landmark was a small hill covered in blades.

Even if Kiritsugu didn't train himself in keeping his memories from his dreams… he would definitely remember that image…

Faker. That was what Gilgamesh, the golden servant that had caused him so many problems the previous war, had called both Shirou and Archer, and that was what Kiritsugu intended to train his son to be… the perfect weapon against the King of Heroes…

Putting his pen and paper away, Kiritsugu put off his planning again to eat some breakfast with the makeshift family he had inadvertently made these past few years.

He came into the dining room to see the teenaged Taiga gorging herself on the food his son had made with a burning passion. One just meeting the girl would never assume that she was actually the daughter of the local yakuza bosses... and his neighbor. "Calm down Taiga-chan. The food isn't going anywhere and you're already late for school." The reason why Shirou wasn't in a rush was simply because he was still in primary school and as such classes started a bit later than high schools so that all the schools could share the same busses.

"Urgh!" The girl grunted through a full mouth. "Buh a huha!"

"Words and sentences Taiga-chan." The man shook his head as he knelt down to the old fashioned table and began to serve himself. Perhaps cooking had something to do with Shirou's tracing ability as well. After all, it also possessed the process of taking basic components and turning them into something completely different. All the man knew was that Shirou's cooking had steadily been improving for some reason after his training originally started. Breakfast was no exception.

The girl attempted to swallow a few times, bordering on full blown choking before the food went down before her mouth was empty. "I'm hungryyyy Rugu-kun…" She moaned with teary eyes, calling Kitsirugu by the affectionate nickname she had given him. "I missed dinner yesterday cause I was out all night training for the Kendo tournament this weekend."

"You probably won't even fight though." Shirou added in a matter of fact tone. "You keep on forgetting to take off that pendant off the bottom of your sword. Every time you try to enter, you get disqualified for it." Said pendant the boy was referring to was a small pendant hanging off the pommel of the girl's kendo sword. Doing so was illegal in tournaments since it was disrespectful to the opponent. Still it didn't do anything to the girl's form and technique when she beat the living daylights out of her opponents in matches that she did manage to get in. Shirou had mentioned at one point or another that her sword seemed to have an unnatural bloodlust deep inside of it…

Perhaps once the boy was no longer scared stiff of the sight of the thing he could convince the red head to trace it to the point that said bloodlust is recreated as well…

"What was that brat?" Taiga roared in blind immature rage as she crawled over to where the boy was rapidly and put him into a headlock.

"Now now Taiga-chan." Kiritsugu laughed. Deep down he ached, wishing deeply his real daughter was here with him to experience this sort of environment. "You can play with Shirou later after school. You're late enough for school as it is."

"Ack!" The girl screamed as she looked at her watch to check the time. "I'm screwed if I'm rediculously late again!" Immediately letting go of the boy and dashing out of the house, not breaking step to grab her bookbag in the process. "I'll see you guys for dinner!" She yelled from the doorway before her footsteps quickly disappeared.

The two remaining males sighed as they finished their meal, grateful for the peace and quiet they got for now.

"… You know she's going to collapse from a cramp and be even later now right?" Shirou asked after a few minutes of content eating.

"I won't say anything to her about it later if you don't." Kiritsugu stated casually before finishing his meal.

o. o. o.

That night Kiritsugu and Shirou were once again in their shack which Shirou had chosen to be his workshop, the core of his research as a magus…

Kiritsugu was fairly certain that if any high ranking magus had actually seen the state and location of the boy's center of operations, filled with random mechanical rubbish and no magical appliances, they would either laugh their asses off and pass the whole thing off as some sort of joke… or more realistically kill him, the boy, and then torch the place down in order to make them repent to the insult they had inadvertently done to all of those who practiced thaumaturgy.

Still, the shack served its purpose well as once more Shirou started off the night analyzing over a dozen random objects inside and telling his father what he knew of the object and what was wrong if it didn't work, carefully going over each and every detail as he did so. Since Shirou actually knew what the hell he was doing now, he could actually trace more than at most 3 objects in a session without keeling over, and because of that they were making great progress.

"Alright Shirou." Kitsirugu nodded, pleased with the boy's dedication to his practice. "Now that we are done with your foundation training, I am going to teach you a bit about bounded fields."

"You mean like that magic security system you have set up around the house?" The boy tilted his head to the side curiously. He was a bit winded from his training so far, however his somewhat large number of now activated magic circuits had quickly replenished his energy.

Kiritsugu nodded. "Correct. A Bounded Field is a topographic type of Magecraft, or in layman's terms a long term spell spread over a given area. To make one you have to in a sense knit a network of prana and spread it on base area, such as a piece of land or a building, to create a mystic boundary line that separates the inside from the outside. The clearly advanced ones cover literal spaces, be it in mid air or underground, however that is something beyond what I can teach you." He scratched his head sheepishly. "Like you know, I'm unable to use much magic anymore, however I was rather good at setting up and especially good at tearing down fields. The one around the house for example is almost impossible to detect even by strong mages since it does not attack or defend, but simply informs us of when someone with ill intentions comes inside. This includes humans and non humans which is somewhat rare for bounded fields…"

Shirou's eyes however did not seem disappointed in the man in the slightest. "Cool! I knew you were awesome at this stuff!"

"Right…" Kiritsugu laughed nervously, knowing that all he was teaching the boy was stuff he could only remember since he had barely any magic text books on hand. "Anyways, bounded fields are what pretty much every magi use to protect their workshop. There are 2 ways to make an effective defense against a workshop. The first is to make the fields you construct so subtle that the invading magi won't detect them and their effects until it is too late, and the other is to make the fields so overwhelmingly strong that they can overwhelm any offense that the enemy can think of." He smirked lazily. "I have a different approach in using and looking at magic compared to other magi, so I was pretty good at finding the weaknesses in strong fields. I once broke through a very strong set of fields around one noble's homes in about 3 hours. According to my guesses, it would take even a strong magus to do the same about a year."

He was somewhat embarrassed and ashamed that the boy looking at him in awe since he was pretty much bragging about how well he was a mystical breaking and entering. He prayed that this wouldn't leave the kid with ideas in the future.

"So then." He coughed and getting back to his lesson. "Once made, the boundary line will limit the range of the powers of the bounded field, but it is possible to set magic sigils across a the inside of the field to expand the area of effect, strengthen it, and do other things. A magus can erase the sigils of course as long as they know what they are doing. As for the boundaries themselves by interrupting and removing the prana fueling it… so long as you know that the field is there and that you have the knowhow and prana yourself to do so. Some of the stronger fields are nearly impossible to destroy alone since they require certain methods to do so, or they rely on a nearby prana "battery" to support it."

Kiritsugu paused for a moment as he saw Shirou blinking at him. It was at this point that he remembered that he was talking to a 10 year old. He might have accidentally overwhelmed the kid with all the technical talk…

"So… basically." The boy said slowly. "You draw a shape with magic, and depending on the spell and how much prana you put in it you get different strengths and effects…" He began to put the lecture into his own words. "Then you can make the field better with those rune things… but the runes and the field can be removed by a guy who knows what they are doing… and they will most likely get rid of the runes first because it makes things easier."

Kitsirugu nodded. "Yeah. The guys at the clock tower would use more complicated words, but that's the gist of it." He sat down casually. "For now though, let's get back to your training. First you have to learn how to make the lines to shape your bounded fields. Now close your mind and access your circuit. Most fields are rather big, but for now we are just going to focus on making a small circle around the both of us…"

o. o. o.

It had been 2 months now and Kiritsugu was fairly certain he had more than enough information on the future war to start preparing for specifics now. He was aware of the identity of every master and every servant fighting in the war. Their powers, strengths, weaknesses, noble phantasms, personalities, desires… everything was written down in his notebook with as much detail as he could. He had no doubt that some things would change from how they were now. The war could start at an earlier or later date for some reason. Different masters or servants could be participating…

He had though a list of things that would be present in this current war though…

Shirou would for certain summon Arturia again. The boy possessed Avalon, the sheath of Excalibur inside his body after all. The grail was not a living being and had no consciousness… but with the constant presence of a potential master and a strong catalyst such as this there was no mistaking this would pass…

The master for the Tohsaka family would obviously be the daughter of Archer's original master seeing as she was the only one in her family with the name and the ability left. Who she would summon on the other hand was now up in the air though, as Kiritsugu's training of Shirou would have no doubt complicated things on that end. However… should the heroic spirit Emiya be summoned once more… he should prepare something just in case for that…

The master for the Mato family would likewise be the sister of Rin… the adopted girl Sakura, whose body was flooded with crest worms and her mind and body being corrupted and defiled by the remains of the previous holy grail. The girl was the definition of a wild card at this stage, posing as a great threat or ally either way… especially with Zoken still surviving somehow. His best bet was to nudge the boy into archery club in middle school since from the dreams they both attended it, and likewise push him in her direction with a few suggestions afterwards should he still be alive at the time. Still… she was a difficult card to guide, maneuver or control.

The master of the third of the great families that created the ritual would be… his daughter, Illiyaseviel Von Einzbern. The thought of which both flooded him with dread and joy due to the fact that putting the girl into such a situation that would most likely kill her was also the best bet he had at separating her from the oppressive magus family in the first place. He had no doubt in his mind as well that her partner would be the Berserker of the war in the form of the legendary Heracles as well. The Einzbern family was always very thorough in their attempts in obtaining strong servants by finding the appropriate catalysts to summon them through. He could attest to that first hand when the family had delivered to him the actual long lost scabbard of Excalibur itself so he could summon King Arturia as Saber. It was a shame he had seen what the fate of the monster had become in each of the 3 scenarios. He truly was the mightiest of servants in this war alone even if his mind was no longer present.

Then there was Kotomine. Kiritsugu had no doubt that the despicable priest would somehow make himself a part of the wars in one way or another and force himself to be the master of one of the other servants… secretly manipulating things from behind the scenes. The Golden King of Heroes was not much better, flaunting his power as soon as he saw it appropriate. Kiritsugu knew that making a move against either one of the two before the war was the equivalent to suicide. Even if he had a sniper rifle and a clear view of the church, the man had no doubt that the priest would either be protected by some church devised bounded field or by the servant himself.

Speaking of the uncertainties however, there were more than a few that had him unnerved to a degree. The first of which was the identity of Archer in this oncoming war. Having the future version of his son would be an immense boon to his efforts, but even then the man would most likely try to kill Shirou in an attempt to create a paradox and not be a counter guardian any more. If another Archer appeared… well Shirou would just have to deal with that when it happened.

The Matou family in general was another wild factor. Keeping Sakura alive with the possibility of becoming a dark grail was a very big risk… one he really didn't like. Zoken was just as bad, being a withered old demon barely in the shape of a human… That did not mean however that he had not prepared plans with them in mind.

The identities of the servants Lancer, Caster, Assassin, and even Rider were uncertain to him. He did not know how or who summoned them in particular for the most part, and if different catalysts would be used. For now though he would just have to assume that they indeed were the ones that would eventually be summoned.

Kirei and Gilgamesh… well there was more than enough to say about them… Thankfully though, it seems as if Kirei at least seems to want to stay back and watch for the beginning of the war…

Kiritsugu had already formulated several plans for the battles, each one depending on certain factors and possible outcomes of steps that occur. Some were more important than others, yet the end result and the main goals would be the same:

The grail war would end.

Ilya would be saved.

Shirou would not die.

As few innocents would die as possible.

What happened to the rest of the participants was really up to the heavens and how things turned out. He had given… most of them at least… a chance in his plans to survive, but their survival was up to them in the end…

Shirou had been getting the hang of his training for a while now. He had begun to practice his projecting in earnest in addition to his structural grasping training. When Taiga was around the two would practice sparring in the dojo… much to his amusement and the boy's reluctance, and Shirou in the mean time still went out of his way to help others in school without asking for any compensation even though he's only in 5th grade…

The base for the boy was there now. So long as he kept in those habits the boy would at least be in satisfactory condition for when the war comes. Kiritsugu had no doubt that should the archer in the war be the boy's future self still, Shirou would no longer take so long to inherit and adapt to the man's memories physically or mentally.

Still… that was not enough to ensure victory by a long shot. A few years of slightly specified training for a boy going into his teen years would not protect him significantly from an experienced magus, let alone a Heroic spirit. Shirou's abilities would not be able to pose a significant threat unless he laid eyes upon a noble phantasm or at least trained to project Avalon, and that was still years from now, years the ex-assassin did not have.

The boy needed an ace before the fighting even started… and after much thought and planning…and experimenting a small amount with the boy's projection abilities one day a week earlier… Kiritsugu had come up with a solution…

"Are you going again?" Shirou moaned as his father closed his bag filled with clothes, notes, and a small wooden box.

"Yes." The father smiled gently, knowing why the boy was so down trodden. He tended to be gone for spans lasting almost a month at a time whenever he left in his attempts to see his daughter again. Unfortunately his efforts were constantly stopped by either the Einzbern's guards or the barriers surrounding the isolated castle that took forever to get to and from… they never bothered to listen to his warning that the grail was corrupted by the spirit of Angra Mainyu… the source of all the evil in the world…

A small smirk appeared on the man's face. He wondered if they still had that computer he had set up in the middle of their cathedral still. He remembered how irritated he had made the elder of the family, bugging him about how it would increase his chances of victory in the 4th war if he had it until he had finally given in… Odds were that it was utterly destroyed upon word that he had betrayed them. Oh well… these newer models were much better than the one there anyways.

"Is it the same place as always?" The boy asked with a sigh, already resigning himself to the fact that his dad would most likely be gone for a long period of time again… even though Kiritsugu never actually told Shirou where he went in the first place.

"No." The father shook his head. "I have some business I have to take care of elsewhere this time. I should still be gone for a while… but not nearly as long as I normally do. Be good and keep Taiga-chan out of trouble." He patted the boy gently on his head, knowing exactly what he had just said. "Keep to your studies and your routine. Don't try any difficult magic while I'm gone other than your projection, small bounded fields, and reinforcing objects. If you can show me some improvements when I get back, I'll start to teach you how to reinforce your body…"

Shirou's eyes widened in awe and excitement. Reinforcing a living body was exceptionally difficult and dangerous for most magi to do… though doing so properly had some very interesting results including but not limited to enhanced strength, speed, and sight. It was one of the first things the boy wanted to try to do when he learned about the particular field, and as such it was of course one of the first things the man had forbidden the boy from doing. "Really!" He asked excitedly, no doubt wondering about all the things he could do to secretly help people once he learned the art.

The man nodded with a kind face. "Yeah, but you have to show me how much you've improved… and not die… when I come home."

Ah the life of a Magus. Your research was so likely to kill you at times that at times it truly was difficult to tell if one was joking about such things…

The boy nodded with vigor. "Yeah! Just you watch! I'm gonna project something awesome for you when you get back! And it will work too!" He looked at his dad with conviction.

"Well then I better make sure to have something else good to teach you as well when I get back or else I might run out of things to teach you." Kiristugu laughed as he began to walk out of the house. "Stay safe Shirou."

"I will!" The boy responded from the door. "Where are you going anyways?"

The Magus Killer had half a mind to leave the location of his trip a secret, however in the end he decided to tell the boy anyways. Unlike the Einzbern's castle, Shirou might actually go there at one point in the future when all this was behind him…

"England…" Was all he said before closing the door behind him.

o. o. o.

A/N:

12 reviews for the first chapter in a few days. Not bad. Not bad at all.

So for those of you who want to know what Shirou's new ace will be… I'm not telling. People who have read YAWALEH will know that when I make a weapon… a make a fucking epic weapon that actually fits the storyline and the character… and this ladies and gentlemen… will be one fucking monster that even I am particularly giddy about unleashing. Scratch that, when I finalized the idea, I had to actually take a step back and laugh maniacally in awe of what I had created.

Other than that, yeah. Kiritsugu is going to the Clock Tower next chapter and things will get interesting. There will be more tense moments and deals will be made. The man among men in this series isn't going to go through his last mission without making at least a few people piss themselves in some way.

So once again, this chapter was more of an info dump than anything really. The pre-war chapters will probably last another… 3-5 chapters before heroic spirits try to gut each other like it's going out of style. A bit long yes but I like to be thorough with these kinds of things.

So anyways. Review! Worship the log! Be relieved that Shirou won't be a complete pussy in this series! And Review again!


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3: The hand of the king

I do not own Fate/Stay Night and stuffs:

o. o. o.

There were multiple reasons why Kiritsugu never went to the clock tower, one of the main centers of magus activity in the world. Despite the fact that the organization was extremely rich in thaumaturgy resources, research, personnel, and inspiration, he could never be at ease in the area. Part of it had to do with the fact that Asians for the most part were not warmly welcomed there. Part of it had to do with the fact that he had been for the most part a freelancer and as such was considered an outsider. Part of it had to do with the fact that he viewed the use of magic differently than the bulk of the people there. Part of it had to do with the fact that there were more than a few magi there that were relatives of those he had killed over the years…

But for the most part he didn't go simply because he just didn't like London. He was fairly used to European food and cities, however the England capital just didn't mesh well with him. The city was old and large, as such it was fairly difficult to navigate anywhere unless you had a damned good map or if you were a local. It made the city perfect for an assassin like himself to stage an accident or some other event and get off clean... which is why he tended to stay away from places like this. Even a pro could fall to a novice here if he let his guard down for a moment. It was probably part of the reason why the clock tower probably was located there in the first place. Kiritsugu was fairly certain that there were at least half a hundred bounded fields surrounding the city itself just to make it more confusing…

Still, even though the cursed man barely had any access to his magic circuits anymore and thus made him weaker than any apprentice, he still perfectly navigated himself to a small alleyway that for the most part seemed not to exist to the locals there, at least a few dozen blocks away from one of the water ways that run through the city. It was a location that he had traveled to only a hand full of times well over a decade and a half ago, however it was one of the places in this maze that he could find without any hesitation regardless.

Stepping up to the 4th door to his right, Kiritsugu paused and rolled his shoulders. His body had not taken well to the long plane ride here and it was taking a while to recover from the stiffness, also no thanks to the curse of the grail. Sighing to himself, the man casually knocked on the door in front of him 5 times and simply waited.

A minute later a woman in her middle ages with red hair opened the door. "Can I help you?" She asked with a thick Irish accent, revealing her slightly darkened teeth, a disgusting but common trait among the locals here.

"I'm here to see Sirius." Kiritsugu got to the point, speaking in fluent English. It was one of the first things that his mentor and mother figure had taught him when training him to be a freelancer. You could be the best in the world, but if you want any decent chance to get hired for a big job, learn English. To keep it simple in his words, "Money speaks English." After that, the next best languages for getting work were Mandarin, Arabic, and Spanish. He was only fairly conversational in Arabic and barely that in Mandarin. He had never had a need to touch Spanish.

"Tell him that Natalia's boy is back for one last favor." He said. The woman looked at Kiritsugu skeptically for a moment before nodding and closed the door again quietly. The man waited patiently in front of the dirty building despite his aching body and tired mind. The air was stale here and it did not help in the slightest, however his mental training during those long hard years as a freelancer had long since enabled him to surpass such meager ailments. This sensation was still nothing compared to that of his body being ripped to shreds and regenerating from moving at 4 times natural speed and Avalon being implanted in his body during his final fight against Kirei…

His musings were interrupted as he noticed the thumps of something large stomping to the front before the door flew open to reveal a massive old man with thick arms and long flaming red hair tied up in a ponytail. The monster of a human glared down at Kiritsugu with a skeptical grey eye surrounded by wrinkles and leather like skin. The two looked at one another in silence before the old man snorted. "Ya look like yer aboot ta keel over lad. It's been whut… 15 years since ya left with me work? Not a damned word from ya until 3 years ago when ya wanted info for tat blasted war in Japan, 'nd then when I thougt ya were dead, ya show up at me door with moor work?" He crossed his arms defiantly. "Ya better have a good tale for me and me kin ta make up for dis…"

Sirius McGinty. A magus of the clock tower, but a highly unusual one. The man focused his work and research on the applications of thaumaturgy into modern day objects, both used by magi and not. This impaired his image to many of the older clans since research into studies not deemed "significant" by the magus world was normally frowned upon as inefficient or downright useless. Rumor had it he was actually from the Fraga clan but no one knew for sure outside of his direct family. He was looked at skeptically by both the academic and practical practitioners of thaumaturgy, and as such had somewhat difficulty finding sufficient funding at times. To Kiritsugu's knowledge, Sirius was actually around 120 years old and had somehow achieved some sort of longevity by use of an advanced form of modified reinforcement magic combined with runes, which was also something the beast of a man was quite skilled at, also supporting the rumors of his Fraga lineage…

However the man was most well known for what came out of his research. Mystic codes. Objects that supported, added, or amplified a magus' magic to support their needs, often violent ones. Any magus that did not have the ability, magic circuits, resources, or history to make one of their own came to him. Many clans actually were quite irritated with the man since his work on average were of significantly higher quality, efficiency, and effectiveness than their own "noble" and traditional codes.

It was Sirius that had made Kiritsugu's Thompson Contender and the mystic bullets that it fired.

"Well what are ya waitin' for lad?" Sirius grunted as he stepped aside. "Come on in. Ya look like shit."

Oh yeah… another reason why Sirius wasn't that well accepted in the clock tower was the fact that for the most part he was rude to absolutely everyone. Noble or not. Part of the reason why he seemed to be able to be around for so long without getting kicked out was because he seemed to be on fairly good terms with Zelretch, the sorcerer of the 2nd true magic, Kaleidoscope, though no one really knows how the hell said friendship actually started…

Kiritsugu snorted. "No kidding." He shook his head as he grabbed his bag and walked into the building. The moment he got in, he immediately knew that the man had altered the space inside with a bounded field. The size of the rather colorful waiting room and the height of the stairs going up and down were clearly not within the range of the original apartment's parameters. "I haven't found a place to stay at yet…"

"Is that that last favor that you told Shela?" The red headed man smirked with a raised eyebrow.

"Depends." Kiritsugu shrugged. "How much are you charging per night?"

"Heh." Sirius chuckled as he closed the door and shook his head. He looked at Kiritsugu with a pitying gaze. "Ya really are dyin' soon aren't ya? Never heard of ya small talkin' so casually b'fore."

"My prize from the grail war." The assassin sighed. "Could we talk somewhere more secure? I owe you a long story…"

"Sure… consider it your payment for yer stay… so long as ya don't mess wit me stuff or stay too long…" The elder nodded as he guided the man through the large building, going down several flights of stairs and a maze of confusing hallways. No doubt at least a few of these hallways linked to the center of the clock tower in one way or another since the organization for the most part was underground. Kiritsugu spied many rooms filled with odd appliances, both magical and not. Shirou probably would have been able to shave off a year or two in his analyzing training if he was locked inside of one of those rooms for a week. Soon enough the two stopped at a rather simple looking office room which completely contrasted the large man's home and figure.

"So then…" Sirius sighed as he rested his large figure into his rather comfortable looking chair and causing it to creak underneath his weight. "Before ya tell me what ya want… yer gonna tell me what I want lad." His aged eyes narrowed at Kiritsugu who had just sat down on the other side of the dark wooden desk. "Last time we 'xchanged words, ya told me dat the next time we met ya would tell me what happened ta Natalia."

The magus killer nodded, knowing that his mother figure and Sirius were close. "I killed her." He said bluntly. He was already going to die. There was no point wasting time to play mind games. Besides, Sirius was emotional not stupid.

The large man closed his eyes and leaned back in his chair, grunting slowly in the process. The room was silent for what seemed like hours before he spoke up. "Ah had a feelin that would be ta case…" He sighed. "How?"

"We were after a dead apostle that was traveling to New York by plane." Kiritsugu continued. "I went on ahead, and she was on the plane he was on. She killed him… however she was too late and the familiars he had corrupted all of the other passengers turning them into undeads. She tried to land the plane in an attempt to survive and deal with the threat afterwards… but I couldn't take that chance. It was too risky…" He had relived that memory so many times that recalling the story didn't really affect him anymore. "She knew that too even though we told me otherwise on the phone. Just as she was over the Hudson river I shot the plane down with a rocket launcher."

The elder snorted. "Heh. All that studying ta fight with magic and against monsters… and she goes out by a bloody launcher of all things." He shook his head. "Well at least it was with a damned big bang. The girl deserved as much." He opened a drawer and opened a can of beer. "Ah well… better than some o' these fools here that waste their lives away doin jack ta learn jack." He drank heavily from the can. "Reinforced beer… still tastes like piss… though it probably is best if it does at ta moment…"

The room was silent for several more minutes other than the large man's drinking.

"So then…" Sirius belched as he crushed the can in his hand and tossed it into a bin next to him. "I t'ought ya were dead in Japan afta wee Waver Velvet came back here alive n breethin ta mah shock. Of course no one really knew he fought in ta war other than meself and a few others who bothered ta look in ta east, but for ta most part no one really bothered ta do anything about ta lad. Ya aren't normally the kind that leaves loose ends." His gaze hardened. "Ta bloody fuck happened there?"

"Waver Velvet… huh…" Kiritsugu mused, remembering the name of the 4th war's master to Rider, Alexander the Great, one of the main forces in the war. Putting that information away for later, the man sagged into his chair. "Mind if you toss me a beer? This is going to take a while and I'll have to leave some things out…" He sighed. "Odds are I'll have to ask you my favor and another small one tomorrow…"

Sirius nodded and tossed the man a drink. "Aye. I've heard some things about that Grail war… embodied heroic spirits… noble phantasms… if it weren't fer the fact that ah don't wanna die, I wouldn't mind tryin' me hand at it just to have a look at one of their weapons… would be a real boon to me work it would…"

"Yeah…" Kiritsugu nodded with a grim smile. "Well… I'm going to have to dissuade you a bit more old friend…"

o. o. o.

The next day:

Waver Velvet had changed since his experience in the Holy Grail war. Many people had noticed the change in his personality almost immediately upon his return to the clock tower. No one knew he participated in the war in Fuyuki city, and no one really bothered to find out the reasons behind his disappearance since magi leave all the time. Life changing events were also just as common… as were deaths.

Still Waver's change was noticeable and significant to people who knew him. His natural brilliance had remained as well as his natural stubbornness that all magus had, however his pride had changed. His almost instinctive desire to prove himself to others and achieve greatness had been tempered to something more calm, collected and humble… yet his need to become something great seemed to be magnified. His work reflected this as he had over the past few years blown past those in his age group and fields of research. Rumor had it that he was being considered by several significant individuals for a high seat in the tower should his progress continue at its current rate.

At the same time however he had become more charismatic to a small degree. He seemed to understand others better and gave them advice on occasion. This even applied to some Noble families, enabling him to gain more funds and resources for his research. He seemed to push forward with his work with a fervor of a man going to war. Once one hill of research was cleared, he pressed onward to a related subject as if it was not the end he was looking for…

Waver was in the middle of his research into a small realm of water element manipulation, attempting to create a spell that would automatically analyze the amount and composition of residual magic in existing bodies of water… something he had done manually with a pseudo chemistry set during the 4th war to look for the insane Caster and had actually worked surprisingly well. The spell itself would in theory be fairly basic, however the fabrication of the execution was a rather tedious task. Once he was able to finish this particular spell, he would attempt to make similar spells with the other basic elements… sans fire for obvious reasons.

He was returning to his workshop with several more books on water manipulation and sensory spells from one of the libraries inside the clock tower when he had bumped into something large while turning a corner and dropped his books.

"Ah! Sorry laddie." The giant thing apologized as it bent over to help the teen pick his books up. "Ahm a bit on ta big side so ah sometimes miss ta wee ones…"

Waver grit his teeth. He had been on the short side for the most part of his life, however his growth spurt had kicked in the past few years, making it so that he was at least of average height now."That's fine." He sighed as he took the books. "You aren't the first to…" He looked up at the man and momentarily faltered. The man's red hair and huge girth had instantly reminded him of his servant of 2 weeks, the great king of conquers, and his unofficial liege, Alexander the Great. He shook his head. "I'm used to it."

"I bet ya would." Chuckled the large man, patting the teen on the shoulder, bringing back some more memories of the teen's times in Japan. "Anyways, ahm lookin fer someone. Ya wouldn't know where… erm…" He scratched his chin. "Oh right, Waver Velvet is? Ah got sometin' fer him."

Waver rose an eyebrow. He had clearly never met the man before, although that was to be expected since the clock tower's population was rather large… however he was fairly certain that he would remember someone so blatantly different from the standard mould that walked around the halls here. "I'm Waver." The teen replied skeptically. "Who are you? What do you need to give me?"

"Ah! Finally!" The man grinned with a sigh. "Ah don't go inta the main tower dat much so whenever ah gotta look for someone ah sometimes get lost or come across some prick who doesn't give me ta right time o'day." He stuck out his hand. "Sirius McGinty lad. Pleased ta meet ya."

Waver's eyes widened. "The mystic code crafter? I've heard many things about you and your work, but I've never seen you in person before." He shook the man's hand, not wincing as his hand was slightly crushed under the strong grip. "Your research is well known and respected among my peers."

"O'course it is." Sirius grinned childishly. "What lad doesn't want some kinda gadget ta blow things up with? They demand and I supply! Ta more unique ta code is, ta more mah research is developed and ta more fun ah have breakin' things!"

Waver laughed sheepishly in conjunction with Sirius' blunt statement. The man was resembling Alexander more and more by the second and it was honestly unnerving him to no end. "… So about that thing you wanted to give me?"

"Ah! Right!" The big man nodded as he started to pat himself down to check his pockets. Once again Waver mused at how odd this man was for a magus, wearing a muscle shirt and casual cargo pants with a long sleeved shirt wrapped around his waist. There was no sense of pride or nobility in his attire at all. "Found it!" Sirius cheered as he took out a letter from one of his pockets. "Here ya are lad."

Waver raised an eyebrow as he put his books down and took the letter. "A letter? How odd. Why not just send me the message with magic?" He mused. He could already tell that there wasn't any prana flowing through the paper as he had casted a quick spell that checked such things. Sabotage was fairly common among some magi after all and his ascension in the ranks of the clock tower had irritated a few of the more ancient clan's youngest members…

Waver opened the letter curiously and scanned the contents, which was actually very sparse. At the top was a time, a date, and an address, all of which were relatively close by…

But his face paled dramatically as he read the 8 words written beneath that information.

_No…_ He mentally repeated to himself, praying that each time he read the sentence the words or the meaning would change. _No no no no… this can't be… it can't be possible. It's been so long… years in fact… even if the man had an A+ ranked independent action… he should be gone by now!_

Yet the words on the paper did not change, nor did their meaning, nor the ice cold hand of fear that had gripped the teen's heart with a firm grip that prevented him from moving in the slightest.

_The golden king still drinks among mortal men._

Waver quickly looked up to where Sirius had stood just moments before, only to see no one nearby at all. Looking around to see that no one was around, the teen quickly attempted to calm himself down and think things through. Obviously the writer of the message was aware of not only his participation in the war… but of the identities of the servants as well. He had doubted the possibility that he was the only master to survive the battles since he didn't win it in the first place… the only mortalities that he was aware of were of Caster's master, some non magical murdering sociopath, his bastard of a teacher, noble prodigy, and master of Lancer, Kayneth Archibald… and several months later he had heard that Tokiomi Tohsaka had passed during the fighting as well… who was the golden king's master…

Speaking of the other masters, Waver had barely been able to gain any other information on them since the war ended. Kirei Kotomine had belonged to the holy church and was an executor at that, so he heard rumors about the old master of Assassin every once in a while. The identity of the black and terrifying Berserker had never been disclosed to him… not that he wanted to meet anyone that could summon something so distorted…

However possibly the most dangerous master of all had for lack of a better term disappeared off the face of the planet. Kitsirugu Emiya, the rumored Magus Killer. A man who was still whispered about from time to time as one of the greatest and fearsome freelancers to ever exist even if the older clans, the Einzberns in particular, ridiculed him for being a hired dog that apparently made a habit of betraying his employers at the last moment. Waver was not a fool. The master of Saber was by all means the most likely to win even if the man had shown himself almost as frequently as Berserker's master…

He looked at the letter again. _The golden king still drinks among mortal men. _His eyes widened at the second hidden meaning in the message. During the war, there had been oddly enough a night when the three servants who had been kings in their past lives… drink among themselves and simply talk about times long past at the castle where Saber and her master had set up shop… until Assassin came and his Rider showed off his reality marble, killing the dark servant almost easily with his mighty army behind him. The message obviously came from someone who knew of that event…

Still that did not help much. It had been 3 years since the war and masters and servants were not the only ones involved in the war. Stories could have been told and passed many lips during that time… even if secrecy was one of the first things a magus practiced…

But the main message remained the same… Gilgamesh was still alive... and it terrified the teen to no end for good reason. The man after all possessed an anti-world noble phantasm… and he had seen it live up to the rank to the fullest in his servant's final fight…

Getting his head back on, the teen focused his mana to his eyes and brain as he once more read the entirety of the letter in front of him, committing it to memory so firmly that he could remember it as easily as he could his birthday before wordlessly burning the note in his hands. Fire was not his element, however something small on that level was none the less simple for him. It was something he attempted to learn as quickly as possible in order for his future research and studies to become more efficient.

He would have to at least finish some of his smaller projects in the next few days. After all, there was a good chance that he was going to die in this meeting. Might as well do something productive in his remaining time alive…

If meeting the one who wrote the message didn't kill him… he had no doubt that the events following the meeting would.

o. o. o.

Three days later:

Kiritsugu sighed almost contently as he rested in the comfortable chair in Sirius' office, drinking one of the beers the man had stashed under the desk. Reinforcing beer… why the hell didn't anyone ever market that before? It still tasted like piss but the buzz… oh the buzz...

It almost made him forget the ache of the curse that constantly plagued his body…

His relaxed state was interrupted as the door in front of him opened to give way to Sirius and Waver walking inside. "Oi!" The bigger of the two grunted. "Tat's me chair yer arse is in lad!"

"And it can tell that you've broken it in fairly well Sirius." Kiritsugu briefly smirked.

The owner of the house grumbled irritably as he walked to one of the guest chairs about being disrespected. Waver went for a seat as well, however he did not take his eyes off of Kiritsugu.

"You know who I am." The cursed man stated.

"Kiritsugu Emiya. The magus killer." Waver stated emotionlessly. "I was wondering where you went."

"Someplace quiet to slowly die." The man shrugged casually. "The grail was corrupted and me being the cold hearted man that I am angered it enough to curse me personally. I only have a couple of years left and I can barely do any magic anymore."

Both of the listener's eyes widened. "Ya fergot ta tell me tat part last night lad." Sirius frowned. "Ah thought ya just got grazed by some cursed noble phantasm."

"Must have slipped my mind." Kiritsugu nonchalantly shrugged.

The youngest of the three's eyes narrowed. Being cursed was a serious condition. Their effects varied between each one and for the most part they could be removed with enough time… however one that stemmed from the grail itself… "What do you mean by the grail was corrupted?"

Kiritsugu sighed. "Something's inside of it. Been there since the previous war if what I know is correct… waiting to be born. Angra Mainyu..."

"Tat's an ol' legend…" Sirius scratched his head. "Ta source of all ta evil in ta world… the bloody hell did he get in ta grail?"

"No clue." Kiritsugu shook his head. "What I do know is that for the sake of the world it can't be released and I used up 2 command spells to destroy the grail… and accidentally caused the Fuyuki fire. Because of that thing, my wife and well over 500 people have died for nothing, and I'm soon to follow…"

The room was quiet for some time. "Is it true?" Waver got to the point. "Is he really…"

He nodded. "Yes. Archer… no… Gilgamesh is still in our plane of existence." The assassin closed his eyes. "Worse… he seems to have an actual body now somehow thanks to the grail's contents spilling over him…"

"What!" The blacksmith stood up. "A bloody rogue and egotistical heroic spirit is walkin' around without a leash! The fuck are ya doin lad! Ya gotta tell da tower or da church or…"

"That won't work…" Waver grunted. "He owns literally almost every single noble phantasm to ever exist an some that only he can use. One of them is a root forsaken anti-world phantasm." He shook his head. "They wouldn't stand a chance…"

"I know." Kiritsugu nodded. "Plus the church won't help since he seems satisfied with partnering up with Kirei Kotomine… a dangerous executioner from the church that I doubt would mind deviating from his organizations' wishes…"

"Bloody hell…" Sirius slumped into his chair. "Ya really know how ta suck ta life outa me day lad…" He rubbed his forehead. "Ya betta get ta rest of ta bad new out of ta way befo ya show us ta light in this shit hole…"

"There's several things that could qualify as bad news for us right now…" Kiritsugu admitted. "However the only thing that we should focus on right now… is that the next war is in about 7 years… not 57."

Waver's eyes narrowed instantly. "What?" He stated bluntly. "How is that possible? The grail needs those 60 years in order to absorb the prana from the leylines in the area to have enough energy to summon the heroic spirits in the first place."

"I can only think it has something to do with when I forced Saber to destroy the grail." Kiritsugu surmised. "I had already set up explosives in the area that would cause earthquakes and disrupt the leylines in 40 years… but obviously that wasn't soon enough…"

"How do ya even kno tat ta war is even happenin so soon lad?" Sirius frowned. "Ya said yo'self… ya can barely do squat wit yo circuits now…"

The assassin sighed before closing his eyes. "… Roughly 3 months ago… I started to have dreams about the 5th war." He started off slowly. "There were 4 possible routes that I had watched. Through each one I managed to gain information on all of the servants, masters, noble phantasms, and abilities… minus a couple of original masters who were killed early on by either their servants or other sources." He looked at Waver. "I did not know of Archer's identity at the end of our war, nor of that monstrous weapon of his, Ea until I saw the dreams…" Waver's eyes narrowed, having committed the name of the terrifying and bizarre weapon to memory despite having it witnessing it only once.

"Hold on now!" Sirius growled. "Dreams ya say? Oter tan names, what proof do ya have tat they are not just yer mind fuckin wit ya?"

Kiritsugu closed his eyes. "… I adopted a boy almost immediately after the war." He started off slowly. "He was the only one I could save from the fire. I told him I was a magus… and after months of him bugging me I decided to teach him. He had no clan background, but despite that he has 27 magic circuits in his body, all of them are fairly high quality…" He let the two absorb the information, smirking briefly at Sirius' whistle of being impressed. "His progress before the dreams was nonexistent. He had trouble doing the simplest of spells, he seemed to have no element, and the best he could do was half assed projections and surprisingly thorough structural grasping spells…" He sighed. "It wasn't until the dreams that I found out what I was doing wrong and how bad of a teacher I was. The boy had abandoned his magic circuit for his nerves, turning them into makeshift circuits every time he used magic completely by accident…" He didn't react to the shocked looks the other two were giving him. It was understandable since the boy's method was borderline suicide. One wrong step and you pretty much fry yourself from the inside out. "… not only that, but he couldn't do elemental magic because his element wasn't of the standard 5… in fact it is the same as his origin." He looked up with narrowed eyes. "They were both… sword."

"Sword?" Sirius raised an eyebrow. "Neva heard o someone wit tat before… actually ah've neva heard o someone wit ta same origin an' element before either…"

"What's the point of telling us this?" Waver frowned. "What's so special about this boy?"

Kiritsugu's head sagged, making him far more tired looking than he did before. "Shirou… my son… he was not simply just a master in the upcoming war…" He said slowly. "… He was also a servant…"

The room was quiet.

"Come again?" Sirius grunted, any form of mirth gone from his body.

"This is becoming just as bizarre as you telling me that Gilgamesh is still alive." Waver seethed. "How, dare I ask is this possible?"

"The night I died… I told Shirou my dream… to be a hero of justice… to save any and everyone I could see…" Kiritsugu looked emptily at the table. "In one of the routes… in Archer's route… he stuck to that dream completely… and ended up becoming a counter guardian in order to save the lives of a hundred people…" He sighed. "The grail takes heroes from all across the timeline. Due to a series of events, an object he had all that life was used in the rituals of one of the masters, causing him to be inadvertently summoned…"

"A heroic spirit in tis day an age…" Sirius whispered. "Ah tought tat couldn't be done…" He glanced at the speaker. "What was ta lad's noble phantasm though? Its supposed ta be a symbol of his power… but no one can make one tese days… other than ta Fraga of course, but I doubt tat would be ta case…"

Kiritsugu looked up… looking at Waver straight in the eyes. "… The archer of that 5th holy grail war… had no true noble phantasm… he had only 1 real spell that he had earned throughout all his hardships, not asking for anything in return of those who he had rescued. It was an aria… 10 counts, in the form of a poem about his life. A spell that was borderline sorcery…"

There was a deep pause as Waver's eyes widened, realizing what the man was insinuating. "… Impossible…" The teen whispered.

Kiritsugu nodded. "Shirou has the potential to perform a reality marble. Unlimited Blade Works. A world that represents his beliefs and contains the blueprint of any melee weapon he has ever seen. With it he can project even noble phantasms to borderline perfection almost easily… though it will be down a rank… even the abilities of the weapons old masters will be retained and enable him to fight as if they were his own…" He closed his eyes and recalled his dreams. "I've seen him do amazing things in the dreams… and it is the perfect counter to fight against Gilgamesh…"

"A reality marble…" Sirius whispered. "… Based on weapons…" He began to chuckle slowly before roaring in amusement and holding his sides. "Ahahahaha! Ah lad! Ya have given me one hell of a gift here! Ah have half a mind ta take the lad from ya and make him ma apprentice! Hahahaha! Ah the work he could help me out wit in ma research!"

"Are you insane?" Waver yelled, clearly not nearly as amused as Sirius. "Reality marbles are forbidden to research! Even if you are telling the truth and he somehow manages to pull it off, everyone who has been confirmed to have helped him would have a sealing designation slapped on them in an instant!"

"I am saying this because I don't know how my actions have already impacted the future." Kiritsugu stated, not showing any change in emotion other than the state that was exhaustion. "The archer of this oncoming war may have been changed by my actions already. Other than the use of Unlimited Blade Works, there are 2 other potential ways I have determined that Gilgamesh can be efficiently defeated… and they involve nothing but pure luck… and forces that are just as dangerous as he is if not more." His eyes narrowed. "Even if he is defeated, there are still potential major threats that can emerge from this oncoming war to the world. Even if either one of you receives a sealing designation by the end of the war, I doubt either one of you would actually be used in experiments. You both have too much standing to be wasted. As for Shirou… well he can't have a designation if he isn't a member of the clock tower in the first place…"

"He has a point." Sirius nodded. "Lad could be a freelancer like his old man. Long as he don't do stupid shit and cause ta association or ta church ta hunt him down… he'd be in ta clear… 'sides… it's not like we're ta ones doin ta magic in ta first place. Even if we did take notes on ta brat's magic, we aren't dumb enough ta leave them out for people ta see…" He scratched his chin. "Now tat I think about it… It's been a while since ah've had someone inside mah real workshop…"

Waver grit his teeth. He was once again stuck in a preposterous situation because of a blasted war and an annoying giant of a red headed man. The problem was that this one made even more logical sense than the previous one… although that was not really difficult all things considered.

A reality marble… just like the one Rider had… just like the one that Gilgamesh had absolutely destroyed with Ea…

"Why is this reality marble stand a chance against Gilgamesh when Rider's didn't?" Waver asked. "It's abilities are a good counter for his Gate of Babylon, but it would still be destroyed against Ea…"

"Gilgamesh is egotistical." Kiritugu explained. "He would most likely try to beat Shirou with his gate first… no doubt wanting to destroy the "fakes" with the "originals". Should Shirou have enough skill and prana, he can not only cancel out this power, but overwhelm it. UBW is faster in its weapon creation than the gate is in unleashing its contents. This can enable for Shirou to get in close and fight him at close range. Despite having all these noble phantasms, Gilgamesh is simply an owner. He doesn't truly know how to wield them. Shirou on the other hand can use one of the swords he has copied from one of the other servants to utilize their styles and finish him off quickly with technique, having pinned down the gate with his reality marble. So long as he does not take out Ea before the reality marble is deployed, Shirou has a solid chance of winning." He smirked. "That was how Gilgamesh was defeated in one of the routes I've seen…"

"A teen beating a heroic spirit…" Sirius shook his head and snorted. "Now ah've heard of everything…" He let out a slow breath. "So where ta bloody hell do we come in lad? Ah know tat yer gonna train yer boy ta not suck tis time round… but what ta hell are we supposed ta do on tis side of ta planet?"

Kiritsugu closed his eyes. "… I've told you both already that I'm going to die soon. Nothing I say or do will change that. I won't see the war, and odds are likely that I won't see my daughter either…" He sighed, ignoring the caught off guard looks the listeners gave him, no doubt never expecting him to have a daughter in the first place. "… However I will use even that to our advantage…" His eyes opened and narrowed. Very slowly and elaborately, the magus killer explained his plan to the others, watching with mild interest as their expressions paled and lost all foundation with their eyes never blinking or looking away from him. "… After you deliver the items to Shirou Waver, I want you to occasionally visit him and train him in my stead to ensure that his training is going smoothly. Make sure to enchant the container of my messages doesn't open until at least a few days into the war and that you are not in the city during the months around the war to ensure that the grail doesn't accidentally choose you as a master."

"By ta fucking root lad…" Sirius whispered. "You're truly serious about tis…"

Waver was shivering. _Screw the reality marble… if the association ever got word of the boy was capable of doing to any mage he comes across in battle…_

"I take it this means you both believe me now." The man sighed in an even tone. "Shirou's a good kid. He goes out of his way to help people… in a way it's his way of dealing with his survivor's guilt from being the only one to live through the fire. To be honest… he doesn't really have a sense of self preservation when it comes to helping others. He's the type to jump in head first to help someone even if it meant he'd get hurt or killed in the process without even thinking about those particular consequences before, during or after the event…." His eyes dimmed. "… I don't want him to end up like me…" He muttered, his voice finally breaking. "Look at me… I sacrificed my father… my adopted mother… my wife… my partner… my daughter… even myself to my foolish dreams to save people. This boy truly is the only thing that has enabled me to keep my mind after I've lost everything to "save the world". He's the only thing I have actually truly saved… and I'm the one that nearly killed him in the first place…" He laughed bitterly as tears actually began to fall down his face. "… Yet even still I want to help save the world. The grail may have cursed me and ended my life early… but I've truly been dying the moment the war started again... probably even longer." He dropped his head so that it almost touched the table, but it did nothing to stop the sounds of his now heavy crying. "Please… help me protect my son… and everything else I used to care about that still somehow still exists… my daughter is going to be a master in this war too… she's going to be the container of the next grail and will die if I don't do anything. She'll just be another meaningless sacrifice. I'm trying my hardest to plan for everything, to save everyone, but I know that it won't be enough. Not by myself. Please…"

Sirius and Waver were silent as they took in the sight of the broken man in front of them, begging for their aid. Despite their previous encounters and knowledge about him, neither one of them ever expected that they would ever live to see the day that the famous Magus Killer would break down in tears right in front of them like a small child.

Sirius was the first to recover, grunting tiredly and scratching the back of his head. "Damn it lad… and here I thought Natalia was a handful." He sighed and crossed his arms. "Fine… count me in. Ah could at least use yer plan ta further mah research a bit in ta process… just don't think ah'll be quiet about it…"

Waver on the other hand was quiet, going over the situation over and over in his mind, taking in the risks of every action he could do before reaching a conclusion and closing his eyes. "This…" He growled. "… has got to be one of the dumbest and irrational thing I have ever gotten myself into in my life…" He waited for several seconds before relaxing his body, opening his eyes, and putting on a feeble grin. "… Still… the first would always be when I stole Kayneth's artifact, ran off to Japan of all places, and participated in the previous war. I doubt I'll be in any more danger than I was hanging around Rider back then…"

The two elder men paused for a moment before chuckling to one another in mirth.

"Really?" Kiritsugu began to laugh more, the tears still streaming down his eyes. "Does that mean you knew that I had a sniper rifle pointed to the entrance to that home you stayed at for almost half a day near the end of the war?"

Waver's grin fell almost as quickly as the color in his face as the two full grown men laughed even harder.

o. o. o.

A/N:

Heheh. Oh no, I'm not telling anyone what I have in store for Shirou until the time is right, so everyone is still going to have to wait for his special gift is revealed.

So to anyone who knows my work, they will know that I am actually good at making believable and well made OCs. Sirius is mine and mine alone and I am glad the way he turned out, even though I had intended to use him eventually for YAWALEH though with a few key differences. I had based his character off of the scottsman from Samurai Jack… because that guy is just the man. Oh yeah, there's supposedly a Samurai Jack movie coming out next year made by, get this, J. J. Abrams. Fuck. YES.

So Waver Velvet is my link from the previous war to the next war. Despite being a somewhat competent whiny little brat in Fate/Zero, he'll prove himself to be significantly more competent, patient, understanding, and skilled in the upcoming chapters.

As for Bazett… you'll see… heheheh.

Ok. In terms of Fate/HA… Someone please help me out here. I know the general story of it, and I know it isn't fully translated yet, but obviously some people have A LOT better sources than others from it. Can someone help me in terms of that. I would LOVE to have an incomplete copy of the game since… well… pretty much everyone's been waiting for it.

Now for other news. I have a job now. Its and engineering job. It's a fairly good job. It's a job that pays well. It's a job that is slightly over my head but I'm still doing it for as long as I can. Most importantly, it's a job that takes TIME. As such, chapter updates for this and my other story YAWALEH will take longer to do since I don't have as much time to goof off anymore. Please understand this my fans. I will still be writing, however I won't be able to pump out the insane chapters of retarded sizes once every couple of weeks that I am almost famous for. Thank you for understanding this.

In terms of YAWALEH though, I'm just still waiting for a bit longer though. I have a decent portion of the next chapter written already, but I just want to take my time this time around and pace myself. Thanks.

Until then. Review! Worship the log! Get on the asses of anyone that's translating Fate/Hollow Ataraxia! And review again!


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4: Extended family

I do not own Fate/Stay Night and stuffs:

o. o. o.

"Dinner's ready!" Shirou's young voice shouted from the kitchen, prompting everyone in the traditional building to all the occupants inside. The boy's call made all of the intended listeners to twitch their ears in response.

"FOOODDD!" Taiga shouted as she made a beeline for the dinner table and instantly began to chow down on each section of the meal as soon as the boy put the plates down.

"Calm yer arse down lass!" Shouted Sirius in Japanese, somehow with a strong an accent as he had in English, as he skidded to a halt in front of the table just behind the highschooler before eating as fast as the girl. "Save some of ta grub fer ta rest of us!"

"Honestly Sirius…" Waver sighed as he walked into the room third with a book in his hands. "Do you have to be like this? What would your peers say if they saw you eating like this?" He sat down while brushing his hair out of the way before quickly grabbing a bowl and getting some choice sections of the remaining dishes before they disappeared.

"They'd say somethin' stupid cause the lad can cook betta tan any of ta bastards back home and they're wastin their time talkin when they could be eatin!" The eldest roared with a full mouth.

"Here here!" Taiga shouted with equal fervor.

"Guys, can you please at least leave some for dad?" Shirou moaned as he managed to swipe some food for himself with practiced ease. "You know he's been really tired lately…"

"He'll be here when he wants to be." Waver stated in a calm tone, eating properly. "Besides, it's fairly obvious that you already saved some of the meal for him in the kitchen."

"Little Shirou's so cute like that!" Taiga swooned as she briefly leaned over and rubbed her cheek affectionately against the blushing an pouting boy. Sighing contently the girl resumed eating. "But yeah. Kiritsugu-san has always been really tired, but he seems more out of it than normal lately…" The teen looked at Shirou curiously. "It was odd too since he started to get worse around the time Shirou needed that surprise operation…" She smiled happily. "But since you two guys are here we have nothing to worry about! I was so surprised when he came back with you two and said you were all family!"

"Barely." Waver grunted. Honestly, he, Sirius, and Kiritsugu are not alike in the slightest. Even with a strong hypnosis spell it would take a while to convince a fair number of people of this. The fact that the girl believed them so easily spoke wonders about her feeble resistance to magecraft… or her gullibility. It didn't help that Shirou had taken the initiative and had started to call the two newcomers Sirius-jiji and Waver-nii. "We just happened to be in the area for a while and decided to crash here. It's cheaper that way."

"Speak for yerself lad." Sirius grunted from behind a bowl he practically had in his mouth completely. "Ah'm loaded."

"If that's the case, then why did I have to pay for your ticket here?" Kiritsugu asked with a tired grin from the doorway before slowly walking to the kitchen to get the food that Shirou had set aside for him.

"Wanted ta see if ya would." Grinned the largest man. "'Sides. Someone had ta cover Natalia's debt ta me. Ya've gotten soft ovah ta years lad."

"Funny…" The ex-assassin mused as he sat down. "I seemed to remember a large man crying while watching a romantic comedy film on the flight here…"

"You're finally up Kiri-kun!" Taiga swooned with teary eyes. "I was worried about you!"

"Don't worry." The man grinned as he began to eat. "I still have a year left in me I think…"

The teen pouted. "It's no fair when you talk like that. It makes it sound like you really are going to die soon." She grinned and began to poke him in the side. "But we all know that's not true. You're barely older than some of the noobies that my uncle smacks around…" She paused before turning to Sirius. "… Although even he was surprised when you smacked them around even harder when you first got here old man. Where did you learn those moves old timer?"

Sirius grinned as he remembered smacking around those cocky fresh Yakuza thugs on his way to the compound his first day in town. "Ah lass, ah'm from Ireland. Me kin like ta play rough an smack one another round fer shits an giggles. Many of ta lads don't consider themselves men till tey break at least 3 of teir limbs and a couple o ribs… in one fight."

Taiga blanched. "Right…" She turned to the boy who was equally disturbed by the man's description of his version of a rite of passage. "Shirou… please don't go to Ireland alone with him, even if he is family…"

"Way ahead of you Fuji-nee…" The boy shivered.

"This is the reason why you're not allowed into many of the important meetings and trials anymore…" Waver commented, still keeping his noble and uptight posture while still eating.

"Bah…" Sirius grunted as he turned to his meal again. "Lads these days have gone soft. The whole lot of ya…"

The dinner continued on like this, with Sirius and Taiga providing life and energy to the table while Waver and Shirou just pointed out how silly they were being to various degrees and Kiritsugu smiling faintly and occasionally laughing along with the others. It went well into the night. Waver helped Shirou clean up and Taiga left soon afterwards…

It was only then that the training resumed again.

"So lad…" Sirius grunted as he stretched out his body. "Ya finally get used ta yer new additions yet?"

Shirou hesitantly nodded as he rubbed his chest… where 3 magic circuits were implanted. They were all that was left of the Emiya clan's thaumaturgical crest.

Despite the fact that it carries little meaning now, the Emiya name did have a fair bit of history to it. The family lineage dated back a few centuries and focused on 'time manipulation' in their quest for Akasha. The original crest that had belonged to Kiritsugu's father, the clan's 4th head and a magus that had a sealing designation and researched forbidden magic, was confiscated by the magus association upon the man's death. Kiritsugu had managed soon afterwards to get permission to implant 20% of that crest into his back after Natalia managed to call in a few favors. However instead of trying to further his clan's research and improve on it once more, the assassin merely used the crest as a tool and giving him the power of innate time control.

Simply put, the spell was designed about creating a bounded field and then making "adjustments" in the flow of time on the space inside of the field so to create a difference between it and the passage of time outside of the field. Taking the time of the "outside" as a standard, the time in the "inside" can be either accelerated or slowed.

The major drawback is that the efforts necessary to use this ability increases in proportion to the size of the bounded field made and to the deviations between the two flows of time. Usually the user would need to channel huge amounts of prana and use time consuming rituals when activating high level thaumaturgy to use this, but Kiritsugu was able to mostly bypass that by limiting the size of the field to his own body and even then for very brief spans of time. Although this doesn't let him do much outside of his body, it gave him great control over the rhythm of his bodily functions, letting him do physical feats above humans by accelerating or simulating a state of suspending animation by slowing.

However this particular use of this magecraft put a heavy burden on his body. Once the field is lifted, the world will forcibly, more often than not violently, correct all time deviations in the affected space, which in this case is his own self.

He experienced these feedbacks to the extreme firsthand during his final fight in the war against Kirei when he accelerated his body to 4 times normal speed. His body would have shattered upon itself hundreds of times over, and did, however Avalon, the legendary sheathe of Excalibur, was implanted in his body at the time and repaired the damage as soon as it was done…

It still did nothing to prevent how much it hurt though.

Shen he was cursed by the cursed grail, not only were most of his own magic circuits fried, but a good majority that made the small crest on his back were as well. Only 3 had remained intact. It was far from enough to perform any form of moderate clan based thaumaturgy by themselves despite their quality, let alone make an innate time field… yet they could still serve a purpose… he just had no idea what just yet other than giving the boy a small boost to his reserves.

Asking Waver and Sirius to implant the boy with the barely considered crest had taken a little bit of convincing on his part. Grafting a crest onto another person had always been an extremely risky procedure, especially when the one receiving it was not a blood member of the clan… yet Kiritsugu pointed out that there were so few circuits to be shifted over that the odds of something going truly wrong, even if neither men were actually qualified to do such a task, were rather small. Shirou was still a child, so he could still adapt to them fairly well. Plus the boy still had Avalon still implanted inside his body, which also increased his odds immensely but neither Waver nor Sirius knew about the noble phantasm's existence in the boy yet. Kiritsugu wanted to keep that small piece of information to himself and maybe Shirou for as long as possible so that it would have the greatest chances of staying inside the boy and enable him to project the scabbard flawlessly.

And so the faker recovered quickly. Within a week of the implants, Shirou was up and going to school again. He still had to take the standard drought that many recipients took to ensure that nothing went wrong (much to the boy's displeasure since he claimed that it tasted like old wet cats), however other than that he was pretty much recovered at this point and now possessing a solid 30 magic circuits in his body…

However this did not come without a price as the 3 men soon found out. Despite their small number, the remaining circuits in the man had been serving a purpose in their prior bearer as they had been doing something that most crests were designed to do… keep their bearer alive. It wasn't until after the operation that the men realized that without the crest, Kiritsugu's body had lost a significant part of what kept it going after the war. According to Sirius after a detailed analysis, the man had reduced his time alive by half… meaning instead of the rough 2 years he had expected to last, he only had 1… give or take a few months.

"So what should we train him in first?" Waver asked curiously.

"First we have him practice his tracing and his projection, like we do before and after every session." Kiritsugu stated from the porch. "This time we're going to push things a little bit though. Sirius?"

"Aye." The large man nodded as he took out what seemed to be a pair of normal gloves. "Ta fabric in these mitts were crafted wit magical processes, makin' tem stronger tan tey look lad. Let's see what ya can do…"

"Remember your 8 steps Shirou." Kiritsugu lectured.

"I know." The boy sighed. "Judging the concept of creation, hypothesizing the basic structure, duplicating the composition material, imitating the skill of its making, sympathizing with the experience of its growth, reproducing the accumulated years, excelling every manufacturing process, and then executing the actual projection itself." He recited in a tired tone. It wasn't that he didn't care about the steps… on the contrary the boy literally thrived on them once he actually knew what his steps were… and learned what all those big words meant… but like any kid he simply didn't like reciting the same things over and over again. Especially if it sounded boring.

"Hmm…" Waver mused, contemplating and analyzing the 8 steps the boy used in his structural grasping magecraft. Projection was widely known as a rather empty subject to study since anything made would be of fairly low quality and wouldn't last long despite the fact that it was in theory very advanced… however that was partially due to the fact that the subject was incomplete to a degree. Most magi just pretended that the fact didn't exist… however if this boy's additional steps were the missing piece of this puzzle… then it certainly would explain a great deal…

He still doubted the boy could actually recreate a noble phantasm though…

"Trace… on." The boy muttered as he stared at the leathery gloves in Sirius' possession. "… Concept of creation…" He started off slowly after a few seconds. No doubt he was not used to analyzing magical objects and it had an effect on how fast it took the boy to finish his analysis. "… Accumulated years…" The boy continued, his eyes never turning away from the gloves as they narrowed. The three elder men looked at the boy curiously as he let out a slow breath and held out his hands and focused. A bright but brief flash of light appeared before them before a similar pair of gloves appeared in the boy's possession.

Waver watched as Sirius walked over to the boy and inspected his attempt. "Well Sirius? How did he do?"

The mystic code maker made several grunting noises from his throat as he made a verdict. Looking at the cloths from every angle and occasionally channeling prana through each one to get a feel for their construction. After a few minutes the large man nodded. "If ta originals were a 10, ta lad made a 6…" He mused, causing the boy's face to fall. "Ta quality of ta material he made is lackin' and ta magic inscribed in it is a bit on ta weak side too compared ta tha original…" He paused for a moment before grinning. "But still fer a projection tis is pretty damn impressive lad. Tis cloth here is part hair from a pegasus and refined in dragon fire. I make these beauties fer high ranking equipment making magus tat gotta work in ta most hellish places. Ah wouldn't expect even high level noble bastards ta be able to make anything higher than a 2 when it comes ta projectin somethin as complicated as tis, and even tat's pushin it."

"Let me have a look…" Waver walked up and took the projected gloves for inspection. Sirius had left out a bit in his complimenting the boy's work. One was the fact that the boy had actually managed to reproduce the magic inside the glove at all, something that had until then been absolutely unheard of. Channeling his prana into the cloth, the man indeed felt the resistance and nature of both unicorns and dragons in the material enhancing its magical and natural resistance to levels that were far beyond what normal gloves could provide for humans. He could also tell that there was a stronger foundation to the materials than any other projection he had encountered. Most fabricated items were empty on the inside… these gloves however seemed to possess everything the original had… albeit a bit weaker in quality and somewhat distorted in some areas. Overall though, the gloves in his hands were still of higher quality than the standard protection gloves that many magi use for rather dangerous experiments. "… It's not bad… for a child…" Waver mused, taking quiet pleasure in the boy's pouting. "Can you make another right now?"

Shirou shifted a bit on his feet. "Maybe. I have trouble calling up the images of things after a certain amount of time after tracing them… other than knives and things like that for some reason…" The boy held out his hand and within a moment one of the kitchen knives he had used to make dinner that night nearly instantly appeared in it. "I don't really have to think that hard about them. I don't know why…"

The elder 3 didn't even bother to look at one another to tell what the others were thinking. "It probably has to do with your element or origin." Waver commented. "We know your element isn't one of the standard 5, so odds are its affecting your projection ability in some way."

"Yeah yeah… why can't anyone figure out what my element is?" The boy sighed. "I mean it would have been cool to shoot fireballs and stuff… but at this point I really just want to know and get it over with already…"

Sirius laughed. "Ah lad. Don't get yer knickers in a bunch. Yer doin just fine right now." He reached into one of his pockets and took out a pink jewel. "Try yer stuff on tis fine gem right here. Same as b'fore…"

The pattern repeated itself constantly over the next hour. Sirius would take out various random magic related objects that he's made or used over the years and the boy would attempt to grasp everything about it and then reproduce it. The boy's work was fairly constant according to Sirius, never straying from the 5-7 range… other then the case when he showed the boy a scalpel that was used in dissections of large and powerful magical beasts. Shirou not only finished his analysis in a few seconds that time, but had produced a copy that was nearly a borderline 9.

"Alright! Tat does it!" Sirius sighed as he put away his last example. "It's fairly obvious tat ta lad has some kind a link ta sharp an pointy things. Ya have one hell of a special lad here lad." He grinned to Kiritsugu.

"He is capable of incredibly high levels of projection…" Waver admitted. "But what else can he do?"

"Dad, can you finally start to teach me how to reinforce my body now?" Shirou moaned. Despite using magic constantly for the past hour, he wasn't that tired. Performing projection and structural grasp magic was nearly second nature to the boy now, even if what he was projecting now was a bit different than what he was used to making. Plus his additional circuits had increased how fast his internal reserves, his od, recovered. "You said if I was good you would teach me when I got back…"

"Reinforced yer own body?" Sirius raised an eyebrow. "Tats a bit advanced fer a lad like yerself ta try, isn't it?"

The boy pouted. "But I've been doing it to practically everything else while dad was gone! Other than living animals I've gotten really good at it! I've been practicing on plants and they get really green and strong when I do!"

Waver blinked. "Reinforcing… plants?" Reinforcement in general was also an incomplete but still fairly practiced thaumaturgy. It pretty much was pumping prana into something and enhancing its purpose or a concept. The thing about living things was it was significantly harder to do as they naturally resisted any foreign prana being injected into them. Practicing on living plants though… it wasn't a bad way to start things off for a noobie.

The boy nodded. "Yeah! Watch this!" Shirou ran to where several bamboo shoots were growing around the side of the house. Quickly projecting a knife, the boy cut one of them down so that it was close to the root unusually quickly. Not noticing the looks of interest the other men were giving him at how quickly he had projected a weapon in his hands, he dispelled the knife and focused his od once more. "Trace on." He grunted as he quickly made a quick structural grasp on the shortened plant before he let his prana flow into it, judging roughly how much he needed to use to strengthen one of the plant's purpose's of existences, the ability to grow quickly and strongly. The men were surprised as the shoot slowly began to regenerate itself from the ground, only greener and stronger looking until it reached the same height it was before. "See?" The boy grinned. "It took me a while to get it down right since the plant is hollow and alive, but I can do it really easily now!"

Sirius whistled as he tested out the shoot and found it extremely durable an healthy looking. "Damn. Lad really wants ta impress ya lad."

Kiritsugu sighed and shook his head with a grim smile. The boy still was only an average at standard thaumaturgy, but for everything that related to his reality marble he was a borderline prodigy. "Fine. You win." He looked at the discarded bamboo shoot. "Sirius, can you pick that up and reinforce it to be strong for this?"

"Sure lad." The big man shrugged as he got up and did just that, standing the plant in front of him like a staff.

"Now Shirou, I want you to start this off slowly." The father lectured. "You're going to reinforce your body in general, and try to break the shoot that Sirius has with a punch. He's very skilled at this particular spell so expect it to be strong. Remember my lessons on how to punch correctly so that you don't hurt yourself. Get a grasp on where the gaps in your own personal structure are before filling them with prana. We can focus on particular body parts later. This is just so you get a feeling of what you're supposed to do later."

The small red headed boy nodded eagerly. "Right!" Focusing his prana inside his own body, Shirou glared at the stick in front of him. He had done structural grasping on his body multiple times before in order to prepare for this moment. From what he could tell, other than the odd golden… thing that resided in his body, he seemed pretty much like any other human. Taking his father's advice, he very slowly trickled his od into the imperfect gapes in his body until they were for the most part filled…

"Ya done yet lad?" Sirius grunted. "Ah wanna sleep tonight ya know…"

"Yeah, just finished…" Shirou nodded as he walked up to the enhanced bamboo shoot and took a basic martial art stance before punching it as hard as he could… and cringed as he felt the impact of punching a concrete wall with his bare hand, leaving only a small crack.

"Not bad…" Sirius mused as he looked at the crack. "Ah pumped enough prana in tis sucka ta make it as hard as metal. Ta even crack it shows ya managed ta enhance yerself a fair amount, especially since yer such a wee one…"

"Owww." Shirou wept comically in response, cradling his hand.

Waver snorted as he walked up to the boy and checked the hurting body part. "Should have seen this coming you know. The life of a magus is filled with close encounters with death and painful experiences after all…"

"Owww." Shirou agreed.

"Nothing's broken but I think he still might have bruised himself slightly." Waver commented before he started performing a quick spell that would heal the damage quickly.

"Ya gotta focus more prana in ta gaps in yer bones first lad." Sirius lectured. "Tat's where yer foundation lies and its fairly easy ta find tem. Ten ya fill up ta gaps in everytin else. Once ya got ta hang of tat two step process ya can do it almost instinctively when yer in a big brawl. It also helps out fer practicin fer when ya wanna pump up specific body parts. Trust me on tis lad. Ahm pretty damn good at structural graspin, reinforcement, an alteration meself since it helps out wit me work… though ya already got me beat in projectin…"

"Alteration?" The boy tilted his head to the side confused.

"It's the step between reinforcement and projection." Kiritsugu explained. "It gives an object a property that it didn't before. For example you could alter a branch so that it had the property of a bow, and then reinforce it so that it not only takes the shape of one, but becomes a stronger bow in the process. Or you could alter a stone so that it has the property of "sharpness", and then reinforce it to the point that it becomes a stone knife or sword whose quality depends on your skill of reinforcement, structural grasping abilities, and definition of sharpness. It's a magic that many alchemists are rather fond of using from time to time."

"Alteration works 1 of 2 ways." Waver continued. "Permanent and not. Permanent alterations for the most part change the shape of the object, maybe some of the materials inside of it, and the overall quality of the object. Non permanent alterations could range from additional qualities such as setting things on fire to enhanced strength. These additional qualities are temporary since they usually require a source of energy to fuel them. There are of course exceptions but we haven't gotten that far yet with your education. Once more though, this ability requires not only a strong ability in structural grasping thaumaturgy, but imagination as well since like projecting you have to envision clearly and definitively what this additional quality is." He withdrew his hands from Shirou's. "There, I healed your hand."

"Cool…" The boy whispered as he pulled his hand back and flexed it before looking at his teachers. "Wait… if I can add something to an object with alteration, can I take something away too?"

Sirius grunted and scratched his chin. "Well… in theory ya could… ahm fairly certain that a few of dismantlin and decomposition spells are based on tat concept. Ah myself sometimes do tat when ah gotta restart a project from scratch an need ta reuse all ta raw materials ah can… but ta take away a single aspect from a complete object…" The man absentmindedly began to draw figures that only he could see in mid air. Sirius was no longer a teacher at this point but something that virtually all magi at the clocktower claimed to be at heart, a researcher. "… So tere would be foundation to a concept tat doesn't exist anymore... tat would probably be addressed by Gaia or ta caster's mana in order ta be removed… Dependin on how ta foundation is set up an how significant ta concept was ta ta structure, ta object would either decompose on itself inta its base elements, become unstable an implode on itself… or ta shape would be completely left alone an ta concept would be completely removed… minus ta concept itself if it had an influence on its physical shape…" He frowned and began to walk around in circles. "But what about ta prana consumption an rate used ta cancel out various concepts an approach an execution of the removing process in order ta maintain ta structure of complicated objects? … Ta reduce a complete object in definition inta a lesser but still complete object in pure definition…"

Waver blinked before groaning and shaking his head as Sirius began to walk around in circles thinking furiously . "I don't believe it, a kid actually managed to inadvertently inspire Sirius to start to create a new branch of material transmutation spells. Thank Akasha I'm focused in the department of spiritual evocation and not in the department of mineralogy."

"Sirius, if it's possible could you please not do any experiments with your new field of research in my home." Kiritsugu asked casually. "I like having one."

"Sure. Get… a home an all tat… ah'll do it later…" The large man absently replied as he continued his theorizing.

Kiritsugu sighed, coughed a few times, and then shook his head. "Waver, can you keep an eye on Sirius and make sure that he doesn't do anything reckless? I'll take over Shirou's training for the rest of the night."

"I was going to do that anyways. It's not like either one of you could stop him if he started to get out of control…" The teen sighed before walking over to the eldest one there and began to talk magic theory with him, no doubt keeping the man's thoughts on the subject to theory and not practice.

"Am I going to see some cool experiments soon?" The boy eagerly asked his father, not having seen any truly advanced forms of thaumaturgy before other than his projection.

"Hopefully not." The father cringed. "I didn't set up a bounded field that restricts shockwaves, loud noises, flashes of light, and images of experiments around the house when I got it. I was hoping that we would keep things small for a while longer. If he does now, we'd be in big trouble…"

"Trouble? You mean with those association guys?" Shirou tilted his head to the side curiously.

The brief image of a small island set aflame filled Kiritsugu's mind… a memory from his childhood. "Yeah. Those guys. It's always good to not anger them…" He sighed. "I'm not saying to join them, but don't go out of your way to irritate them either… and exposing thaumaturgy to the masses is something that makes them VERY angry."

"I see…" The boy quietly nodded before the two sat quietly on the porch. Kiritsugu silently took out a second cup of tea and gave it to the boy who wordlessly accepted it as the two gazed upon the moon. "Hey dad?" Shirou asked slowly. "I was wondering… when I do structural grasping on myself, I see this golden stuff in my body that other people don't have. When I try to look at it I kind of get a picture of this thing in my head, but I can't see it clearly. Do you know what it is?"

The air around the two was silent for several minutes before Kiritsugu spoke up again. "It's the scabbard of a very strong person and a legendary sword Shirou…" He paused before thinking about his next actions very carefully. "Did you practice that mind imagery spell that I covered with you briefly at all before I started you on hypnosis?" The boy nodded hesitantly. The man smiled gently. "Ok… what I want you to do is use that spell on me… but instead of putting something into my mind, I want you to pull the image I have into yours. Just focus on the image itself. Not on me, not on the events, not on the people in it."

"R-right." The boy hesitantly nodded as he slowly got up and put both his hands on his father's head and focused. The spell was basic, so much so that it didn't require an aria from the boy. It didn't require much prana either since Kiritsugu was helping along with the process and letting down all his mental defenses for this process.

It was blurry at first as Shirou got used to the unknown images filling his mind, however he adapted quickly due to his ability to make mental pictures of objects with his structural grasping training. The image was filled with white at first, as if it was taken outside during the winter… yet as the vision cleared the boy determined that Kiritsugu was inside at the time. It looked like a church with stained glass and pillars lining either side of the man, all pale in stone. The floor was equally pale and well taken care of… yet the room seemed fairly sparse other than a few tables, a computer and the lone person in the picture… the white haired woman who seemed to be in even great detail than the scabbard she held in her arms. Shirou was still a child and was not interested in women at all… but even so he could tell that she was beautiful with her long white hair, kind smile and small figure. Her elegant figure and smooth skin spoke of nobility that he occasionally heard about in stories, yet the kindness that was in her expression spoke more of her than anything else… there was little doubt that she meant a great deal to his father…

Managing to shift his attention to the sheathe that the woman held, the boy finally took in and recognized the image that constantly eluded him when trying to identify the golden energy in his body. The scabbard was just as beautiful as the woman in its own way. Shining with a beautiful unmarred gold and adorned with noble blue enamel. It looked so valuable that for a moment the boy couldn't believe for a moment that it was actually used in battle for a king… a king? Yes… he didn't know why, but he knew that was the case. A treasure used in war by royalty… crafted by fairy hands, not human. There was a great deal of history to it and that too trickled into the boy's mind like osmosis. By sight alone the boy knew of its true worth, of its meaning, of its powers, of its experience…

"Avalon…" Shirou whispered with a shocked expression on his small face as he slowly took his hands back from his father's head, the name leaving his lips before he even realized he knew the name of the artifact. "Why…?" He stammered, not knowing how to express his confusion that he had the sheathe of the mythological King Arthur, a historical figure who is so legendary that his name is famous even on the other side of the planet… inside his body.

"I… had acquired it through some connections a while back…" Kiritsugu admitted as he took another sip of tea and looked up quietly at the moon. "When I found you, you were in bad shape. You weren't going to survive… but you were still alive… and I could still save you." He put on a wry and tired grin. "I managed to implant it into you like I did to myself and used its regenerative abilities to keep you alive until I got you to the hospital." He chuckled. "You're pretty lucky. You're the only person I know of other than the Fraga clan in this day and age that has a noble phantasm working for them…" He stopped talking as another coughing fit took hold of him.

"Are you all right dad?" Shirou asked the man worriedly.

"I'm fine…" Kiritsugu rasped as he quickly drank some more tea to clean his throat. "I'm just feeling the loss of those 3 circuits more than I should be…"

"You can have Avalon back if you want." Shirou worriedly offered, concerned about the man's waning health.

"No. I want it to stay in you and keep you healthy." The father smiled gently. "Besides, we can use it for training for you…"

"How?" The small child asked worriedly. "How can I make Avalon in my body help you now?"

"Because now that you've seen it..." Kiritsugu grinned. "… we can make it your final projecting project."

The boy's eyes widened before he began to shiver. "I don't think I can do that dad…" He mumbled hesitantly. "You said that magic beyond my understanding can easily kill me… and I can tell that it would cost a lot of prana in order to make…"

He was calmed down by a gentle pat on the head by his father. "I wasn't talking about now. We still have time to practice it. All I'm saying is that since you now know what it is and what it looks like, you can at least practice the first 7 steps of tracing it in your mind to get a better grasp on it. Besides, since its actually in your body, you will probably get a better feel for it than pretty much anything else you'll ever project once you have enough experience."

Shirou looked at his father skeptically before nodding, taking his word for what they will do later. "That sounds good…" He admitted before looking at the pure white moon in the sky. "… Who was that lady holding Avalon? She was pretty."

Kiritsugu chuckled lightly and donned a small sad smile. "… That was Irisviel. She was my wife…"

"That was your wife?" Shirou gasped in shock. Kiritsugu only mentioned that he was married once to the boy in passing and that she had died. As such the boy never really bothered to delve any further. He calmed down and looked away ashamed. "I'm sorry." He mumbled. "She really was beautiful, but I bet it hurts when you think about her now…"

"Yeah..." The elder Emiya agreed. "But if it helps with your training… I guess I can deal with it every once in a while. You can't run from your past forever Shirou… whether it's karma or just things you want to forget, everyone has to deal with their inner demons at some point…"

The boy shifted uncomfortably in his seat, clearly thinking about something in particular in response to the man's words. "I guess…" He mumbled before turning to the man again. "Can… can you tell me about her?"

Kiritsugu looked at the boy with a small amount of shock before relaxing again and smiling. "…Yeah… I guess I could…" He smiled.

Even without bringing up Illya the man talked continuously and happily about the woman he loved with all his heart until they realized that it was past time to go to bed…

That night both father and son slept more contently than they had done for a long time…

o. o. o.

The next day:

Waver leaned against a wall on a seemingly random street smoking a cigar. He had taken up the habit only a few months earlier, and even though it was somewhat unhealthy for him it helped cool his nerves down. He had always been rather short tempered, and he assumed it was part of the reason why until recently many of the teachers in the clock tower had always looked over him despite his hard work and promise.

Looking up at the sky, the teen wondered if he honestly thought he would be in Fuyuki city again after coming back to England. The experiences he had here were truly traumatizing yes, however they played a huge part in helping him grow up. Slightly to his side he could see the bridge and river where he had seen 2 servants die in spectacular yet horrifying ways. The first was Caster when he immersed himself into an amoeboid like giant tentacle water monster and after much trouble was finally taken out by Saber's Excalibur… and the other was on the bridge when Archer and Rider fought one another with their strongest noble phantasms…

A few doors down from him an old man walked out of his home with a fairly large amount of trash and dragged it to the curb. He was a foreigner easily, western European or American from the looks of things, however that was not that surprising since this part of Fuyuki had a fairly high immigrant population.

Waver glanced at the old man with a barely interested look on his face as the geezer grunt under his load before chuckling under his breath. Dropping the butt of the cigar on the ground and stomping on it to kill the embers, Waver sighed and walked over to the man. "Need some help old timer?" He asked in English.

"Heh." The man chuckled as he lurched the large bag again before turning around to the offering passerby. "That would be well appreciated. My back isn't what it used to be, especially in this heat. Thank…" He paused as he saw the teen's confident smirk. "… you…"

"It's been a while." The magus chuckled as he walked up to the bag and moved it the rest of the way. It wasn't that difficult for him even though he was of average size. He also didn't mind as much getting his hands dirty from time to time, though his pride still limited him at some points. Brushing his hands against one another he turned around. "How's life been gramps?"

Glen MacKenzie and his wife Martha had been Waver's room and board during the previous war. Hypnotized into believing he was their grandson, they housed and treated the boy (and later rider in his corporal form much to Waver's initial shock and mental strain) as if he was their own. Surprisingly though, whether it was due to a mistake on Waver's part or because the old man had a stronger than expected resistance to magic, Glen had managed to deduce on the last few days of the war that Waver wasn't his grandchild. However despite this he allowed the teen to stay for multiple simple reasons. The boy's presence made his lonely wife happy, Waver didn't seem to be taking advantage of them other than for room and food, and because Waver seemed to be an honest kid that was just involved in something rather big.

When Waver finally left their home, he had hypnotized Martha to forget everything regarding his stay at the house other then "their grandchild had stayed over for a few weeks and she truly enjoyed it", which wasn't hard since she truly was happy during his stay according to Glen. As for the old man himself… Waver didn't do anything. It was a major breach of protocol as far as the magus association was concerned, but to be blunt about it the old man wasn't going to say anything about Waver's stay to anyone. He knew the boy was involved in something big and he was old enough to know to stay out of it and too old to do anything about it.

"Waver…" The Canadian man whispered before walking closer. "Is that really you?"

"Come on now." The teen smirked. "Your memory shouldn't have gotten that bad after only 3 years…"

"Yes but… you're not short anymore…" The man blinked, causing the magus' smirk to drop. "… And you actually look like you've done some physical work… and you actually have skin color… and…"

"Ok…" Waver grunted with a twitching eyebrow. "I get it, I was a stick and looked like a closet shut in back then." He sighed. He didn't like to admit it, but he did spend a bit too much time in the libraries and inside back then. "You… you haven't changed a bit though…"

"I'm old and I still have my hair." The Glen chuckled as he walked inside his home and invited the teen. "I consider that an achievement far beyond the average for my age group." The two walked into the kitchen and sat down at the table. "Martha's out with some of her friends playing bridge. She's started quite the club." A dry laugh escaped his lips before shaking his head and putting on a tired expression. "It's nice to see you again, but what are you doing back here Waver? When you left you sounded as if it was for good. Not to mention that around the time you appeared…"

Waver nodded, understanding what the old man was implying. Even though the holy grail war was meant to be kept secret, it didn't stop 1 sky scraper, 2 military fighter jets, a good portion of the nearby landscape, and an entire section of the city from being absolutely destroyed. Not to mention the total death count… "No… I'm here because a friend asked me to come here and help him out with something." He paused and looked around. "However… I wouldn't count out something like that from happening again in… say hypothetically 7 years…"

Glen's eyes widened in shock. "You mean you were responsible for…"

"I was involved." The teen stated tersely. "I won't deny that, however neither me nor Alex performed any of those… actions…" He grit his teeth. The clock tower was well known for performing rather inhumane and distasteful actions from time to time, however Waver himself was among the ones that preferred to keep those not involved from getting hurt. What Caster did to all those kidnapped people when he walked into the "man's" lair… all those people both living and dead who had been warped in inhumane ways… Swallowing the bile that was making its way up his throat from the terrifying memories, the magus continued. "… I have no control over how things are managed… and I'm breaking a lot of rules just by letting you know now… however odds are likely that similar… events may happen around that time." He warned again in a soft tone.

"Why don't you do something about it then?" The old man asked worriedly. "Warn the locals. Surely the police…"

"Glen… remember how I got you to let me stay in your home for over a month?" Waver hinted. "I was being considerate and soft compared to what many others could do. The police are useless. Plus this has been happening once every 60 years for the last 2 centuries. This 10 year wait caught everyone off guard, and even then only a handful know of it at the moment. The less you say about this, the better it is for everyone." He closed his eyes. "I'm helping out someone that's trying to make this… event the last one."

"Waver…" The old man looked at the frowning teen with a concerned gaze before sighing. "You're probably right. It's not my place to question something that I have no part of and it's still up in the air in whether or not I live that long anyway."

"Don't tell anyone. Period." Waver warned. "I know of several people to be extremely wary of in this city that you would never suspect. One in particular is someone whose job is supposed to be to listen to others and keep secrets…"

"I see…" Mused the old man, already having a good idea of whom Waver was wary of. "Oh well… Martha and I were thinking of maybe moving back to America within the next couple of years anyways so that we can be closer to our kids in case we really need them. 7 years is plenty of time to do that…" He got up and walked to the kitchen. "Do you want something to eat Waver? We finally got a new toaster so you don't have to put tons of jam on it in order to make it eatable…"

The magus snorted, having not expected that Glen had been thinking along the same lines he was when they ate breakfast those years ago, feasting on soggy bread and juice. "Yeah. That sounds nice."

o. o. o.

A/N:

Another chapter done and some small explaining to do on my part.

So far Shirou's current arsenal for the war starting off is just Avalon, kitchen utensils, a very unstable access to some time based spells, and some random minor spells that are really meant for crowd control. And then there is the mystery weapon that I have yet to show off yet.

First of all Avalon. Many of you are probably going to complain that Shirou is either too inexperienced to project it or it would be overkill for him to know it right off the bat. Here's the thing though, its Avalon. It's an EX ranked noble phantasm yes… but by that rule just projecting it is going to be an absolute bitch for Shirou even with decent training. He'd be able to project it at best once a day, and its only meant for defensive purposes. As such I think it's perfectly reasonable to enable him access to it now.

At first I wasn't going to have Shirou inherit any circuits from Kiritsugu since the idea of him using accell to make him faster and have more access to his prana would be overkill, plus it didn't fit in with the whole, Kiritsugu can't use magic anymore, bit. However as I did some research and daydreaming and goofing off, I managed to come up with a new use, excuse, and purpose for the 3 circuits that I had remain, one of which was of course, to make people say "Oh so THAT's the reason why Kiritsugu was still alive for 5 years despite being cursed by the grail", while still keeping things fairly balanced. It also enabled me to have Shirou start his Avalon projection training early.

Shirou is not going to use any time related bounded field magic and he isn't going to do what Kiritsugu did when he had the crest. He is going to use the time magic in a way that I have completely pulled out of my ass, yet it is completely believable, reasonable for the mechanics of the natsuverse, and in my personal opinion awesome...

The prep chapters are nearly done now. Kiritsugu's role is pretty much going to end (or is it?) in the next chapter… or two. Then I'll do 2 or 3 in between chapters of Shirou growing up and interacting with other characters and all that stuff… then the war will start and I will do horrible things to people.

As for pairings… That's for me to decide and will happen in due time. If any of you are angered so much by a pairing that you stop reading… then you obviously have NEVER played through the visual novel completely before, and as such have lost my respect. I myself have preferred pairings, yet that did not stop me from playing the game all the way through and enjoying it completely. This isn't Naruto guys. Please don't start another narusaku vs naruhina variant bullshit war here.

So that's it for this A/N.

Review! Worship the Log! Silence those who scream about selective love and peace! And Review again!


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5: Faker

I do not own Fate/Stay Night and stuffs:

o. o. o.

It had been almost a year since Sirius and Waver began to periodically visit the Emiya household, staying for no longer than a week or two at a time and visiting every 2 or 3 months to check how the 2 man family was doing. Kiritsugu had left the compound a couple of more times, but he returned after at most 3 months on both occasions and looking far more tired than he had been when he left…

It was shortly after the first time he had returned that Shirou had managed to finally project Avalon... though it did cause the boy to pass out after doing so and did not wake up until the next day. It was far from perfect with inconsistencies in the magic at some parts and the quality of the gold clearly not matching up to the original, however it still possessed the magic that made it a noble phantasm in the first place.

Since then, Kiritsugu had implanted the imperfect projected copies that Shirou had progressively improved on into his body in order to prolong his time on earth. Shirou in turn would improve his tracing capabilities dramatically by repeatedly reproducing the incredibly complicated and powerful noble phantasm. The boy didn't know that he was prolonging his father's life. He merely thought that his dad was simply testing out his creations extremely thoroughly. With his circuits and skill he could at best do so once a day without overstraining and potentially killing himself. Anymore and he risked doing extreme damage to his magic circuit or his body…

Which was somewhat impressive since there weren't that many spells on the planet alone that could actually be too much for a circuit that could pump out a little over 400 units of prana at max… other than the standard divine mystery level summonings or attacks that were designed to take down said divine mysteries with sheer destructive power. By the time Shirou's circuits fully develop, Kiritsugu estimated that the boy would manage to have a max output of around 600 units, a very impressive number considering the average non-crest bearing magus ranged from around 200-400 at best.

Still Kiritsugu could feel his time coming. Shirou's Avalon copies were certainly doing their job and improving with each implant… the latest copy lasting him almost half a week before it finally disappeared, however it would not enable him to live as long as he would have if he didn't give the boy his remaining crest circuits…

As such he spent as much time as he could with the boy when he wasn't at school. Playing, teaching, drinking tea. The two spent long amounts of time with one another enjoying the other's company. Kiritsugu knew that his son idolized him. The shine in the boy's eyes spoke of nothing else as he told him of stories of the magic world and what magi could really do and of some of his… less violent adventures.

… That didn't mean that he got irritated at the boy on occasion…

"Shirou…" Kiritsugu frowned as the two finally made it back to their home. "How many times has this been this month that you've gotten yourself into a fight at school?"

"…4?" The boy answered in a muffled voice, ashamed to look at his dad in the eyes with the one eye he had that wasn't swelled shut from the beating he had recently gotten in trouble for.

"6." The man corrected before sighing and scratching his head frustrated. "Shirou, I know that you want to help others. Every time I get a call, it's about you standing up against multiple older bullies almost twice your size each. That's not a bad thing… but you have to put some concern into your own well being too."

"What do you mean?" The boy tilted his head to the side confused. "That guy was being bullied, so why shouldn't I have helped out? It was the right thing to do so it doesn't matter if I got into trouble or got hurt a bit…"

A lance of emotional pain pierced through Kiritsugu. Once again Shirou's complete lack of self preservation came to light, something akin to suicidal tendencies under the guise of noble desires that was more than likely bound to either break, kill, or twist the person known as Shirou Emiya in the future at some point. To give someone like this the dream to become a super hero to the world… no… he couldn't do that in good conscience… not again. The images and cries of the heroic spirit in red flashed through his mind. "Shirou…" He began slowly with a sad look on his face. "Do you know how much you hurt me when you say things like that?"

The boy looked at his father in shock. "Wh-what?" He stumbled back, not expecting for his idol to say this.

He continued. "People can hurt in more than one way. They can hurt when those they care about are hurt… when they die… and when they do things that make them worry…" He stepped forward. "You have to care more about yourself son. You have a great heart, bigger than most would ever have… but you don't realize how much people can hurt by watching their loved ones risk themselves needlessly as if their lives don't matter." He looked at the boy worriedly. "Is that something you want to do? Do you want to hurt me?"

The boy shook his head frantically. "No! It's not like that! You don't have to worry about me. I just wanted to make those bullies stop as quickly as possible so…"

"You did something reckless and instead of doing the safe thing and get a teacher, you jumped into the fray yourself." Kiritsugu finished the boy's explanation in a dry tone. "You always do this Shirou. You try to undertake these things yourself in place of others despite the fact that they may be suited better to doing it simply because it may trouble them." He shook his head.

"I just want to be like you though!" The boy argued with frustrated tears welling up. "I wanna help people like a superhero! Like you helped me!"

There it was. There was the cause of so much pain for so many people in the future. To hear it actually come from Shirou's mouth now though… even when he is still such a small child terrified the man to no end. He closed his eyes and before Shirou knew what happened hugged him. "Shirou…" Kiritsugu muttered… some tears forming in his eyes. "… I was similar to you once. I wanted to be a hero of justice. To stop all the bad things happening in the world… and I did try to do that with all my might… but… you don't really know what such a path is like…"

"I… don't get it dad…" The scared and confused boy whispered, never seeing this side to his father before. "What's so bad to be a hero? To stop bad guys? To make everyone happy?"

"To be a hero… I had sacrificed and killed so many people to save many times that number of lives… even though doing so slowly killed me painfully on the inside." Kiritsugu muttered, not trusting his voice to speak any louder than he was. "My father… my adopted mother… my partner… my wife… all dead because of me… and my beautiful daughter, my true daughter is kept away from me so that I will never see or hear from her again. All for the sake of saving the world and saving lives... I became a monster that took them." He whimpered. "It is so lonely… and you will hurt so many people no matter what you do. If you isolate yourself for too long… you wouldn't even become a human anymore before you realize that the fighting won't stop and that in order to keep on saving people… you will have to keep on killing others. Your heart would go so cold that neither the most beautiful and caring woman, nor the most disgusting and sickening acts would be able to move it. You can't call someone like that a hero…" He took in a shuddering breath. "Shirou… I truly… only have you left. If you died or if something permanent happened to you… I would have no meaning left in me… I'd be all alone. To see my only link to humanity care so little for itself terrifies me more than you can possibly imagine." He laughed bitterly. "I know… you are probably guilty for being one of the only ones to live through the fire… that you have to live for other's sakes because you feel it's unfair that only you lived." The boy's sudden rigidity was enough to confirm his suspicion. "… If that's the case… then live Shirou. Help people yes… fight bad guys if you have to… but live the lives that those that died couldn't achieve. Have loved ones. Have a family. Keep them close and be happy by making them happy. Protect them. If you truly wish to use your magic to help others… I will not stop you… but please at least put your loved ones' feelings into consideration…"

Kiritsugu couldn't see the boy's face at the time, however it would probably have been best if he didn't as Shirou's expression was not one that he would have preferred. It did contain some compassion and hurt… however the dominant emotions on the boy's face were confusion and fear. It was the innocent stare of a child that truly did not understand the true meaning of what his father was trying to tell him. It held an unnerved stare of uncertainty, showing that the boy did not know how to respond appropriately to his father's request. The man did make sense in a way, but the overall message eluded him. As such he said nothing in fear of saying the wrong thing and making his beloved father even more depressed. Yes. Shirou Emiya was truly distorted from the fire. He did not see why he should truly be happy when all those that burned around him and had their lives ended so cruelly no longer had the chance to. The boy now only felt true elation when he helped others…

…And yet…

… The boy did understand bits and pieces of what his father said. People died in the world. That in itself was obvious. Shirou had seen that first hand. Apparently if you were a hero… that happened around you more often than he would like… and to people you knew too. It made sense, Shirou mused. In the cartoons and stories he read, occasionally someone would get hurt by accident or targeted by the main bad guy in order to get to the hero. Most of the time things went well… but not all the time.

… And his father also mentioned his family. His wife. His parents… His daughter. To lose so many people close to him in order to go for his dreams. It made it sound like it was almost better to be alone with no friends or family in order to be a hero… but did he truly want to be alone forever? If it was to protect people then he might consider it… but how sad would it make his father? The man who he idolized truly wanted him to have a family before being a hero. The man who saved his life and gave him purpose again? Wasn't that being selfish to put his desires before those of people who might need his help? But then wasn't it also selfish to not live the life that those who died in the fire would envy and have a loving family?

The questions upon questions of distorted morals cycled and assaulted the boy as he tried to understand his father's pain. He wanted to know what to do or say in order to make this right! A hero most likely would have known, but Kiritsugu was asking him to not be one! What was the right thing to do then?

Shirou was a small boy, however that did not matter much when he instinctively reinforced his body and pushed his father away, forcing the man back a good few steps.

Kiritsugu stumbled back for a moment before seeing his son stare at him with confusion and fear on his face before the boy turned around and ran out of the house like a frantic animal. "Shirou!" The man shouted as the boy turned the corner and disappeared from view. He was far from the condition he would have needed to be to chase after the unnerved child and as such could only stumble to the main entrance and look in hopes to at least have a decent idea of where the boy may have ran to…

o. o. o.

Shirou ran. His mind was too clouded by what his father had told him, of what he should do, of how he should live, of what his dreams would bring him to care about where he was going.

What was it that he truly wanted? What was it his father truly wanted? Was doing the right thing not so simple as what he meant? How could he help others without hurting his dad?

Before Shirou knew where he was, he had found himself standing at the local park. It had barely registered to him that he was breathing heavily as he took in his surroundings and began to calm down. The day was closing as the sun set in the distance, making the sky look as if it was on fire, burning as intensely as his lungs and head were.

He hated it.

Even when he tried to clear his mind, even the sky itself would remind him of the fire. Why? Why was it so hard to make people happy? Isn't the world simply supposed to be beat the bad guy, rescue the town, stop the monster? Sure there would be a hard moment every once in a while, but can't they all be worked around in one way or another with enough hard work? After enough time he could be strong enough in his magic to do more things, help more people… he could keep on helping and helping…

… But would he stop? Should he stop? Surely the "right" answer is to keep on going so long as people still need to be rescued, but Shirou knew even then that he probably wouldn't be able to save everyone. If that was the case would he be able to have a family? His dad was right… if he wanted to honor those that didn't life, he should at least have a loving family… but would he have to sacrifice them too to be a hero like his dad did? Hero's did have enemies after a while… and they would most likely go after his loved ones. If he was a true hero he could save them… but memories of the fire had brought him back to reality. There was no way to absolutely ensure that everyone lived all the time…

He was snapped out of his thoughts as he heard something nearby. He didn't notice them first since he had been exhausted and confused, but since he had actually stopped for a bit he had become aware of the world around him once more.

The primary sounds he heard was laughter, most likely from kids his age if their voices were any indication. The thing was though that said voices reminded him of those of the bullies he would often pick fights with when said bullies were picking on some unfortunate target of the day. Focusing on his listening even more, sure enough, he soon picked up the very quiet whimpering of the suspected target. A girl if the high pitched voice was any indication.

The short tempered boy growled and began to correct this injustice when he stopped. This is exactly what he had done to make his dad worried and sad in the first place. He was sticking his nose into other people's business again. He would probably get hurt. He would anger his dad. But…

The distinct sound of flesh hitting flesh met the boy's ears and in an instant Shirou had made up his mind. He would probably get in trouble for it later, but he just couldn't ignore such things from happening right in front of him…

He paused as the bruises from his previous fight throbbed, reminding him that he was already recovering from another fight earlier that day. If he fought again he would probably not only get into trouble, but also hurt in a way that would take much longer to heal. The sound of the bullying continued, causing the boy to grit his teeth in frustration. Quietly sneaking around the corner of the park, Shirou saw the scene. 3 boys a year or 2 older than him were surrounded by a small and silent girl with purple hair that looked about a year younger than him. The boys took turns kicking and shoving the exhausted female between them, who did nothing in retaliation other than hold her arms up to make the pain less, almost as if she had given up on trying to fight back in the first place.

There were no adults around and no one had noticed him yet.

Shirou breathed out calmly. This was just like his lessons with Waver-nii. When faced with a tough problem, don't rush things or you'll do something stupid and get hurt. He didn't do it earlier that day because he had let his temper get the better of him, but now after running for a long time he was too tired to get over emotional about these things. He wouldn't fight all 3 at once, but that didn't mean he couldn't get rid of them or make them stop hitting the girl...

Picking up a rock and taking aim, the boy launched his projectile at the nearest offender and was rewarded with the satisfying sound of stone hitting flesh. "Oi jerks!" He shouted, getting the attention of the boys. "You're picking on a girl by herself? That's so lame!" He paused to see that the one he hit was now on the verge of tears from getting hit. "Hah! 1 rock and you're already about to cry?"

"Get him!" Yelled the victim of the sneak attack as he and the other two boys turned to their latest target.

"Trace… on…" The outnumbered boy muttered under his breath and flooded his bones and skin with prana. Shirou knew that he shouldn't use magic against civilian kids, but he was just so sick and tired of everything right now that he couldn't really care less. Besides, he only enhanced his bones and skin so that he wouldn't get hurt that badly if the fighting went against him and so that he could hit harder…

And so Shirou fought the older boys at once… and was beaten relentlessly. He may have had some basic fighting training from Sirius, Kiritsugu, and Taiga, but it was nowhere near enough to handle 3 opponents at once. Time and time again he was kicked and punched and thrown to the ground. Just as many times he had once again picked himself up with determination. He wanted to help the girl yes. He wanted to stop those bullies yes… but they weren't the reason why he stood back up time and time again only to be beaten down.

No, the reason why he didn't back down was because if he did so, he felt as if he would never truly understand the reason why his father wanted him to not become a hero of justice and go out of his way to help people. In his mind the only way to find out why it was so bad for him and others was to do so anyways. So far though all it was doing was annoying his opponents and making him hurt a lot.

Looking past the group, he saw the girl he had rescued looking at him with dull purple eyes curiously, almost as if she was expecting something of him that he had not done yet. He didn't know why, but the girl looked as if she was crying before the bullies had gotten to her since the red marks on her eyes looked older than a few minutes. Before he could think about it anymore though, a kick to his side brought him back to realizing that he was fighting 3 kids at once and losing badly.

"What the heck is he made of?" Grunted one of the boys as he rubbed his foot. "It's like hitting a rock."

"He won't stay down either." Panted another as he put his foot on Shirou's back in attempt to do so. "Is he stupid or something?"

"He has to be." Grumbled the leader, kicking the red headed boy's skull lightly. "Why else would he try to pick a fight with us?"

"Maybe he knows her." Suggested the first one as he turned to see where the purple eyed girl still watched on curiously.

"I don't." Shirou grunted as he tried to pick himself up again only to be held in place. "I just fought you cause you were picking on her."

The leader laughed. "Hah! He really is just stupid! He doesn't even know when to give up!"

"Actually, that's partially my fault." Spoke a tired, calm, but chillingly empty voice from behind all 3 boys, causing them and their victim to freeze. Standing behind them was an exhausted Kiritsugu looking down at them with an sweaty body… but his face was stone cold and emotionless. Shirou shivered as he felt no warmth at all coming from his father's eyes. "If you three wouldn't mind… I was in the middle of a conversation with my son before he decided to go somewhere else." The boys shivered as the man's impossibly empty gaze turned even colder, as if he was contemplating how to kill them. Of course their young minds, other than Shirou's, didn't comprehend the exact feeling having never experienced or have come close to death, however their bodies all recognized the danger this newcomer presented. "I would appreciate it if you didn't bother the young lady over there anymore either."

It wasn't a request. All the children there could feel it in their bodies that if they didn't do what the man said, they would suffer greatly. It had less to do with how the man said it than it had to do with pure instinct. Kiritsugu had at most a circuit or 2 that he could activate if he was truly pressed, however he didn't need it for something like this. He was carrying himself like an assassin, a murderer, and he was now looking at potential targets. They were not children or boys or family, simply lives on a scale. As such he could present himself in a way that could put all but the most hardened of individuals on edge. His words merely conveyed what he wanted. They were empty and as such had no impact on the effect he had on their unknown bodies.

It wasn't a surprise that all 3 boys that had ganged up on Shirou had attempted to bolt at once, tripping over their frantic and clumsy legs multiple times in the process before finally getting out of sight.

"D-Dad…?" Shirou whispered in fear as he saw his father in a completely different way. This was not his teacher. This was not his friend. This was not his father. This was a man who was for lack of a better term empty on the inside… no… to call the person in front of him a man was pushing it. Even as a child, Shirou could tell that the thing in front of him that looked like his father was barely human. Gutted and cored out of almost every emotional function until only the bare minimum was there that was needed in order to get things done.

"You disappoint me." The "man" spoke in the same dead tone in the same emotionless demeanor, causing the boy to flinch and look away before the man grabbed his head and forced it to face him. "Look at me." He continued, neither angry nor passionate nor emotional. "You can tell can't you? I'm no better than a machine like this. This is what doing nothing but sacrificing yourself for others does to you if you don't die somewhere along the line." He observed the boy shaking in shock and fear but did not acknowledge it. Instead he simply turned and began to walk home. "I never expected to be like this again… but you did this to me Shirou. Your recklessness with your safety is the sole cause for this. You fail to realize that your well being is also needed to aid others. If you continue to act like this." He stopped, but didn't turn around. "You'll find yourself in hell… alone, trapped, and unable to do anything about it."

He glanced towards the girl to his other side, who was simply standing there and watching curiously and confused. She didn't fear him. Her body was exhausted, but she did not fear him despite the danger his body clearly emitted. The two made eye contact for several seconds before Kiritsugu snorted and closed his eyes. "… Though if you continue to be this stubborn about it… a way out may eventually show itself… maybe." He mused out loud before continuing his way back home. He didn't bother to look at the scared, confused, and unnerved boy… or at the absolutely petrified girl.

o. o. o.

Shirou didn't return home until very late that night. Kiritsugu didn't go looking for the boy… instead spending most of his time on the porch staring up at the sky… or coughing up blood. His condition had been worsening after all. His breathing had become more difficult and his heart was having trouble beating without hurting him…

Still… this sensation was nothing new to him. Other than the intensity, he had become accustomed to the throbbing pain in his body. It was the curse of constant regret that truly never went away and ensured that he would not be blessed with a quiet and peaceful death.

The sound of the front door opening and the light steps of Shirou walking through the house slowly calmed the man down enough to finally drink some tea and clear some of his throat. He subtly brushed his hands on the side of his clothes so that the boy wouldn't notice.

Shirou appeared quietly from the living room and stood still a fair distance from his father. The air was quiet other than the sound of the evening insects making noise.

"You took your time." Kiritsugu mused almost casually. There was little mirth in his tone, however it was still a far cry from how he held himself when he left the boy.

Shirou shifted nervously from side to side. "I had to take the Sakura back home, and then think about what happened today."

"Sakura?" Kiritsugu asked, feinting ignorance.

"The girl that I helped from the bullies." The boy answered. "She lives in those western buildings on the rich side of town…"

"I see…" The father mused before going quiet again. "… You used magic in public." He stated in a darker tone.

"You were angry that I was getting hurt…" The red head excused himself feebly. "I only reinforced my bones and skin so that the damage would be less… no one noticed… well they did, but they just thought I was just different like that…"

Kiritsugu sighed. "Not only did you break one of the major rules I set up for you… but you still don't understand Shirou. You planned for yourself to get hurt. That's just as bad as doing it without knowing it…"

"But if I tried to fight them and win, then I would have needed to use more magic!" The boy argued.

"Did you try to think of other ways to get rid of them that didn't involve fighting?" Kiritsugu frowned. "Such as changing your voice to that of an adults and scare them off? I know you are capable of doing that."

Shirou looked away guiltily. "No…" He mumbled.

The father remained quiet as he began to drink again. He knew the boy well enough to know that once he recognized his errors, or at least what came out of his errors, he would at least try to figure out what the problem was on his own and attempt to fix it. He may have been a bit too blunt with the boy when addressing the situation. Kiritsugu knew what the problem was, he knew what would happen should it remain unaddressed, however addressing it was the main concern. Shirou was distorted, and it was his greatest strength and weakness. He needed the boy to recognize it, realize its affects on him, and adapt to it in such a way that it would not truly shatter his son later on in life.

In comparison it was like trying to get a rampaging alcoholic to adapt to a life where he has to cut back on his drinks but not cut off his intake completely and make sure that he wouldn't binge ever again. Now make said rampaging alcoholic a traumatized 11 year old boy with a fairly short temper with access to magic and replace his addiction with "alcohol" with an addition to "help people", which in contrast is significantly more difficult to argue against doing. This was what Kiritsugu was attempting to accomplish. Right now though he was still at the "get him to admit or realize he had a problem" step.

Shirou nervously stepped forward, closer to his father. "… Did… did you really kill a lot of people?"

"More than either one of us would like to believe." Kiritsugu sighed, looking up at the sky.

"… And… did it was all to become a hero?" The boy shakily asked.

"…" The Magus Killer remained silent before finally deciding on his answer. "It was… at first." He started off slowly. "I wanted to be a hero of justice. To rescue people." He laughed bitterly. "My father had a sealing designation and because of his carelessness condemned the entire island we were staying on to death for his research… but even so he wanted to continue." He closed his eyes. "… He didn't know that a freelancer had come into contact with me and explained the situation… why all those people I was friends with were killed by enforcers and the church. … If he had decided to stop, we probably would have managed to escape the island and live somewhere else in peace… but he didn't care at all for other's lives… so when I came back to him… no older than you were now, maybe even younger, and he explained what he planned to do and turned around…" He chuckled dryly and held out one hand, making a gun shape with his index and thumb before making a bang sound. "One to drop him… then a few more in his heart and head just to make sure he was really dead…" He pretended to ignore the shocked look his son was giving him. "The sad thing was that he had stayed on the island that long because I hadn't come back yet. I was the only one he truly trusted." He shook his head and sighed. "After that… I did jobs for and with the freelancer who found me in the first place. She taught me. She fed me. She clothed me. In a way she became the mother I never had… but I killed in the process. Always killing in order to keep more alive…"

Kiritsugu continued for hours. Telling for the first time uncensored stories of his past, of what he's done. Of his daughter, his wife, of his decent into borderline madness, everything. He never used last names, and left out many facts about the 4th war including the fact that he had started the fire and that it was held here… but other than that he truly gave Shirou Emiya a true picture of what his father was and what the world could be like. It was likely he had scarred his son once more, but so long as these scars served the purpose of reminding him that he had others he would not relent in the slightest.

"Shirou…" The tired assassin spoke once more, his throat dry from overuse. "You have a very difficult life ahead of you, not only as a magus, but as my son, and among other things. There are no doubt people who have a grudge against me that would take out their frustrations on you. You will face many trials regardless, and I am trying my best to prepare you for them… but that is all I can do. You have to deal with them yourself…"

The boy was now sitting next to him with bags under his eyes. Whether it was from being up for so long or from mental exhaustion was anyone's guess, but it no doubt prevented him from detecting the proclamation of his father's oncoming death. "The trials of being a magus right?" He muttered tiredly. "… I… can sort of get what you mean by me risking myself. I guess it's why so many other kids don't like getting involved with the bullies. I always just thought that they were all just cowards… but now that I think about it… it does make some sense…"

"They could be cowards regardless…" Kiritsugu added. "Unless backed into a corner, most people in today's society try to avoid fighting themselves as much as possible."

"… It's hard though…" Shirou continued. "I have this power, and I know what's right and what's wrong… but even though I have to hold back… I always have the urge to do something…"

"… Sword…" The father sighed.

"What?" The boy blinked.

"It's your element and your origin." The man explained. "Sword. It explains why you're so adept at tracing weapons and turning things into weapons and related objects. Because of your origin you're compelled to fighting when put up against violent problems. When you're out of your league, you're compelled to think of yourself as a disposable tool. Useful, powerful, dangerous, but disposable."

"Y-you knew what my origin and elements were?" The boy's eyes widened in shock.

"I had hoped that you would be told when you got older and more mature, but I see that you needed to know this now not for your magic but for yourself." Kiritsugu stated. "I guess it's affecting your judgment more than others' are. I would say that it also explains your short temper… but then again all kids have that."

"Sword…" The boy repeated, as if trying to convince himself that this was his true nature. "I'm a living sword huh?" He smiled weakly. "That's pretty cool in a way I guess… learning sword magic and all…"

"Sword magic." The dad snorted and shook his head before being struck with inspiration. He nearly hit himself for not thinking of this sooner. "Shirou, let me try to put it in an easier way for you to understand. You know that the best swords not only have powers and pick their owners… but they have special scabbards too?" He pat the boy on the head gently. "You have to find that son. You are not a hero of justice. You are a sword of justice, but you are still human which makes things more complicated. You can't be swung all the time at every unfair thing within your reach and sight, and you can't simply just let yourself be wielded by anyone that asks for your aid, otherwise you'll chip and rust yourself with blood until you're nothing but a shattered mess of what you once were, or become a cursed blade that lashes out at everything and prevent people from coming near you. You need to reign yourself in order to prevent this from happening. I've been trying to do this by teaching you self control, but in case that fails you may have to find someone or something to do it for you. It can be a friend, a loved one… anything really so long as it enables you to control yourself. Does that make sense?"

Shirou was silent as he analyzed Kiritsugu's analogy. It was surprisingly accurate when applied to the boy. Japan has multiple legends about swords in its rather colorful history, both holy and demonic. Some stories actually had legendary weapons becoming tainted and bloodthirsty which enforced the comparison even more. "Yeah… it does…" Shirou nodded slowly, though Kiritsugu guessed that it was because the boy didn't want to agree with it completely. "I need to take care of myself. I'm a sword… but I also use swords… I can break differently from other people…" He looked at his hands as if seeing something else.

"…My body is made of blades…"

The father suppressed the shiver going down his spine, only nodding in response. "Yeah. It is. Just make sure you take care of them all…" He smiled sadly down at his son. "You'll need them in good condition soon enough…"

o. o. o.

It had been several months since that day and a lot had happened. Shirou's magic training had progressed significantly. His projections were stronger and he was beginning to produce more common non-weapon items from memory now, albeit very basic ones. His alteration skills had improved slightly, though once more his strength was primarily in projection and reinforcement. He could make some very basic bounded fields if needed to keep normal humans away, and his hypnotism skills had gotten to the point where if truly needed he could managed to manipulate a normal human to forget certain events or do things for him, not that he had any test subjects other than Taiga who he simply just made eat like a normal human being for once or take him to see a movie once in a while…

But the biggest thing that happened by far was… Kiritsugu's death.

It should have been obvious to Shirou that something was wrong. The man had been more lethargic. He had been coughing more, and after a point he had simply given up trying to hide the blood that was coming out of his mouth…

Shirou assumed that all the man needed was to be exposed to his projections of Avalon enough to get better. He should have known otherwise…

But despite all this, Kiritsugu's last few hours on earth were relatively calm. He didn't cough. He wasn't in pain. He didn't lament. All he did was sit in his favorite spot on his porch with his son, drink tea, look at the beautiful summer moon, and talk to his son. They talked about several things. Dreams. Magic. Taiga. Ilya and Iri. Adventures. After a while Shirou was simply talking constantly, thinking that his father was listening to him but just too tired to talk but with that relaxed smile on his face that the man had given him when they both first entered the home and made Shirou believe he had a family again. It wasn't until later that Shirou discovered why Kiritsugu didn't talk anymore.

The man's funeral had been postponed for some reason. According to his will, his body was to be taken to a special location in Europe for some kind of preparation that he specifically wanted before being cremated, as how most natives treated their bodies, and returned to Japan to be buried at the Ryuudou Temple.

Aside from Shirou and a good portion of Taiga's family, only Waver and Sirius were there for the funeral.

"_It's not yer fault lad…"_ Sirius had told the boy when Shirou brought up the idea that he could have done more to help Kiritsugu. _"He knew his time was comin' b'fore he even adopted ya. Ah can tell ya right now that he lasted tis long only cause of ya… and he went out with a happy smile on his face, the bastard. Tat's a lot more than he ever could have hoped for considerin' what his life was like…"_

"_Shirou…"_ Waver knelt down in front of the boy after Sirius' words of comfort. _"Kiritsugu asked us to help continue with your magic education after he died… but we can't be here all the time. In order for us to properly train you even a fair amount, you would have to come with us to England during your major school breaks, the spring, winter and summer ones, and self teach yourself when you are here. That won't be much of an issue since we had already set up additional bounded fields around your home to increase your privacy to that of a workshop, and double that for the shed which technically is your workshop, however we wanted to ask your permission to do so first. Sirius and I are fairly busy people, so we need to plan all of this beforehand in order to make things work…" _There was a brief pause. _"Kiritsugu may not have told you this, but there is going to be a very dangerous event held in Fuyuki in a several years that he initially didn't want or expect you to be in, but things have come to light that have changed everything. All three of us have been training you to be prepared for it when the time comes since you, of all people are the best hope we have at resolving this said event without things getting out of control." _He took out a long wooden box and gave it to the boy. _"Kiritsugu and us had put several things in here that would prepare you when the time comes. The box will not open until the appropriate time, and trust me it will let you know when that is. The letters in here are enchanted so that only the person who it is intended for can open and read it. Keep this in your home where no one will find it…"_

That had been over a month ago. The sword element magus had already come and gone to England for his first session of training since Kiritsugu's body had returned during the middle of his summer break, and even though he was exhausted mentally and physically he could tell that Sirius and Waver had gone easy on him due to him still getting used to his father's death. It had annoyed him somewhat that he couldn't check out the clock tower since his existence was supposed to be somewhat of a secret, but he couldn't complain much since his lessons were already more than enough for him to handle and his homework for his next trip to England was just as tedious, which unfortunately included English which he wasn't that good at in the first place.

… It didn't help that Sirius was the first one to try to kick start his lessons in that particular language… that is until Waver finally got wind of what was happening and rescued the very confused and frustrated boy.

At the moment though, Shirou was simply sitting on a park bench near his home and staring off into the sky. School would start in a few days and Taiga had been smothering him since he got back home. He wanted some time to himself…

"You're back…" Mumbled a small voice to his side, snapping him out of his absent minded state. He turned to see the familiar purple haired girl looking at him almost curiously from the side.

"Oh um… you're… Sakura right?" Shirou asked, trying to remember the girl's name. He had not seen her since that day he walked her back to her home. "How are you doing?"

The girl didn't respond at first as she looked at the boy with defeated eyes, as if looking for something. "Thank you." She said softly.

"Huh?" The boy blinked.

"For back then." She continued. "The bullies… I never thanked you before…"

"Oh…" He laughed nervously before scratching his head. "Yeah. Thanks."

"I would like to thank your father too…" She continued, stopping as Shirou froze before sagging in his seat. "Something wrong?"

"Dad died a few months ago." The boy said in a sad tone.

The girl's eyes flashed for a moment. Whether it was pity or mirth no one could tell. "I'm sorry for your loss…" She muttered. "He was a very scary person though…"

"That was the only time he was like that." Shirou argued. "Normally he was very kind. He was pretty sloppy at times and he couldn't cook for the life of him… but he was a good dad. The best…" He shook his head before smiling sheepishly. "Sorry. I bet you don't want to hear about my problems after we just met again."

"What will you do now?" The girl asked, a tinge of curiosity in her otherwise empty voice. "Did you move?"

"Ah… no." Shirou shook his head. "Dad left me the house." He pointed to the general direction he lived in. "My neighbors are scary and weird, but they're nice and are taking care of everything else for me. I'm starting secondary school soon so I'm thinking of trying to get a job or do something to earn money soon to pay for food and not be a burden on everyone. I'm pretty good at repairing things even though I'm young." He puffed out his chest proudly. "I fixed old man Fujimura's motorcycle a few days ago and he paid me a lot of money. The good thing is that he keeps on breaking it since a lot of the parts are old from what I've heard so I won't have to worry about paying for food…" He looks to the side slightly annoyed. "… So long as Fuji-nee doesn't come over for dinner every night…"

"He left you his home?" The girl tilted her head to the side curiously. "What about your mom?"

Shirou calmed down a bit. "I'm adopted." He said bluntly. "My real parents died in the city fire a few years ago and dad never married."

"So you're all alone now…" She said aloud, not really to anyone in particular.

"Yeah…" The boy sighed. "But dad and Sirius-jiji and Waver-Nii said that I'm stubborn as heck so I should be able to take care of myself just fine. If I can't… well then Sirius-jiji and Waver-nii said that if that happened they would come over here, beat up whoever's giving me a hard time… then beat me up for taking up their time…" He laughed nervously. Almost all of his recent training in England had been practical application of his magic to fighting… and he had to learn quickly if he wanted to live a good portion of the time. He could confidently say that he could at least fight with a sword now… though he had to alter it to fit his body size… and he had no real style… and for the most part all he was really good at the moment was running away and dodging with a sword in hand…

Shirou loved Sirius like a crazy drunk fun grandfather… but the problem was that Sirius taught like a crazy drunk fun demonic grandfather that couldn't hold back.

The girl looked at him for a little while longer before turning to walk away. "I have to go back home… would it be ok if we meet here again?" She asked.

"Sure." The boy shrugged. "I'll probably rest here on the weekends after food shopping if I don't have anything else to do."

She nodded. "I will see you next weekend… sempai."

"Sempai?" Shirou tilted his head to the side. "My name is Shirou Emiya. You can just call me that Sakura. You're younger than me?"

She shook her head. "I have another year to do before I go to secondary school. You are my senior. I have to respect that." With that she walked away back up the hill to where her home was.

"Weird girl." Shirou mused. "Better not tell Fuji-nee about her. Knowing her she'd probably just do something weirder…"

o. o. o.

Sakura entered her home quietly… but not unnoticed.

"I see you've been going out occasionally during the weekends." Zouken Matou mused curiously. "Have you made a friend?"

Sakura knew better than to lie to the seemingly frail old man. "Yes. His name is Shirou Emiya and he is my sempai by a year." She answered bluntly.

The old man's eyebrows raised in surprise for a moment before they lowered again. "Emiya? Is his father's name by chance Kiritsugu Emiya?"

"If it is it doesn't matter." She replied somewhat nervous. If her new friend had her grandfather's interest already… "His father recently died."

Zouken once more expressed a sign of shock and amusement, which disturbed the girl even more despite the fact that she did not show it. "I see…" He mused, almost disappointed. "A shame. Poor boy." He shook his head in seemingly pity before walking away, his soft steps unheard and his cane barely making any more sound than that. "You can play with the boy so long as you do not use it as an excuse to skip your training…"

The girl remained quiet for several seconds, not truly believing that the old demon had given her so much leniency. "Th-thank you." She quickly bowed before going straight to her room, not believing her fortune or this turn of events…

"Shirou… Emiya…" Zouken mused as he went down the secret staircase down to where he kept his familiars. "… If he truly is the heir to Kiritsugu… then he would no doubt be a contender for the next war…" The old man knew that the next Heaven's Feel ritual would occur far sooner than anticipated. His study of Sakura's body with the implanted shards of the previous grail and his knowledge of the structure of the ritual itself had told him this much. "… It would be wise to keep an eye on him for the time being…" He smirked. "This war should prove to be more interesting than I had originally anticipated… and I may have come to possess a new key piece sooner than expected…"

o. o. o.

A/N:

FINALLY! Ugh. This chapter was such a pain to write for some reason.

So just to give everyone a heads up, I edited Chapter 2 so that Sakura doesn't know of Shirou yet so this chapter doesn't conflict with it. I came up with this idea while writing the chapter and it fit so well that I just had to do it.

Just to let everyone know, some other changes that I made to cannon are as follows:

Waver's age: I made him 3 years younger because in general, he acted and looked too much like a kid in fate zero to be 19 years old.

Shirou's recovery and dealing with his implanted crest: Normally it has a huge toll on whoever its implanted on, especially if it's a non blood relative, but yeah, Avalon is a great excuse.

So for people going "Noo! Not Sakura romance!"… Learn to read and write a plot. I'm just establishing a relationship between them. Just because a boy and a girl meet in a story first doesn't mean that they'll automatically have sex later on. Shirou'll be meeting Rin in the next chapter anyways. I'll be adding a few more training scenes too in order to make things more interesting.

All I know at the moment is that 1: Shirou isn't going to be paired with Bazett or Taiga (for me the romance age limitation range is as follows: it's a max age difference of 3 years when the characters are in their mid to late teens, 5-6 max when in their 20-30 range, with the only exception to the rule being when you go for refuge in audacity with one of the characters in the pairing being SO bloody old… yet still amazingly hot… that it really just doesn't matter at that point).

2. If I do get decide on a pairing for him, it will be semi-harem, but said romance will not the main focus of the story. It's not my style to focus on emotionally romantic parts, and I frankly feel that I would suck at it. Not to mention that I prefer to focus my writing on the epic and funny side of things.

And 3. NO LEMONS! I don't do them. Period. I hint at them. I give ideas. I make jokes about them. I will even mention that characters x and y had sex in the story. But I NEVER write lemons. If you are disappointed, then you obviously haven't been on the internet for a long time and don't know where to look.

So that's all I got for now. First episode of Carnival Phantasm is coming out tomorrow and I'm bouncing up and down to finally get some more animated type moon into my system.

So Review! Worship the Log! Beware of Neko-Arc! And Review again!


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6: Acquaintances

I do not own Fate/Stay Night and stuffs:

… for those of you who are confused by the… slight change in mood… I blame carnival phantasm…

o. o. o.

Shirou stood in front of Taiga, both in kendo gear and both in the proper fighting stances. The sight was fairly amusing for spectators due to the sheer height difference between the two.

"I hate you Fuji-nee." Shirou's voice stated in a dead tone. If one was familiar with the boy, they would be able to tell that his eyebrow was twitching rampantly. "I hate you very… very much right now."

o. o. o.

Several hours earlier:

Shirou was excited as he walked to secondary (middle) school. This was where your future truly began to take shape in the Japanese school system. He knew that he had to sit through several boring speeches and get walked around a lot before any of the teaching started, but he was fine with that. It was nice to have an even paced education for once after spending a month in England learning magic by the seat of his pants at breakneck speeds.

The morning for him had started off fairly simple. Wake up early. Do some warmup exercises. Practice some projection magic. Make breakfast. Hypnotize Fuji-nee to help him with the dishes after she bummed breakfast off of him if she isn't late for school. Wonder what she meant by her having a surprise for him that day. Then go to school himself. Other than the demon teen's eager hint of a surprise it was a perfectly normal morning.

Arriving at the school grounds, the boy looked around. The main larger building on the compound was the high school section. There were a lot of small buildings and fields around it where most of the sports clubs gathered and held meetings. Turning a bit, Shirou spotted the second largest building in the area which was where the middle school was. Fuyuki City was fairly standard in that the local middle and high school were set up in the same compound. Students could transfer to private high schools if their grades and credentials were good enough, but otherwise they would get a simple pass to the high school here so long as they weren't flat out failing.

Looking around the boy saw that there were many kids his age or older walking in with their parents for support. The reminder that he had lost his parent figures in his life not once but twice did flood the boy with jealousy for several moments, however he quickly regained himself. There was no point in pitying himself now. He still had family even if they weren't related to him by blood, and if he started dwelling in the past now he might as well rip off the thaumaturgical crest on his chest and give up the name Emiya right now. Now that he looked carefully, he could see several students that came without their parents too.

Feeling more confident about himself, Shirou slapped himself in the face to wake himself up and walked to where the youngest students were heading for their orientation…

o. o. o.

Rin was on edge.

The apprentice magus had long attempted to emulate her father, noble and faultless, always trying her hardest to make things seem as elegant as possible.

…It would explain why their magecraft was based around using jewelry to some extent despite the financial ramifications...

However Rin was still not only a young and rather inexperienced magus, but a girl with a rather short fuse and unfortunately many buttons. She hated her guardian Kirei Kotomine, she had a large competitive streak, she despised being looked down upon, she didn't like to admit defeat or being shown up, and she didn't like surprises.

So when she walked to the middle school and detected the presence of another magus… she was not only surprised, but pissed as well. The unidentified person had used a fair amount magic recently, but wasn't using any now if the residual traces of prana in the air were anything to go by.

Why was there another magus in her family territory? The only ones that should be in Fuyuki city are herself, those in the Matou family and Kirei. Kirei's at the church and other than Zouken and… her… the Matou's bloodline was magic free by this generation, and… she… wasn't in secondary school yet.

Gritting her teeth, Rin walked with a hand in her pocket, fingering the jewel in it. She was still studying mostly magic theory and basic spells. The only offensive magic she really had under her belt was the ability to release the stored prana in her family jewels and aim them like cannons… but that was a last resort. Even though she was an 'average one', a person who had an affinity to all 5 basic elements, she had yet to actually learn to use any of them as a decent weapon yet. She had been practicing her Glandir curse recently, but it took too long for her to fire them off to be useful in battle.

She paused. What was she doing? Unless the intruding magi was a complete idiot or didn't know about the association, he would be keeping his magic to a nonexistent level during school. As such whoever it is wouldn't be doing anything should she corner him. She grinned confidently. All she had to do was corner the rat and threaten him with her jewel to tell her everything when no one is around. That shouldn't be too hard even if the trail would go cold after time…

Flicking her hair back confidently, the Tohsaka walked to school, ready to begin the game of cat and mouse… eager to see how she would come out victorious…

o. o. o.

Shirou was bored. He was in the middle of what seemed to be 6th speech of the morning inside the gymnasium with the rest of his classmates and it almost made him think that studying theory with Waver-nii was less boring than this… almost. Looking around desperate to pass the time in any way possible, the red head saw that many other kids his age were feeling the same way he was judging from how many had their eyes closed, their heads hunched over, or were whispering to their neighbors.

Losing his patience, Shirou decided to do something he frequently did these days to pass the time… he did structural grasping on virtually everything inorganic he saw. While technically magic, the amount it used was so miniscule and the fact that there was no physical effects of doing so gave him the excuse to use it whenever he wanted without getting caught so long as no one magically tuned was paying any specific attention to him in particular. Plus since he was almost in the middle of the crowd of roughly 300 students, it would serve as practice for increasing the distance at which he could analyze things.

… The wooden floor under him was made of 748 planks of wood, 31 of them were rotten and needed to be replaced. The chairs around him that were being used… a good 2-3 dozen were on their last legs, no pun intended. The pen on the chest of the old teacher to his right was about halfway full with ink. The lights on the ceiling were going strong, but they hadn't been changed in about 4 years… about 2 of them would fail in a few weeks. One of the basketball hoops had been replaced, but several of the screws were missing. A teacher was wearing a suit completely made of silk. How did he afford that on his salary? The microphone that the teachers had been using for their endless speeches… was a bit far from where he was but he could still determine its rather basic structure and design. The gameboys that several of the kids around him had whipped out were all identical sans the game they were playing and how much juice they had left. 2 of them were so drained that the boys playing them would be hard pressed to get to the save point before the thing died on them. Technically he didn't know what each and every part of the circuit boards and chips did, but he could at least identify their general purpose and what they were made of. He didn't really see the appeal to those things anyway. All they did in his mind was waste time when you could be doing something more productive… though he assumed that it was simply because none of the kids playing them had the ability to make swords pop out of thin air. There were 1 or 2 cell phones out as well, but despite their different outer appearance, their internal functions were all pretty much identical. He heard that the new expensive ones had screens on them, but he had yet to lay eyes on one. He considered getting one in a few years when they became more accessible and affordable. He could see the use in a convenient device like that…

He sighed as he stopped looking into the structure of objects. There wasn't much in the room right now that he didn't see at one point or another so far. He could try to analyze the building itself, something that Sirius-jiji had suggested him to try to do once, but something on that scale was too much to try to do right now. Accidentally overloading himself was most likely a stupid thing to do on the first day of school…

Ah. He wished Sakura was here. The girl wasn't much of a conversationalist, but she at least listened to his moaning and gave him her honest opinion on things. It was sad that the girl who was smaller than him was more mature than Fuji-nee. Still, she was one of his few friends. Due to his temper and the fact that he kept on getting into fights with bullies, kids his age tended to prefer to stay away from Shirou…

… Why is that girl looking in his general direction like she's hunting something?

"Classes 1-A, B and C please rise." Called the principal, snapping the boy out of his curiosity. "Tomorrow you will be run through your classes, but today we shall guide you through the school and expose you to the many clubs that we have here. You will be given a brief introduction to many of them by their current presidents and representatives…"

"Finally." The magus apprentice groaned as he stood up and stretched, feeling his legs again. "I thought they would never stop…" He followed the rest of his classmates as they walked to the teacher waving them closer. Apparently they were going outside…

o. o. o.

Rin grit her teeth. Damn! She didn't know what frustrated her more! The fact that the idiot magic user was in her age group, the fact that the idiot magic user had actually been USING magic during the speeches, or the fact that he had managed to stop using his magic and everyone started to move before she could pinpoint him! It's like the bastard was mocking her, and she already had her fill of being looked down upon when she had to spend time around Kirei!

The three classes had just finished their interview with the track and field, baseball, basketball, and soccer clubs all at once and were now going to check out the martial arts clubs in another part of the school. She was sure that the source was coming from the class C group but she couldn't tell who…

At least now she knew that the idiot magus was someone her age. That evened the playing field for her since they both had the same experience, or should at least… which put things in her favor since she had her family crest and all 5 elements on her side. Most noble families with long backgrounds tended to stay away from Japan so whoever it was, odds weren't likely that they had more up their sleeves and foundation than she did.

The classes had entered the dojo when one of the boys from the suspected class stopped in his tracks and paled dramatically. "Oh no…" He whispered in fear.

"Shiiiirrrooooouuuuu-kuuun!" Shouted an upperclassman girl from the other side of the room dressed in kendo attire as she charged through the group and tackle hugged the screaming boy, confusing the heck out of everyone there.

"Fujimura!" Shouted one of the teachers in irritation. "I don't know what sort of relationship you have with that young man, but I demand that you let go of him this instant!"

"Why?" The red headed boy shouted, stuck in a hug so strong that might as well have been a headlock. "Why does this have to happen on the first day?"

"Because I love you silly!" The girl grinned and began to relinquish her hold on the boy… only to grab his arm in a vice like grip and drag him to the other side of the room. "Also because I want you to help demonstrate some kendo as my special helping buddy to sponsor my club since none of my teammates want to spar with me!"

"Why the hell do I not have a say in it either?" The boy shouted defiantly as he tried with all his might to escape without results.

"Because you don't!" The upperclassman smiled sweetly, causing everyone in the room to look at her funny. "You're already better than most of the freshman in the high school AND you don't run away screaming from me when I get serious!"

"You're kidding me." Pointed to one of the two other males in kendo robes and pointed to the short boy. "That shrimp is actually better than the guys 3 years older than him? The one you bragged would be an unstoppable force of nature by the time he was a freshman?"

"Yep!" Taiga smiled happily. "He still sucks, but his reaction times and raw talent are amazing!" She paused and looked around confused. "Now where did I put that armor for you…?"

"Your compliments aside, I am not kidding when I'm telling you that your bokken is cursed!" The boy once again attempted to negotiate himself out of danger. "That thing won't stop until it draws blood!"

Rin noticed out of the corner of her eye the other 2 members of the high school kendo club were nodding shakily.

"Fujimura-san…" The guiding teacher feebly attempted to get the girl's attention. "We don't have a lot of time here and the other clubs want to do their part too. Plus I'm fairly certain that we aren't allowed to let younger students demonstrate so early…"

"Shirou's an exception. He has a dojo in his home and I've trained him a bit for the past couple of years." She smiled. "Don't worry. If anything happens to him my folks will take care of things. Dad and gramps love this kid and he's my neighbor anyways so I can take care of him if I get a bit too rough…"

Rin curiously wondered why all the adults and upperclassmen froze at the girl's mention of her father. Maybe she was related to one of the major financial donators to the school since at his mention none of the other teachers or students stopped the girl from kidnapping her classmate…

Taiga sighed as she dragged the boy to the dressing rooms. "Come on runt, the faster you get changed the faster we can spar, the faster it's over and the faster I can get more potentials to join the club."

"Why meeee?" The boy, Shirou wept comically before both of them disappeared behind the door.

"Sensei?" Rin raised her hand. "You do know that she just went into the boy's dressing room right?"

"Damn it Fuji-nee I know how to change myself!" Shirou's voice roared defiantly from the other room. It sounded less like they were changing and more like they decided to start their match early inside the room.

"We'll just assume that it will all turn for the best when it comes to Taiga-san's antics…" The keno club's teacher sighed. "Let's just introduce and get as many of the other clubs out of the way before Fujimura-san returns…"

Rin's eyes narrowed disapprovingly. This was supposed to be higher education, but the teachers apparently still allow the students to act as they pleased… no, there was no time to dwell on that, she had an enemy to track down.

Rin didn't care much for the martial arts clubs that explained what they did. She was already proficient in Chinese kempo due to her family tradition, no thanks to Kirei. If she was able to reinforce her body a small amount or grow up a few more years, she could easily beat the elder teens in front of her with ease. She already had good technique, her body just didn't have the needed force yet.

Once more she was snapped out of her search by the insane senior who literally kicked open the door and dragged out Shirou who was now in full armor and holding a bokken much like the girl's… only…

"… You… have to be kidding…" Rin muttered to herself as she got a good look at the girl's weapon and suppressed a shiver. The weapon, despite all logic, really WAS cursed. It was possessed by some kind of feral spirit that screamed of blood thirst. Hell, it was hungry enough that the people in the room who had no idea what magic was were shivering due to the thing's presence. "… Please don't tell me THAT'S what I've been detecting all day long…" She pleaded under her breath as she watched the two demonstrators get into position… "Poor idiot doesn't have a chance…"

o. o. o.

"I hate you Fuji-nee…" Shirou growled. "I hate you very… very much right now."

"I love you too Shirou-kun." Taiga replied sweetly from inside her helmet, completely contradicting the killing intent she was giving off at the moment.

Shirou breathed out slowly to calm himself down. This was no big deal. He had been through worse when he sparred against Sirius-jiji and that puppet mannequin familiar he kept around. He never managed to land a hit on either one of them, with or without magic, but he did get a hell of a lot better at reading opponent's movements and dodging things that would cause him pain…

… The bokken he was eyeing at the moment was something that had a long history of the latter…

"Hup!" Taiga grunted as she rapidly approached the young boy with her sword already coming down to strike his head. She was exceptionally fast and skilled despite her personality, already having a 3rd degree black belt in the sport… but she was holding back and Shirou was determined to at least make his sister figure work for his misery…

Crack!

The boy's sword was blocked by Taiga's demonic one. Few people had seen it happen, but the boy had just barely avoided her swing and had counterattacked at the earliest possible moment. Unfortunately it wasn't enough to get past the girl's defenses…

She was stronger than he was. She was faster than he was. She was more skilled than he was…

Shirou had tried to address this while running for his life in England, but as hard as he attempted he couldn't pull anything off. He acknowledged that he was a sword and should be used like one… but at the same time he knew that odds were likely that he would constantly be at a disadvantage in a fight against another magus or some sort of elemental. He had to be trickier and more flexible with his fighting and his magic to live longer…

He grit his teeth as he barely dodged and deflected Taiga's relentless assault while attempting to counter attack whenever he actually saw an opening. Honestly how could no one see that evil aura surrounding the girl and the weapon! It was one thing to play ignorant but this was ridiculous! It didn't help that his body felt too restricted using the single sword to block and attack all the time.

Maybe if he used 2 swords instead of one in order to improve his flexibility… though he heard that using 2 at once was really hard…

WHAM!

Having been distracted by his musings, Shirou missed the fast swing from his bottom right that hit him in the ribs and sent him flying a good few feet before he hit the ground in a painful heap. The air from his lungs was gone as he tried to adapt to the lightning that coursed through his body originating from where he was hit. "Gah!" The boy hissed. "Damn it! This is why I hate sparring you!"

"Whoa…" One of the other club members blinked. "The kid really is good. I didn't think he'd be able to block her attacks, let alone manage to counter her…"

"Come on Shirou-kun…" Taiga laughed evilly with her bokken ready and red eyes glowing from behind the helmet. "We haven't done a full set of points yet…"

"Do you think we should tell her that she's actually scaring away anyone that would want to join the kendo club?" Asked an archery club member.

"Don't worry." Whispered the other kendo club student. "She's already graduated. Her college classes don't start for another few days so she decided to come help us out warm up and teach the upperclassmen a few things before she goes…"

"I'm going to miss the rest of school for the day if this keeps up…" Shirou moaned as he stood up again. "Maybe even the whole week…" He shook his head. "There's only 1 think I can do to snap her out of it. The only thing that can make her overwhelm that cursed weapon…"

"Come ooon…" Taiga crooned. "Let's hurry up…"

"Fuji-nee. I have to go now." Shirou sighed as he took off his helmet, worrying many of the teachers and students there to no end. "If we keep this up I'll be in trouble." His eyes narrowed. "If you get me in trouble Fuji-nee… I won't cook dinner for you any more…"

The reaction was instantaneous. Within a second, the downright murderous Taiga had dropped her weapon of death and was now wrapped around the stiff boy's waist and clearly crying her eyes out despite the helmet preventing anyone from seeing it. "Shiiiirrrrooouuuu-kuuun! Don't be meeeeaaaaan! I'm sorrrryyyy! Please don't leave me alone without anything to eat!"

Everyone else in the room either facefaulted or sweatdropped, clearly caught completely off guard by this turn of events.

Many students and teachers would without a doubt claim that this was the most interesting and bizarre first day of school ever…

o. o. o.

"Honestly…" Rin shook her head as she navigated herself around the massive crowd of students to exit the school grounds. "It was only a minor cursed sword. I got myself wound up over nothing…" She was both relieved and let down by this turn of events. On the one hand it meant that she wouldn't have to deal with any annoying new circumstances or rivals in her family's territory. On the other she wouldn't mind having a rival or at least someone her age… other than her… to talk to about magic. The only person period that she did have to talk to about magic was Kirei… and the fake priest was someone she didn't like talking to period.

"Who am I kidding?" She laughed to herself. Despite her age she knew how well magi got along with one another. Plus it didn't help that she was a prodigy with all elements and a fairly large magic crest. If she encountered any random magus her age, she'd probably leave them speechless and jealous of her talent. Then she'd have to fight them off and probably win due to her overwhelming advantage.

Rin was so busy mentally praising herself that she wasn't paying attention to where she was going… and hence she ran into several girls that were a few years older than her. The resulting crash caused them all to fall onto the ground and drop many of the things they were carrying…

… Including Rin's magically charged jewel…

"Ow!" The tallest of them hissed. "What the heck was that for?"

"It's some stupid freshman." Grunted a fat one.

"Idiot probably got lost." Grumbled the third, who looked like she had far too much makeup on for a girl her age.

"Tch…" Rin clicked her teeth, mentally berating herself for being so careless.

"Oi oi! What's with the silent treatment?" The tallest glared at the Tohsaka. "You're supposed to beg your sempai for forgiveness when you screw up like this. Go on. Bow down and say you're sorry."

"Poor shrimp is probably scared stiff to move." Snorted the fat one as she began to pick her stuff up before pausing and seeing something among the mess. "Hey… what's this?" She bent over to pick up the jewel.

Rin's face paled. "That's mine! Don't touch it!"

"My my… what's a midget like you doing with a treasure like this?" The makeup wearer crooned as she gazed upon the blue sapphire and took it from her friend curiously. "You must be a spoiled little princess if your parents let you walk around with this…"

The Tohsaka grit her teeth. Her father was dead and her mother was delusional after some freak tried to strangle her and she went insane due to the lack of oxygen the same day. "Give it back…" She growled. It wasn't a matter of the jewel being a part of her magecraft anymore. It was now a matter of family pride. There were too many people around to do magecraft. She'd have to think of something else. In the mean time… she huffed and crossed her arms. "It doesn't suit such low born fools like yourselves."

The three girls growled and slowly ganged up on the smaller one. Before they could do or say anything though…

"I saw the whole thing. It really was an accident and you should really give her back her jewel." The red headed boy from before was standing to the side and staring at them without much care.

"Huh. If it isn't another new brat." The fat one moaned. "Are you here to protect your girlfriend or play the hero?"

"I don't know her and I'm not trying to be a hero. I'm more of a sword." The boy corrected the elder girl, getting strange looks from the 4 females. "I'm just doing the right thing. The sapphire is hers and you should give it back."

"Or else what?" The makeup wearer struck a defiant pose. "What are you going to do? Tell your parents on us? My daddy is rich so your parents will just back down if they complain to us. Or maybe you're going to beat me up for it." She smirked as her two other friends stepped up, using their height and numbers to be more intimidating… which if they were paying any attention wasn't working at all. "Go ahead. Try it."

"My parents are dead I don't like to fight girls." Shirou stated calmly, not reacting to the momentary flinch that the girls gave him for plainly saying those two things in the same sentence as if he was talking about the weather. "But that doesn't mean I can't do anything." He shrugged, turned around and cupped his hands around his mouth. "Fuji-nee! I need your help with something!"

"You have got to be kidding me." Rin deadpanned as she spied the familiar figure of the psychotic cursed kendo fighter barreling her way to the group, shoving away anyone unfortunate to be in her way .

"Shirou! What is it! Do you need something! Do we have to go shopping for more food! Have you finally forgiven me? Please say it's the last one cause I really want to eat your food still!" The childish teen skidded to a halt in front of the boy with puppydog eyes, just begging to be ordered around to appease her master.

"T-that's the Tiger of Fuyuki!" Stammered the tallest of the 3 bullying girls, taking a step back, clearly intimidated.

"Fuji-nee, those older girls have my classmate's jewel that she dropped by accident and they won't give it back to her." Shirou stated. "Can you please convince them to give it back since they'll listen to you?"

"He's lying." Grunted the fat one while still retreating. "He just wants to impress the shrimp…"

Taiga frowned and gained a few years in maturity. "I would consider that possibility… if Shirou here didn't idolize heroes and do things like this all the time." She held out her hand. "Fork it over. Now."

The makeup girl held her head high, clearly not willing to admit defeat. "No. We picked it off of the ground and you have no proof other than this shrimp's word that it's this kid's. You'd have to take it up to my daddy and convince him to make me give it up."

"Great." Rin grunted. "A spoiled daddy's girl." There were too many people around to use magic right now. She'd have to move everyone away before she could hypnotize them all to forget this mess and get her jewel back…

"What was that?" The brat shot at Rin who merely glared irritably in response.

"Hah…" Taiga moaned as she scratched the back of her head frustrated before suddenly donning a malevolent guise. "Look you little snot nosed brat…" She growled, her perky voice dropping several octaves to everyone's, but Shirou's, shock. "I know you're lying. My dad and granddad are yakuza bosses so I've seen your type before. Ya think you own the world just because you have a few more bucks than most people, but you cry shit stained tears and try to lie your way out the moment a bigger fish threatens to bite you… and you aren't doing a good job of covering yourself to begin with. Go ahead. Take us to your dad. I'll just drop my name and you'll see what happens. Hell, Shirou could get my folks to help him out with this since he's done them a few favors, but he's a very nice kid and tries to avoid getting other people involved if he can help it. He's being polite by asking you nicely and then getting me for help…" She grinned evilly and held out her hand again. "So once again… give. Back. The pretty little jewel."

Taiga Fujimura. Heiress of the Fuyuki city yakuza families. While she does distance herself as much as she can from her family's life and almost never shows its affects on her, there has been some influences on her base personality that most people only see hints of during kendo practice. She only whips out this side of her whenever she truly needs it or when those she cares about are in need of her aid... or when someone else that she doesn't like and deserves such treating is threatening her chances to have Shirou cook for her.

Very slowly and shakily, the terrified little girl reached out and relinquished her temporary prize, fearful beyond belief of the elder in front of her. The moment having done so, she bolted not bothering to pick up the remains of the stuff she had dropped when Rin accidentally ran into her in the first place, followed by her friends.

"… Impressive…" Rin grunted admittedly while looking to the side. While she didn't like relying on other's to get her out of problems, she admitted that it was relieving that she did not have to rely on her magic to get her jewel back. However she obviously would not admit this much like she would not admit that she was now extremely wary of the impish elder.

"Well then, that was easy!" Taiga grinned childishly, already abandoning her yakuza based demeanor and washing away any trace of its existence. She handed Shirou the jewel since he was closer. "Here ya go Shirou! Give it to your new girlfriend!" She laughed mischievously.

"She's not my girl…!" The boy was about to argue with his sister figure when his eyes opened dramatically upon skin contact with the jewel and stared at it in shock. "… No way…" He whispered in bewilderment before… sniffing the jewel.

Rin's eyes widened before narrowing considerably. It couldn't be…

"Um…" Taiga blinked, clearly left out of the loop. "I'm fairly certain you can't eat that Shirou…"

The red headed boy froze before warily looking at Rin… who in turn glared back at him… and slowly donning a smirk. "If you don't give it back to me Emiya-kun… I'd have to kill you." She stated in a confident and calm tone. "That jewel is very valuable to me after all…"

Taiga nodded frantically. "Yeah! I mean it's a bit out of place seeing how its only the rock, but you should know better than to get in the way of a girl and her jewelry."

Rin mentally sighed. The boy in front of her was a magus, or at least a psychic. His reaction to her jewel screamed of prana sensitivity and the look he gave her likewise told her that he knew what she was. Not only that, but his lack of control of his emotions also told the girl that he was at most an apprentice that had no idea how to deal with other magi. The woman had no idea what the hell was going on and was thinking that the boy's reactions were due to something else... yet the seriousness of the situation was so perfectly lost on the elder woman that it was almost comical. The look on the boy's face though… was. "Well?" She asked in a haughty tone. "I'm waiting…"

Shirou gulped before laughing nervously. "Y-yeah… please don't kill me…" He pleaded as he slowly returned the jewel to the girl's hands. "I-I was just trying to help…"

"Aw isn't this so cute!" Taiga swooned, clearly mistaking Shirou's absolute fear of getting murdered by another magus for being shy of girls. "He's so shy around you!" She straightened up and pounded one hand into the other. "I know! We should invite her to dinner to celebrate becoming friends!"

"… What?" Both Rin and Shirou asked/squeaked in disbelief.

"Yeah!" Taiga nodded with finality. "Shirou has trouble making friends his age cause he keeps on getting himself into trouble fighting bullies. This is a great way for him to start off his middle school years! With a girl as a friend!"

"I take back what I said earlier." The red headed magus wept. "Please kill me. Right now."

It took a moment for the Tohsaka to regain her composure herself before crossing her arms and smirking. "No… no I want to see where this goes. It will amuse me." She ignored the boy's visual progression into despair and turned to Taiga. "I'd love to come for dinner. Can you please tell me where Emiya-kun lives so that I can come later? I have to tell my guardian where I'm going tonight."

Taiga nodded, also ignoring Shirou's frantic gestures to deny the girl's request. "Sure!" She took out a pen and paper and began to write down instructions. "You know its really good that you're doing this." She sighed gently. "He really doesn't have any friends around his age and he's going through a rough time. His dad died a little over a month ago and all he's been doing lately is hanging around older family members in Europe. He only got back a week ago…"

Rin's eyes momentarily widened. "Europe? You mean like England?"

Taiga nodded. "Yeah. London in fact, though he's traveled to other parts of that country from what he's told me…" She sighed as she handed Rin the instructions. "Still… he needs someone like him to talk to. Big sister here can't be here all the time you know…"

"I really wished today was one of those times…" Shirou wept.

"Stop pouting you." The oblivious woman slapped the boy upside the head.

"Why was that the only thing you heard!" The boy cried and raged at the laughing Taiga, chasing her away. No doubt he wanted to get home as soon as possible to prepare for Rin's arrival.

The Tohsaka looked at the disappearing pair with an unreadable gaze. "His father recently died and he's been in England since then… huh…"

o. o. o.

"Oh?" Kirei mused curiously as Rin prepared to leave. "You are eating at another person's place tonight? But I had planned to make something special for your first day at secondary school…"

The girl shivered. Not because the priest was such a sketchy person… not completely at least. It was mainly because his idea of a "special meal" normally involved food so spicy and hot that it could literally set a person's mouth on fire. She had seen other adults attempt to eat his cooking before and they ended up either crying on the floor, drinking well over a quart of some form of fluid, or pass out due to the pain. "Sorry to disappoint you…" She started in a voice that clearly didn't believe it. "… But I happened to make some friends today and I was invited over tonight. It would be in poor taste to not show up when they no doubt have already made preparations for my arrival."

"I see." The unnerving man nodded in agreement. "Indeed it would be most unbecoming of you. Very well. I shall expect you back within a reasonable hour so we can continue your studies."

The girl nodded before heading out the door. Before she left though, she paused. "Hey Kirei… I know you've probably told me this before, but other than the Matou, there haven't any other magi in the area for years other than for the wars right?"

"Hm?" The man raised an eyebrow. "Well I may have missed one or two magi that have passed through the city by chance… but no there haven't been any other families residing here other than those 2 since the 3rd war. Why?"

Rin's response was crisp, casual, and well practiced. "Well, I was watching this upperclassman who graduated spar with a bokken earlier and it was definitely cursed. Everyone could tell that something was wrong with the thing. I was wondering if it was something left behind by some old family or along those lines."

Kirei looked at the girl with interest. "… A cursed bokken? No, that doesn't ring any bells though it is rather embarrassing that something of that nature managed to get past my watch and got into the hands of a civilian… let alone exists. You'll have to show me the weapon and its owner to make sure that its properly disposed of and no permanent effects are on the girl."

"How very generous of you." The girl snorted in a tone that clearly did not support that belief.

"It is my job. What kind of member of the church would I be if I didn't fulfill my duty to execute any abominations that reside in my district?" The man casually shrugged. "Now you best be off. It is just as rude to be late for a meeting than it is to not come at all you know…"

Rin glared at the priest before turning away without a word and closing the door behind her. She truly hated that man.

Inside the Tohsaka residence the hated man smirked briefly before turning back to the kitchen where all the ingredients he prepared lay. It was a shame. He had indeed gone through all this trouble to make a special dinner for her… though he guessed she ran because not many people did enjoy his particular taste in food…

The girl obviously didn't want him to see her friend or interfere with her personal life. That was fine. It was not his place to do so. He was not her father or her loved one. He was merely her guardian… and the one who killed her father… and staged the events that led to her mother's permanent mental damage…

Oh well… might as well get started. The ingredients will only go bad if left alone…

o. o. o.

"This is the place…" Rin mused as she walked up to the Japanese style home on the other side of the district from where she lived. "I'm surprised that he lives in such a big place…" She stopped a few feet away from the main gates and expanded her senses. Now that she was focusing on the area in front of her, she could definitely tell that there were several bounded fields here, all of which were extremely hard to point out even when she was paying attention. There didn't seem to be any that affected the physical world or performed any enhancement enchantments. They seemed to be fairly standard actually. She could sense a field that kept magical energy inside, she could feel another that prevented loud noises and drastic changes on the inside to be detected from the outside. A familiar barrier field, a spying barrier field… and one that she could barely determine as some kind of alarm. Really the place was less of a workshop and more of a home to some magus that really likes their privacy… if it weren't for the fact that all the fields were extremely difficult to detect. That was some high end magic considering the girl's skills were already exceptional for those several years older than her. She doubted the boy Shirou had made them all… which means she had another question to… ask… him after the upperclassman leaves…

The female magus shook her head before walking up to the front door and ringing the doorbell…

… And blinking in confusion as she found herself being carried at a high speed through the house she had just been standing in front of without having the slightest idea of how she got stuck in such a position.

"About time you got here!" Taiga shouted as she bolted with the girl under one deceivingly strong arm. "Shirou finished dinner over 10 minutes ago and I'm starving and we had to wait for you!"

"Huh?" The girl intelligently responded as she was set down in front of the table full of food.

"If you incur the wrath of Fuji-nee… you alone are responsible for the chaos that ensues…" Shirou stated in a matter of fact tone as he began to eat calmly. Despite his demeanor, Rin could tell that he was tensed up to move in a moment's notice… for good reason. "You better hurry. The food will be eaten by her long before it gets cold…"

Rin stared at the young magus completely lost until a blur made itself known in front of her face… followed by several more. Turing she instantly determined the source of the anomaly to by the eldest person in the room, eating at a literally inhuman rate. Her eyes widening in panic since she herself was rather hungry, Rin quickly grabbed her bowl and began to take as much food from the plates in front of her as she could, not really paying attention to what it was other then things she knew she would eat and things she wouldn't. The moment her plate was full she began to eat so that she would have a chance at having seconds. "Hm?" She blinked, pausing as the taste of the food registered to her. "It's… really good…" She commented more to herself than anyone else.

"Of course it's good!" Taiga replied between bites. "Shirou-kun's been cooking for years! He's better than most restaurants… cheaper too…"

"Keep praising my skill Fuji-nee and I'll have to be fair to everyone and start charging you." The boy commented as he ate at a moderate pace unlike the females in the room.

The next hour went by relatively calmly. Shirou never let down his guard and remained polite while Taiga literally became the life of the party, telling stories, embarrassing Shirou and asking the Tohsaka questions.

"… Now that I think about it…" Taiga mused curiously as Shirou was finishing up doing the dishes, "… I'm fairly certain that I remember my old man told me at one point or another not to mess with a couple of families in town… well there were always a few families that a person shouldn't mess with in any city, but he told me that there were two that were really put off limits for some reason." She crossed her arms and put on a thoughtful expression. "I think one of them was yours Rin-chan… and the other was… Mabishi… Maken… Makiri…" She shook her head. "Ah! What was it?"

"Hmm…" Rin hummed with her eyes wide open and made eye contact with the elder, allowing her prana to send some subliminal messages to her target's brain. She had enjoyed the woman's ability to make things lively, but she would be a nuisance from this point onward should she stay awake. "I don't know sempai. Maybe you should sleep on it."

"Yeah…" Taiga swayed in her spot before curling up like a cat. "A nap does sound like a good… idea…"

"For your sake…" A serious Shirou growled from the kitchen, causing Rin to turn to see the boy surrounded by two floating swords aimed right at her. "… She better have only been put under a sleeping hypnosis."

_Swords? _She mentally mused in surprise, not expecting a magus to have this sort of ability, let alone a boy her age. "Calm down. I'm not like some other violent idiots who try and kill any and every civilian around whenever something happens. It's obvious that she has no idea what the hell is going on or she would have reacted to my jewel like you did." She brushed her hair casually. "You should be more worried about yourself though. All alone on someone else's property practicing thaumaturgy. You should be grateful I didn't bring anyone else along for backup. I believe you should be thanking me for my generosity…"

The boy clicked his teeth in anger. "Generosity? You probably didn't bring anyone along because I would have told them about how you almost lost that sapphire pumped with a ton of prana to some upperclassmen, let alone the fact that you brought something THAT dangerous to school. Are you an idiot?"

Rin's eyebrow twitched. "I'm trying to be nice and you call me an idiot? I'll have you know that I am a prodigy with 40 natural magic circuits, a magic crest with 30 more AND I'm an average one!"

Shirou flinched. An average one was rare. Hell, a person with 2 affinities was rare, but having all 5 enabled the girl to have access to an extremely large portion of magic known to modern magi. Throw in the fact that the girl had 70 magic circuits and he had almost a literal bomb in girl's clothing in his home. Still, he wouldn't give up. He was stubborn like that, and it wasn't as if he didn't have anything to brag about either. "So what? I'm an incarnation!"

This time it was Rin's turn to flinch. An incarnation was a person who despite all odds had matching elements and origins. It was a person who had such an in tuned alignment to this single concept or substance that they were considered a living human representation of it. If the odds of being an average one was like winning the lottery, being an incarnation was like striking gold and oil in your averaged sized back yard. Part of the rarity had to do with the fact that most magi's elemental alignments were set to the standard 5 that made up an average one's elements. What an incarnation was fully capable of was still fairly unknown since they were so rare and each one had a different alignment, but it was generally accepted that whatever they were capable of specific fields and spells of thaumaturgy that was impossible for the rest of the world to achieve. "What? No way! You're lying!" She shouted, calling the boy's bluff.

The boy was about to respond before he saw Taiga roll around on the floor in a happy cat like daze, mumbling to herself. He sighed, the tenseness of the situation leaving him now that he knew that Rin didn't really do anything other to the eldest one there other than make her sleep. "How about we just call this a tie? You don't believe me, I have swords pointed at you… and I'm fairly certain that neither one of us wants to fight."

Rin glared at the boy for several moments before sighing and relaxing. "Sure. I just came over to see what the heck another magus my age was doing here in the city alone anyways…"

Shirou let out a breath of relief and dispelled his weapons. He had completely been faking things the entire time. He could only make 2 swords at once and he still was trying to figure out how to fire them. At the moment the best he could do was project them above his head and point them at his opponents… but he obviously wasn't going to tell the girl that. He shook his head and sat down, dispelling his projections in the process. "So what do you want to ask me?"

Rin mentally let out her own sigh of relief. The boy obviously was trained differently than she was. Aiming swords at her… even if they were projections the boy was easily trained to be more of a combat type of magus like the enforcers. She could probably last a while against him and she probably could outsmart him with her wider range of spells… but she wasn't trained for fighting. The odds of them fighting were in his favor. Suddenly the girl realized that going alone to this boy's home, most likely his workshop, alone was a very obviously dumb thing to do. Thankfully though, the owner was also alone and happened to be an honestly nice person… a rarity among modern magi. "What is your family doing here?" She started, keeping her cool demeanor constant. "You are obviously trespassing on my family territory. What are you studying here?"

Shirou shrugged. "Dad and I were just living here. He wanted a peaceful life and I was simply happy to be with him. The only magic we studied here was what I could do since dad simply wanted to relax."

"You keep on mentioning your dad." Rin commented. "What about your mom?"

"He's my adopted father." Shirou replied. "My real parents died in the Fuyuki fire and dad rescued me from it. He adopted me while I was in the hospital. After that he told me he was a magus and then I bugged him to teach me until he did."

"I see…" Rin mused. The boy did have a rather depressing story being orphaned twice, but she's heard of worse stories in the magic world. "So you don't have his magic crest then…"

"I do… sort of." The boy interrupted, lifting up his shirt and channeling prana into the 3 circuits there to the girl's shock. "A lot of things happened to the original crest. Dad only received a fifth of his dad's, and something happened to him so that only these 3 were left intact from that. Since there were so few circuits and because we knew some people, I was able to live and recover from the transplant." He dropped his shirt. "Other than that, I was naturally born with 27 high quality circuits."

"You… but… wh…" The girl stammered, not believing that this boy in front of her was lucky, stupid, and bizarre enough to actually implant a crest, regardless of its pathetic size, into himself when he wasn't a blood relative of the clan he received it from. She held her hand in front of her face and glared at the boy. "… You're not making this easy for me you know…"

"Says the random magus that I just met today and was invited to my home without my permission by the crazy civilian girl that I have no control over." The boy deadpanned.

"Hmmm…" The girl mused. "I guess you make a passable point there."

"Passable?" The boy raised an eyebrow.

"So why were you in England?" The girl continued, ingoring the boy's irritation. "Were there other clan members there? Are they members of the clock tower? What department are they from?"

The boy shook his head, backing away from Rin as she began to bombard him with questions about the clock tower. "Calm down! No, they're just some friends of dad's that occasionally come by to help me train! I went over to stay with them to continue my training since they can't come over that much! Yes they are a part of the clock tower. One's a somewhat respected member of the department of mineralogy and the other just graduated with honors from the department of spiritual evocation."

The girl's eyes shined as she realized that she just might have found her ticket into getting sponsored into the clock tower without having to deal with all the annoying tests and interviews that Asians normally had to deal with… even if her family had a relationship with the 2nd sorcerer himself. "Do you think you or one of them could get me sponsored?" She asked in a hopeful tone.

The boy shivered as he continued to retreat warily. "I don't know! You'd have to ask them! Please can I have some personal space now!"

The girl paused before she realized that she was crawling up to the boy like a hungry animal, no doubt lost in her desire to get as much information as she could about possible sponsors. Blushing and coughing, the girl distanced herself from the boy and straightened herself again. "Regardless… you are trespassing on my family's territory without permission. Even if you are being trained by members of the clock tower, you'd have to be punished…" She gave him a sly look. "That is unless you pay your dues by assisting me in some way…"

"Dad was right… girls grow up too quickly and women are evil…" Shirou grumbled under his breath. "What do you want?" He sighed.

The girl smiled sweetly. Shirou didn't buy it for a moment. "A study buddy." She said simply, causing the boy to fall flat on his face.

"What?" He gaped, not sure he heard the girl correctly.

Rin dropped the smile and crossed her arms. "You heard me." She sighed in her commanding tone again. "I need someone my own age to compare myself to and study with. It will help with my skills and research. There aren't any other magi in the area other than myself so it gets rather lonely, dull, and stale doing everything alone. I need a fresh and constant input other than myself around in order to progress my skills at a faster rate." She gave him a skeptical look. "I don't know why you would object to this. You'd benefit from this too since you're all alone here for the most part. Plus if I do report you to the clock tower or one of my contacts like I'm supposed to and you do turn out to be an incarnation, I'm fairly certain you'd get a sealing designation just because your condition is so rare…"

Shirou paled instantly. He knew Rin wasn't bluffing about the sealing designation. Waver had done some research when he was in England and had told him as much, which is how he knew he was an incarnation in the first place. As much as he hated to admit it… he was pretty much at this scheming girl's beck and call now…

"You really weren't joking about being an incarnation…" The girl mused as she analyzed Shirou's disposition… before grinning evilly. "I guess this means your life is in my hands now…"

"What else do you want?" The boy wept. "Make you lunch every day? Clean your clothes? Do your homework?"

The Tohsaka chuckled haughtily and waved her hand dismissively. "Of course not! That would be unbecoming of one such as myself! In fact, I would like you to do the opposite when we're in public. I don't want anyone to know that we know one another or that we are on such good terms…"

"Good terms?" Shirou repeated disbelieving what he had just heard.

"Of course!" She smiled pleasantly. "After all, what friend would I be to sell out another friend to be dissected?" She savored the boy's gulp of fear. "I have a feeling that this is going to be the beginning of a very long and beautiful relationship Emiya-kun…"

Shirou was… almost… willing to vocally disagree…

… And then Taiga got up to go to the bathroom…

o. o. o.

A/N:

Yeah… I was controlled by the psychotic bastard inside of me again… To be honest though, I'm surprised that the chain of events in this chapter progressed and meshed as smoothly as it did…

So… I'm thinking of putting a few chapters between here and the war. Character development and plot stuff mixed with training. Standard stuff. After that, let the battles begin!

I'm going to try and switch things up in this war as much as I possibly can in order to stretch it out. Let me say this though, all the servant's identities are not final, all the master's identities are not final, I will try to throw in new elements into the story to keep it going while at the same time keep things true to the natsuverse. This will be hard though as anyone who has watched the visual novel will know how much of the story is simply just characters going through their daily lives… and yet still makes the whole thing so damned bloody interesting and innovative.

So anyways. I'm trying to get to around 300 reviews by chapter 10. It's a reasonable goal if a few more people bother to review every now and then…

So Review! Worship the Log! Beware of Taiga's cursed Bokken! And Review again!


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7: Progress

I do not own Fate/Stay Night and stuffs:

o. o. o.

"You know… I'm beginning to hate being an average one…" Rin grumbled as she sat on Shirou's porch in the middle of the night and watched as her studying partner created and shot swords constantly around his body at a reasonable pace at a nearby pile of logs. The steady sound of the weapons impacting the dull wood before shattering in mid air created a unique melody in the relatively cool summer night. "I mean… all you have to do is focus on the few spells that you can actually use and eventually you'll be able to do ridiculous things with them. With me, I have to study my butt off on each and every one of my elements PLUS all the possible spells that they could let me have access to in order to truly realize my potential…"

"Yeah…" Shirou rolled his eyes before he began to pick up his pace on projection and firing his swords, now shooting at least 5-7 swords at a time with relative ease. "It must be so tough having the ability to actually use standard magic with proficiency and knowing what you can actually do with your powers instead of figuring it out by trial and error the entire time." He could feel his od actively flow into his magic now as well as his circuits heating up… however it was still well within his range of tolerance. From what he's learned about magic circuits, they were similar to organs in a way, but they could be trained a small amount unlike the heart or the liver. It was similar to if one left an organ alone for a long period of time. The organ would become more stagnant and not work nearly as efficiently. Some noble families actually utilized this process of enhancing their heir's circuit quality, but not many since it was an extraordinarily risky procedure that if failed would not only break the heir, but potentially risk the destruction of the portion or the entirety of the magic crest that had been infused to the child's body at the time.

Magic that was beyond the caster's abilities would kill them. It was a fairly simple rule that was taught on the first day of any magus' training, and by no means was it a stretch of the truth. It was because of this that few actually went out of their way to train their children and or heirs in this way.

Of course, Shirou normally trained by himself, had an artifact that healed him more thoroughly than any other spell in existence… albeit mush slower, was an extremely stubborn child, and valued his well being less than the normal person.

Because he frequently pushed them to the limits by projecting Avalon nearly every night, and of course because the real Avalon was inside his body repairing any minor damages that he may have put himself under over time, the quality of his circuits improved and any potential… very minor damage he did to them, was almost always gone by the next morning. His circuits would never reach the level of quality of say the Barthomeloi clan with their blue blood fueled noble magic circuits… not that he needed another reason to get a sealing designation… or another noble clan that wanted to kill him to add to the list of ones that his father apparently angered beyond known reason… but he guessed that by the time his body stopped developing his circuits would reach a quality that would make most magi think twice before trying to mess with him… if they were ever allowed close enough to look at his circuits to that degree of course.

Now if only he had a spell that could abuse all that power at once other than just projecting a boat load of swords and firing them off…

Regardless, what he was doing right now was nowhere near as exhausting and straining as projecting Avalon was… not that Rin knew he had the noble phantasm inside of him. Having the girl know of his status as an incarnation was bad enough… he didn't need her to know that he had a relic of immeasurable power and value inside of his body too. He shivered at what the girl would do to him if she ever found out about that… no. It was better not to dwell on that possibility. He would get his hopes too high since Rin always seemed to reach a new level of low whenever he least expected it.

"Oh stop your moaning. I've been helping you iron out everything outside of your projection and reinforcement magic since you got here." The girl frowned. "You'd still be having trouble firing off your little swords if I wasn't here. I even threw in some bounded field lessons because I was so nice…"

"Yeah, and in the mean time you gutted out the only unique line of spells I have to further your research on infusing your magic to your jewels to such a level that you discovered a way to nearly triple the amount each one can contain. Not to mention all the time I had to spend teaching you how to reinforce your body to a higher level. Real fair exchange there." The red headed boy muttered under his breath before stopping his constant projection and firing practice and made 2 shorter versions of the swords he was firing through alteration for his arms and began to swing them in a practiced and focused manner.

"Again with that dual sword training?" The Tohsaka sighed, clearly noting that this wasn't the first time the boy had trained in such a mundane way. "Why do you keep on doing that? I mean other than Taiga, no one spars with you when you use that style… if you can call it that. Then there's the fact that you're in the archery club instead of the kendo club… you make no sense…"

"It's good exercise." Shirou responded vaguely, not at all reminding the girl that he was already in better natural shape than most boys his age… or even most boys several years older than him. "I'm trying to become ambidextrous since it can throw people off in a fight and it strengthens both arms really well. I want to have a good strong flexible style that only I can use." He smiled lightly. "Besides, what kind of sword incarnation would I be if I didn't have some sort of unique style?"

"I would say a weird one, but that would just be redundant." Rin looked at him bored, clearly not interested in his explanation. Getting up the girl brushed her hair back haughtily. It was around 2 in the morning and they had school the next day. Normally this would be a problem for most 12 year old students who wanted to have perfect grades, but one of the benefits of being a magi was the fact that so long as you had access to your magic circuits, you could make it so that you needed less sleep to be fully charged and rested for a full day… so long as you didn't use your circuits to their full capacity in the process of course. It still sucked to stay up late for multiple nights on end, but the repercussions were significantly reduced and no matter what one would still wake up rather groggy regardless of how large their internal reserves of od was or how many circuits they had. Exhibit A: Rin Tohsaka. "I guess I've had enough for the day. You keep on doing that ridiculous training of yours. I'm going home."

"Yeah yeah…" Shirou muttered as he swung his swords down once more while keeping form, focused on the task at hand. "Just make sure you get back home safely. You know that freaks would peg you for an easy target this late at night."

"Oh?" Tohsaka smiled slyly. "Could it be that you've fallen for my charm and beauty?"

"More like I don't want the magus association to come here to claim all of your stuff and find out about me here." The boy grumbled before ducking to avoid a tea cup that the girl had chucked at his head. "Hey watch it!"

"What are you talking about Shirou?" The girl tilted her head to the side innocently. "I didn't do anything. You know it is very rude to yell at people as they're leaving your home…"

"… Just go already." The boy relented, knowing the girl was the culprit and that she was simply just mocking him as she always did.

"Are you sure?" She asked. "Don't you want to know who threw the cup at you? It could be a spirit or another magus that managed to sneak onto your property."

"Very funny." Shirou looked at her unamused. Rin was always doing things like this. Either twisting his words around to suit her desires or playing innocent any time she was pretty much caught red handed doing anything. She'd make a wonderful politician if she decided to pursue that career… "You almost had me believing you that time."

"Fine then. I can see that my presence is no longer welcome here." She sighed aridly. "Have fun with the rest of your training Shirou. You might even improve if you keep it up…"

The boy shook his head as the girl left his home and continued his repeated swings. This was pretty much how 2 nights every week had turned out for the past 3 months since Shirou met Rin. Many would quickly determine how abusive the relationship was seeing as the girl often forced Shirou to do some of the most menial tasks for her experiments and rarely giving the boy anything in return. That did not mean that Shirou didn't learn anything from the experiences or improve somewhat. The average one did occasionally help him out with his so called "mundane" studies and clarify some complicated concepts that he had trouble understanding when he studied, however it was more to placate her ego more than anything else as far as Shirou was concerned given how much she gloated on how dependant on her he was after every time he made a breakthrough in his research…

Well… the research he allowed himself to do in front of her at least…

Finishing his 100 repetitions and feeling the burn in his arms, Shirou breathed out slowly and forced the short weapons in his hands to dispel themselves. Allowing himself a small breather, the boy turned to the pile of sliced up logs still standing in front of him. From what he could tell, he could fire his projected weapons at a pretty high speed, but all in all he doubted that it was impressive compared to what other magi could do. Granted a flying sword heading at someone's head was nothing to scoff at, but neither were fireballs, blades of wind, and other phenomenon that magi could perform. Shirou knew he already had a decent basic magic based attack under his belt, but he needed to increase the scope of what he could do should he continue to delve into the world of magi. He needed something faster and or stronger… and right now he was attempting something that he assumed would give him both…

"Trace… on." The boy breathed out, holding a hand in front of him… to grasp the bow that he had just projected. It had taken him a few weeks in his basic projecting practicing to memorize the entire scope of a bow, but being a part of his middle school's archery team, it didn't leave him without any source of inspiration. The bow in his hands now was different though. It was thicker and stronger than the bows at the school. The string required a much greater demonstration of strength in order to draw, and the wood itself seemed to be more indented in the center as if to hold something larger than an arrow. In his other hand, Shirou projected a slightly thinner sword than the ones he had been firing off into his hand. He looked at it carefully… before dispelling it again. "Trace… start…" He slowly chanted, hypnotizing himself into slowly going through his projection process step by step until he got to the part he knew where he would be making changes. "Pause. Alter imitation of skill in making. Inscribe contortion. Apply. Resume." His eyes narrowed as he attempted to inscribe alteration into his process. Despite the fact that he was exceptionally good at both projection and reinforcement, alteration was considerably more difficult for the boy to get used to.

Technically he could have made the changes he wanted to the sword after making it, but he determined that his enemies wouldn't allow him the time to complete the 2 step process in a fight… meaning he needed to make it a 1 step process. Unfortunately, he could not reproduce weapons he altered naturally as if they were their own design for some reason. He was guessing that it had to do with the fact that since it was something he himself was adding to the original design it would change the original blueprint stored in his head. If he wanted to make a blueprint of the altered version, he would pretty much be overwriting the original blueprint, something he was very reluctant to do. So, he had to manually alter these arrow sword hybrids from their original sword state each time he wanted to make a new one. The good news was that he was getting better and faster at it. The bad news was it took a bit of extra prana to shape it adequately…

Setting off the metaphorical gun inside his soul, the boy projected his creation into his free hand again, producing the same sword as before, only this time the weapon was twisted all the way down the blade, making it look more like a sadistic nail than a sword.

"Let's see if I can get this to work this time…" Shirou muttered to himself as he knocked the twisted weapon into his modified bow, having allowed a small slit to form in the pommel of the weapon to make things easier. The alteration of the sword had been relatively easy compared to making a bow that would enable him to actually fire it off without breaking in his hands. A normal bow of course wouldn't work even when reinforced to its limits, so he had to make a few changes from a little of what he knew about material compositions and a lot of studying of what materials he actually wanted and needed to use into the bow. The result of his trials and errors was what he had in his hand right now… as were the bows that he had tested out for the past 3 weeks. He had gotten the shape down pretty damned well… now if he could just get the right material…

Breathing calmly, Shirou began to pour prana into his body, strengthening his arms, body, and skin in order to not only drawback the heavy string with the sword notched on it… but to protect himself in case the bow literally blew up in his face… again. Thankfully he had managed a fairly good grasp on basic medical magic before he started… mostly due to the fact that Rin realized that Shirou had a tendency of getting rather injured in her and his experiments and she was getting tired of healing him all the time… so Shirou was fairly confident that should something go wrong he could heal himself so that no one would notice the next day.

Fairly confident.

The bow and string pulled back rather smoothly and so far there were no initial signs of either one snapping. That was already a good sign as the boy decided to pull a bit more. The string was now right around the front of his jaw now and was digging into his fingers. This wasn't a problem, even if he wasn't reinforcing himself. Shirou had already familiarized his body with the feeling of a bow and the rubbing the string put on his fingers. The somewhat painful pressure on his digits were rather comforting and therapeutic to him as he pulled back some more so that the string was now just behind his ear line, which is where most Japanese archers pulled back their strings unlike western bowman who stop just in front of the face. This was a good sign. The pull on the bow was strong, but there was no showing of it snapping under the pressure.

Instead of letting the modified arrow loose, the boy rather quickly allowed the bow to pull his hands back together to get a feel for its retraction. Sometimes a good looking bow with a strong pullback just didn't have the powerful "snap" that made a bow launch an arrow, or would wobble a bit on the retraction that would cause it to shoot poorly. Shirou had created a few of these annoying almost bows in his experiments and each time they had irritated him to no end.

Thankfully, this bow seemed to have neither one of those defects as far as he could tell. Nodding to himself the boy breathed out slowly to himself and began to draw back the string…

o. o. o.

The Next Day:

"Honestly Emiya… what did you do to yourself this time?" Issei Ryuudou sighed as he ate lunch with Shirou, looking warily at the bandages on the boy's cheek and arms. "Every other week you're coming into school covered in bandages with some new excuse on how you got them…"

Shirou laughed lightly before digging into his meal. "It's nothing Issei. I just got hurt testing some new archery equipment back home."

"Oh?" The son of the head monk's at the nearby temple raised an eyebrow. "You mean it wasn't because you were trying to chase off feral and deranged animals going through in your home again?"

The red headed boy managed to hold back his laughter fairly well at his frequent excuse for his injuries caused by Tohsaka. The girl didn't seem to take that thinly veiled insult quite well when she heard how he was explaining his frequent injuries that she was related to… but despite the 2nd degree burns he got that night he believed that the small payback was still worth it in the end. "No… well, yes, I did have them again, but they didn't give me much trouble this time…"

"You really must get better protection for your home Emiya." Issei sighed. "Even though the temple is rather large, spacious, and close to the woods, we still seem to have nowhere near as much trouble with wild animals as you do for some reason."

"Eh. I'm just that unlucky I guess." Shirou shrugged casually as he finished up his meal.

"No kidding." The other boy shook his head. "So were your injuries bad enough to prevent you from doing archery club this morning?"

The faker shook his head. "Nah. It's really only a few scratches. I got to the club on time, helped everyone set up, and did my rounds…"

"You know you really surprised everyone with your archery skills." Issei pointed out. "Even if you've tried it a bit before, I've never heard of someone our age that can constantly get bulls eyes so easily. People are calling you a prodigy and there's word that some of the highschool kids are going to be checking you practice soon."

"They can watch all they want, it's not that big of a deal." Shirou shrugged, not really seeing why everyone was making such a display of it.

Many people were surprised when Shirou signed up for the archery club instead of the kendo club after his very brief fight against Taiga on his first day of school 6 months ago. Even more were surprised when those who didn't know about his hobbies and habits watched him help out the school's maintenance and custodians with the work around the school to such degrees that he occasionally found answers to problems that even they couldn't figure out. It had gotten to the point where Shirou had begun to earn several nicknames including but not limited to "the janitor", since he was fairly good at everything when it came to using his hands. Many people thought that he was trying to be like those old wise strong guys they see in manga and movies who throw people off by working in the most demeaning places. Shirou merely laughed them off when asked and merely replied that he enjoyed getting his hands dirty and messing around with stuff.

Unfortunately, he still managed to get himself into trouble occasionally when he came across bullies picking on others, thus isolating him somewhat from his classmates. Issei thankfully was not one of them and the two boys frequently ate lunch together away from the crowds.

"I've heard that the Tohsaka girl in class 1-A is getting pretty popular." Said apprentice monk sighed irritably.

"And from the way you said it, it's a bad thing." Shirou commented.

"I don't like her." Issei stated bluntly. It was a trait that the two boys shared. They both were rather bad at hiding what they were thinking if they bothered to do it. "I can tell, she's one of those people who are nice on the outside, but pure evil deep down."

"You may be right about that…" Shirou replied almost casually before eating again, making sure his bentou was in front of his face to hide any tells he might be giving off.

Issei smiled. "Finally. Someone who doesn't brush off my comments the moment I voice my opinion about her. Everyone else I talk to about her just look at me like I'm crazy or think that I'm secretly in love with her…" He stuck out his tongue in disgust. "Ugh. No thank you."

Shirou couldn't help but laugh about Issei's response to the evil one. "Haha. I wouldn't keep on trying to convert people against her if I were you Issei. If she really is as horrible as you say, then if you get her attention she might use her despicable abilities against you."

The glasses wearing boy flinched. "Damn… you might be right. I have to be more careful from now on…"

o. o. o.

It was after school and Shirou had just finished practicing at the archery club. Despite his injuries which any experienced person with a bow could tell were the result of a bow shattering in the owner's hands, the boy maintained his virtually perfect shooting record, hitting each and every target dead on much to many of his senior's displeasure, and many other's joy seeing as they were thinking of exploiting his skills to win tournaments. He knew the reasoning for the latter because some of the upperclassmen females normally got very giddy around him whenever he shot and were rather vocal about what they wanted of him.

Plus many of them thought that his red hair was "adorable".

Still, it did nothing to stop the oldest members of the club from forcing him and the other freshman to clean up the club building and supplies, and then a short time later from Shirou offering to finish up the tasks while everyone else went home. It was the last day before summer break and no one really wanted to spend any more time at school than they had to in order to start their vacation and since he of course felt that he was in no real rush to get things started he offered to do everyone else's share. The boy was rather charitable when it came to tasks that were similar to household chores. It sometimes bothered his friends that he offered to do this so frequently, but he honestly enjoyed doing this. The cleaning was rather calming to him and if he helped out others in the process then all the better.

This in the end left Shirou leaving the school at around 7 at night.

"Man… I guess I took longer than I thought this time…" Shirou sighed to himself as he felt the cooling summer air pass him while walking back to his side of town. "I guess I overdid it again."

The boy walked casually home taking some shortcuts through the local park, thinking about what he had left in his fridge and what he could make himself for dinner when he saw something out of the corner of his eye.

"… You're going back home late again Senpai…" Sakura stated as she sat on the swing. "You let yourself do all the work again while everyone left early."

"Yeah…" Shirou winced guilty. He wasn't surprised by Sakura's presence. She had a habit of occasionally being here during Friday afternoons. If he didn't know any better he would have sworn she did it just to wait for him since sometimes she was the only one in the park when he got there… but that would have just been silly. "… I guess I did it again… but I don't really mind it. It helps clear my head a bit…"

"I thought most kids our age try to avoid chores as long as they could." The girl tilted her head to the side curiously. It had been slow going, but ever since the two first met, Sakura's personality had been gradually coming to the surface. She expressed what she felt more frequently now, though she still was rather reclusive compared to the normal 6th grader. Still, most of her positive expressions rarely ever made themselves known.

"Yeah well you know me." The red head laughed. "I'm a bit different than most kids." He shook his head. "So how was school for you? Are you doing well?"

"I'm doing fine…" She said in a way that the boy could tell hid some deeper meaning, but Shirou didn't try to dig it out. It was her own business after all. "My grades are good and so far there haven't been any problems…I'm more worried about you Sempai." She looked at the patches on his arms and face. "You hurt yourself again."

"It's nothing. It was just a bad bow that I was testing out that broke in my hands." The boy waved casually.

"A bad bow?" She asked curiously. "I thought that the school checks out the equipment that it gives to its club members."

"Nah. This one is something I got for myself." Shirou explained to the girl. "I was trying to get a stronger bow for myself and it ended up being of poor quality."

"I didn't know that archery was so dangerous…" She mumbled to the side.

"What? Did you want to join the club too?" Shirou asked, causing the girl to look at him surprised before looking away embarrassed, causing him to smile. "It's not THAT dangerous. I only got these because I was testing out new bad equipment by myself. Other than that happening, which is nearly impossible if you stick to school equipment, it's no more dangerous than normal archery…" He paused. "Well… you have to make sure that everyone is pointing down the field when they are shooting, especially after that one time when one of my classmates accidentally… but yeah, perfectly safe."

"I see…" The girl looked at him with a very complex expression that seemed to be part hope, part joy, part skepticism, and several other emotions. "… So the new bow was for your practicing?"

Shirou nodded. "Yeah. I was testing out a new arrow, but I haven't found the right bow for it yet. I've been looking around, but no such luck yet…" He was interrupted when he heard the growling of both their stomachs. "Ah… I guess I lost track of the time. Fuji-nee is probably going to have a cow when I get back home since dinner's going to be late." He shook his head in frustration before looking at the girl. "I know you'd have to ask your family first, but do you want to come eat at my place? You seem to be pretty hungry too."

The girl froze in her spot. The two had talked in the park multiple times before, but this was the first time that he had actually invited her over. If Shirou didn't know any better, he could have sworn he saw a bit of fear in her body language. "Dinner?" She asked in a slightly quieter tone as she thought about the subject extremely carefully.

"Sakura?" Shirou asked concerned. Something about what he said obviously unnerved the girl. "Is something wrong?"

"Ah…" She stumbled over her words. "N-no… it's nothing Sempai, I was just thinking about some of the rules grandfather set up…" She looked away ashamed before back to his eyes. "… I don't think it would bother them if I went to your place if it's just for dinner…"

The boy nodded, brushing away any concern for the way the girl acted. She frequently attempted to say things only to let her voice die off in the middle of a sentence if she spoke for too long. It had gotten better, but it was far from completely gone. "Right. So long as it's ok with your family. Anyways, come on. I'm hungry too and no doubt Fuji-nee is starving as well. I think I've told you enough about how she acts when she's hungry, so as long as you remember what I've told you what to say and not to say around her… and keep away from her mouth… you'll be fine."

"… I still think that you were stretching the truth when you said she almost ate you once Sempai." The girl muttered as she followed Shirou to his home.

"You'll find out soon enough…" The faker grumbled, displeased that yet another person did not believe that story. "Just don't say I didn't warn you…"

The two children walked up to his home. Shirou noticed that the girl fidgeted as they got close to his door. He guessed that she was just nervous about being in another person's home like that. He pegged the girl as the extremely shy type. Unfortunately for him, as soon as he opened the door, he saw something that made his blood run cold for several reasons.

In front of his steps in the home, there was not 1 set of shoes lying there, but 3…

"Oh no…" The boy whimpered before the familiar pounding of very large legs could be felt by both the children.

"Oi! Lad! Ta hell have ya been!" Sirius roared as he appeared from the opposite end of the hallway. "Ah've been tryin ta stave off ma gut fer 3 hours now an tryin ta keep tat lass Taiga away from Waver afta we all began ta drink ta kill time! She wants him lad. She wants him bad…" He paused as he noticed Sakura hiding as best as she could behind Shirou who was merely pointing and gaping at the large old man in silent shock and rage. In response, the old man began to chuckle mischievously. "Ohohoh! No wonder ya were late lad. Ya've been entertainin ta wee lass here.

A commotion could be heard from deeper inside the house. "Sirius! For all that is holy help me out here!" Waver's frantic voice shouted as what seemed like something human sized was heard slamming into the ground.

"Waver-kuun! Stop running! I just want to have some fuuuun!" Taiga's intoxicated voice slurred, causing Waver's to yelp in more fear.

"How the hell is a woman your size so damn strong?" The male voice shouted both bewildered and scared.

"Heheheh…" Sirius laughed nervously. "Ah guess ah shouldn't have given ta lass some o me special brew… didn't catch onta how much she downed till she was already tryin ta jump him…"

"Your SPECIAL beer?" Shirou shouted in shock and fear. "You gave her THAT? Why would you do such a thing?"

"… Seemed like a good idea at ta time… ah thought ta lass was a sleepy drunk…" Sirius muttered guilty before shaking his head. "Now's not ta time ta point fingers lad! We have ta reign in ta lass so ya can make us dinner!" He paused as he looked at Sakura. "Ah… right. Manners. My name is Sirius McGinty wee one. Ah'm a friend of ta family." He then turned to where the chaos in the home was occurring and put on a hard face. "Hang on lad! Ah'm comin!"

"Today?" Shirou almost cried to himself. "They had to give me a surprise visit today of all days?"

"S-sempai?" Sakura stammered, not sure how to deal with this new situation.

The boy took in several deep breaths and began to calm himself down. "Ok calm down. This is still manageable. At least SHE isn't here to truly make things hell." He turned around to Sakura. "Just stay here. No matter what you hear coming from the room, don't come in until I tell you it's safe. A drunk Fuji-nee is a very dangerous thing to deal with, especially when she's clinging onto someone."

"SON OF A LORD'S LOINS!" Sirius' voice roared from inside. "THE 'ELL DID SHE PULL TAT PEPPA SPRAY FROM?"

"A very dangerous thing…" Shirou shivered before walking down his hallway as if at the end was his execution. "Wish me luck." He smiled at her as if he was going to die.

o. o. o.

After roughly half an hour of screaming, things being thrown, and a combination of Sirius' great strength and Waver using slightly stronger than advised hypnosis the drunk Taiga Fujimura had been put down temporarily and was now sleeping in a ball in a guestroom of the building as the older males and Sakura sat in the messed up living room and Shirou cooked in the kitchen.

"Sorry bout tat lass." Sirius sighed as he rubbed his eyes again. His eyes were still killing him from the spray that Taiga had blasted into his face. "Ah didn't tink tat ta lad would be havin people over…"

"I-it's ok. You couldn't have known…" Sakura shyly replied, keeping her eyes down.

"At least that woman is out of our hair now…" Waver sighed, examining his clothes to see what needed to be replaced before glancing at Sakura. "So you're Sakura Matou…" He mused before glancing at the kitchen where Shirou was trying to make a big and fast dinner. "From how Shirou's been acting near you, he doesn't know that you're a magus in training too…"

The girl's body froze, breathing and all.

"Come off it lass." Sirius sighed. "We're not gonna hurt ya. Yer a friend of ta lad. 'Sides, ta Waver is damned familiar wit ta grail war here."

Sakura shivered as she looked at Waver skeptically. "Y-you know of the last war?"

"Worse, I was fairly involved with it too." The 21 year old rolled his eyes. "Dumbest thing I've ever done in my life… next dumbest is helping the Archibald clan stabilize after Kayneth died and talking to that brat who's the next heir… " He paused as the frowned and began to think to himself. "Right… the Matou's usually have a participant as well… so from what I know though… the only servant whose master I didn't know of in the previous war was…" He froze and shivered. "Ah… so berserker was controlled by your family… that clarifies things a bit for me… should have figured it out sooner."

"Ya know… yer gonna have ta tell ta lad about ya bein a magus sooner or later lass." Sirius looked at the shivering girl gently. "He's gonna find out sooner or later. Ta only reason why he hasn't found out already is because he is still pretty new at sensing latent prana in livin tings. He's actually more sensitive ta our craft tan most…"

Sakura looked down again ashamed. "B-but… I just want to keep things the way they are… b-because when he finds out…"

"Ah… ah see…" Sirius nodded solemnly. "Ah happen ta know a bit about yer family's magic an tat old man Zouken." He shook his head as the girl looked at him in shock and fear. "Nasty stuff it is. Ta old bastard isn't much betta. A soul like you shouldn't have ta be put through tat… but Shirou ain't like most magi. He's a pure an honest lad. Ya don't have ta explain everythin to him… but so long as ya let him know yer a friend he'll probably not care about ta small stuff."

"The Makiri magic…" Waver mused, using the original version of the Matou's name before they moved to Japan. "Absorption… or to be more specific "the binding of another onto oneself"… yes it is a rather unusual line of spells to delve into, attributed to water aligned magic I believe… and dangerous, especially if used on a large scale. Still… it is nothing that Shirou would judge you on."

"Who… who are you?" Sakura asked with mixed curiosity and fear at the two older men that knew so much about her family and the ritual.

The two men looked at one another before putting on smiles that screamed that they knew more than they were letting on. "Just some friends of Shirou's father, occasionally helping him practice magic a few times a year and make sure he doesn't do irrational things in his studies." Waver shrugged casually. "Judging from the bandages on him… we still have to work on the latter a bit. Don't worry, we won't do anything regarding your relationship with Shirou or try to pry into your personal life."

"Don't tell old Zouken tat we're here though." Sirius whispered. "He creeps me out. Ah met him once a very long time ago. Nuff said. Jus' tell 'em tat his neighbor brought some gusts over fer diner. It's true since ta lass had some of her friends bring us here from ta airport."

"R-right…" The girl mumbled. She figured she shouldn't ask any more questions of the men. From what she learned, granted that her magical "education" was very different when compared to how the majority of magi are brought up, most magi don't like divulging any more secrets than what was necessary but still frequently had the urge to gloat about their accomplishments. The fact that they only told her their names but didn't tell her if they were part of a clan or not was proof that what they were doing was secret.

"Right… now onta more important matters…" Sirius grinned, deepening the wrinkles on his face. "Ah can tell lass. Ya have a ting fer Shirou…"

The girl blushed and froze in an instant, causing both of the men to chuckle in amusement. "Wh-wh-wh…" She stammered.

"It's not hard to figure out…" Waver smirked. "You were clinging onto him like a lifeline for a while. Plus there's the looks you were giving him…" He waved his hand and sighed aridly. "Though considering how dense and stubborn Shirou can be to things, I doubt he would notice unless you slapped him upside the head and told him to his face how you felt. He's that kind of person…"

"Ya mean like yerself?" Sirius smirked, causing Waver's confident demeanor to crash instantly. "If ah remember correctly, 'twas only ah few weeks ago tat ya got a confession yerself from some lass tat everyone else 'round yer age pretty much knew liked ya…"

"But I almost never even talked to her and…" Waver began to throw out excuses before glaring at Sirius. "Hold on… how the hell do you even know of that? I never told you!"

Sirius chuckled. "Ah'm old lad. Ah have connections and ah keep mah ear to ta ground." He looked at his fingers casually. "… Like how ah know which o tem lazy stuck up bastards ya've impressed an which ones are actually gonna give ya sometin special soon… sometin along ta lines of a position or a title if mah sources are right…"

"Dinner's up!" Shirou called as he walked into the room with several plates, interrupting Waver's further investigation into what he would be receiving in the near future. Looking around as he put the plates down he noticed Sakura being more rigid than normal. "Sirius-jiji, did you do something that scared Sakura?"

"Wha?" The old man sputtered, his mouth half full with food already. "Ta hell lad? Why did ya automatically gun fer me ta moment ya tink sometin's off?"

"Because other than Fujimura, you're the one that responsible for things getting chaotic most of the time." Waver smirked as he began to fill his plate with fried rice and some quickly warmed up meat.

"Ya wound me lad." Sirius dramatically held a hand to his chest right over his heart. "Ya wound me deep."

"Just play along with these two Sakura." Shirou sighed. "They're both really good guys… if not a bit weird at times…"

"Says ta lad who wants ta be a superhero…" Sirius snorted.

"Stop bringing that up already!" The boy shouted defiantly. Clearly this wasn't the first time he was made fun of for this particular subject "I just want to help people!"

"Right. Sidekick it is." Waver smirked before putting some food into his mouth.

"Gah!" The boy threw his hands up in the air before going into the kitchen to bring out more food.

"Sempai… wanted to be a superhero?" Sakura tilted her head to the side curiously.

"Yeah. He was really into it too." Waver smirked. "Kept on fighting bullies and stuff like that a lot. Really got on Kiritsugu's nerves after a while." He drank some water. "From what I've heard he's toned it down a bit, but he still gets into trouble every now and then…"

"Ta lad is funny tat way." Sirius laughed. "He can take a beatin like no one else an still get up… an believe me ah know tat fer a fact… but when it comes ta wee tings like his habits an his dreams he can crack under a fetha."

"Sirius-jiji…" Shirou growled as he sat down at the table. "Remember one of the rules you and dad told me about when going to someone else's place for meals?"

The old man paused for a moment. "Always wash yer hands afta takin a dump?"

"He was talking about never messing with the guy that prepares your food you old fool." Waver corrected as he continued to eat.

Sirius paused before laughing sheepishly. "Ah… right. Sorry lad. My bad…"

The rest of the dinner continue as such. Light hearted and rather energetic. Sakura remained quiet throughout the entire thing and while she only smiled a very small amount, Shirou could tell she enjoyed the atmosphere greatly. Shortly after the meal was finished, the girl returned home and Taiga was taken to her home by Sirus, albeit reluctantly since the old man didn't want to be near the girl again so soon after nearly blinding him.

After that though, it was time for an evaluation.

"So lad… how have yer studies been doin?" Sirius asked curiously as they all stood in the boy's back yard.

In response, Shirou instantly traced 7 swords around him and fired them all off at once at the wood pile he had been practicing on the night before.

Sirius whistled, clearly impressed. "Not bad lad. Tat ta most ya can do? How far can ya project tem things from yer body?"

"At best I can make around 10 before I start making mistakes on the tracing process." Shirou explained. "From what I can tell it's mostly in the excelling the manufacturing process. Doing the same weapon repeatedly rapidly makes it hard to make everything exact on that step. As for how far I can make them from me…" He frowned in concentration as a sword was made roughly 4 meters from his body. "That's my limit so far, but I've been getting better at it."

"Impressive…" Waver mused as he looked at the swords lumped in the wood shatter all at once. "Is there anything else you've been working on?"

"I've been experimenting with bounded fields and I think I'm ready to start testing out some basic security and prana leak prevention barriers in case I ever need to make a workshop alone somewhere else…" The boy began to think. "Also other than basic repairing spells and my reinforcement improvements, I've gotten pretty good at basic healing spells too… but that's only because I've had to use them on myself so much…" He paused and looked at his arms. "Well I could use your help on something Sirius-jiji."

The old man raised an eyebrow. "Eh? Sure. Tat's what ah'm here for. What do ya need lad?"

Shirou responded by producing his latest attempt at a bow and his modified sword-arrow. "I've been trying to get this bow to shoot my altered sword like an arrow, but I can't get the bow right. Reinforced ones aren't strong enough, and no matter what ones I try to come up with despite the materials I try to implant into the duplication material composition step, I end up with a bow that either isn't strong enough or just blows up in my face."

"Shooting swords as arrows…" Waver shook his head as Sirius took the bow to examine it. "I want to say I'm surprised… but I can't after seeing the Archer of my war in action…"

"Ah… ya've used an interestin' compound fer dis bow…" Sirius mused as he examined the modified weapon. "Usin alteration ta give a normal projected bow ah modified shape an den alterat'n it again ta infuse it wit stronger materials… a bit heavy in terms o prana cost ta make, but all tings considered it's definitely sometin worth continuin' ta research since yer projections are so damn bloody good…" The old man mumbled to himself, both spells and comments, as the bow was magically gutted in his eyes and mind. "Ah… it's too brittle. Close ta what ya want lad. T'would fire off a normal arrow wit gusto, but it would still blow apart if it shot sometin big enough… which ah'm guessin happened already…"

"Good guess…" The boy looked at the fellow red head with no amusement in his eyes or tone.

"Hmm… have ya tried carbon tubing lined plastics yet lad? Ah've heard tat they're pretty solid an strong…" Sirius began to bounce ideas off of the boy.

"Some, but so far they haven't given me the strong recoil I need to launch the sword." The boy sighed. "I've also tried reinforced fiberglass with carbon fiber lining, but that just broke apart the moment I tried to pull it back…"

"Fiba glass sucks as a magic conducta lad." Sirius commented. "It's so full of gaps tat if ya try ta fill tem in wit prana it only makes it more brittle in the process of hardening it." He pulled the bow back again several times to test how strong it was before taking the altered arrow and examining it for a bit as well. "I see… so ta strength an ta flexibility have ta be tat much, but still retain ta original shape afta release even afta bein fired a bunch a times…" He shifted the objects so that he was holding both up with one hand and the other was checking his pockets. "If tat's ta case… ten… ta bloody hell did ah put…" He mumbled to himself as his massive hand sunk deceivingly deep into each pocket, no doubt much larger inside due to some sort of bounded field that he had set up in all his pants. "Aha!" He cheered as he withdrew the massive hand from one pocket to hold a rather large slab of what seemed to be like a black plastic. "Found it!" He cheered as he showed it to Shirou and Waver, no doubt expecting praise of some sort.

"Um… congratulations?" Shirou said confused.

"It's a large black brick." Waver stated bluntly.

"Ah ta hell wit bot of ya." The eldest of the three shook his head. "Dis is a new plastic ah've been workin on in me spare time. In addition ta makin mystic codes, ah also occasionally try ta make new materials an compounds ta make new products. Ya know. Fire enhancing cloth. Metal fer daggers tat don't have lightning sub element feedback, stuff like tat." He tapped the plastic in his hand, making a dull sound in the process. "Dis here is plastic tat is rich in ether, mixed wit carbon tubing, about half a dozen oter secret materials tat ah had ta lift from several government research facilities in order ta make just right, an very flexible an very resistant ta prana fueled attacks, but is still bloody hard ta put a dent or a crack in or permanently bend outta shape witout ta proper method ta do so. Ah was originally gonna make an armor outta dis stuff but the bloody fool of a lord tat ordered it got himself killed recently on an apostle hunt." He shook his head before sticking it in front of Shirou's face. "Try alterin tis stuff inta a bow an tell me what ya tink lad."

Shirou blinked before irritably grabbing the surprisingly light thick chunk of plastic and channeled his prana into it. The material may have had some resistance to things like swords and magic fueled fireballs, but the material was still rather compliant to being molded via prana. Giving the material the concept of "bow" and reinforcing it rather quickly, the boy soon had in his hands an exact model of the bow he had loaned Sirius, only this one was completely black. Once more he tested the experimental weapon, the strength, the pull, the flexibility. It all passed. A quick examination into the structure and composition of the bow told the boy that the material itself was definitely not something that could be easily made or accessible to. Most of what he found in it were things he had never seen or come across before in any other object he had found ever.

"Well?" Waver asked curiously. "How is it?"

"Other than the fact that I've never even seen anything close to half the things in this stuff…" Shirou started off skeptically. "… I can't see anything wrong with it at the moment, but I have to actually test it out first to be sure."

"Well ten what are ya waitin for lad?" Sirius asked as he tossed the boy his modified sword. "Test 'er out."

"Excuse me for being hesitant after 3 weeks of having these things blow up in my face…" Shirou grumbled under his breath before notching the bow with his arrow and took aim at the pile of wood, drawing back the string with his enhanced strength, taking aim…

… and watching in stunned silence as the released spinning sword drilled through not only the logs but halfway through his bounded field enhanced concrete Japanese style wall that separated his property from the streets next to it.

Waver whistled, clearly impressed. "Not bad for a first shot. You could do some real damage with that thing if you keep practicing with it and not blow your cover of being a magus. I'm almost eager to see how strong it could get if you put a prana burst behind the arrow when you fire it off." He looked at Shirou. "Let's see, give him a tan… a headband, throw a little dirt on him… and I do believe we have a child Japanese version of Rambo on our hands…"

"Gahahaha!" Sirius laughed at Waver's joke. "Why not? He even already has a girl chasin' after 'em!"

"Not funny!" Shirou yelled defiantly. "Sakura's just my underclassman! There's no way she has those kind of feelings for me!"

This only caused to Sirius to laugh even harder.

"Damn it I said stop laughing!" Shirou yelled as he projected and launched several swords at the old man. Unlike what would normally happen to a human that was hit by several flying swords head on at roughly 60 mph, these swords merely bounced off the old man's skin doing no damage. They did however make the old man stop laughing and glare hungrily at the boy.

"Ah… so since ta lad tinks tat he has a few new tricks he can start ta orda me around… is tat it lad?" Sirius grinned dangerously as he began to walk threateningly to Shirou. It was at that point that Shirou remembered why Kiritsugu didn't like arguing with Sirius or getting on his bad side:

Sirius McGinty. Master of reinforcement magic, structural based magic, and rune based magic. Mystic Code crafter. Average One.

With his vast comprehension of material based magic combined with his ability to utilize all 5 primary elements, Sirius was capable of making weapons for just about everyone that came to him for help. He knew enough about warfare that he made exactly what his clients needed to suit their style and was capable of testing them out to the extremes, no more no less. However when he himself wanted to fight, he utilized the magic he enjoyed the most: reinforcement. Taking the relatively simple spell to levels that to this day are unheard of anywhere else, the man was supposedly a juggernaut on the battlefield, toughening his body to a point that it was said that he once went toe to toe with a rather powerful dead apostle ancestor of all things using only his fists back in his prime. Combine that with the vast amount of equipment he has hidden on his person and his access to all 5 elements and you had one of the most dangerous magi to ever step into a fight period. It is said that even the enforcers are wary of angering the old and powerful man, but no one is dumb enough to ask them if it was true.

Thankfully, the old coot was a bleeding heart and an overall nice guy once you got used to his rough personality.

Shirou knew that there was some merit to those rumors that Waver had told him. During his training in England, no matter what Shirou did to his projected weapons, not a single one was able to do any sort of damage to the old man's stronger hide during the spars that left the boy exhausted and somewhat injured on the ground. He had hoped that his projected and fired swords could at least stall the old man…

Obviously he had forgotten how ridiculously tough the old man's skin could get in an instant.

"C'mere lad! Let's wrassle!" Sirius shouted with sadistic glee as he charged at the boy, eager to remind the redhead of his place.

Panicking greatly, Shirou instinctively brased himself. His first thought was to reinforce himself in order to reduce the damage, but a small pull in his mind most likely induced by his recent progress yanked him to do a spell that so far had not only yielded no results, but he honestly didn't know how to enact the spell in the first place other then the small feeling of what should be done. "My body is made of blades…" He muttered. However unlike last time, new verses had somehow come to his mind, reminiscent of how he thought of himself and how others described him.

"_He can take a beatin like no one else an still get up… an believe me ah know tat fer a fact… but when it comes ta wee tings like his habits an his dreams he can crack under a fetha."_

"_Remember Shirou. You are a sword. You are strong, but you can still break if you aren't taken care of. You have to remember that you are a human as well. In that way you are more fragile than either one of those two things alone."_

"Iron is my blood… and glass is my heart…" He whispered with unknown conviction… just before Sirius tackled the disproportionately small child with glee.

Waver's eyes widened… and not because he just saw a massive old man tackle a small child with superhuman strength. "That… that was…" He whispered in disbelief before a shout of pain reached his ears… from Sirius.

"Ta bloody hell?" The old man picked himself off of Shirou and patted himself down to examine all the scratches on his body. "Feels like ah just tackled a metal cactus!" He glanced down to see an unconscious Shirou passed out on the ground from the blow, his clothes having similar cuts to the ones on Sirius, but his body was more or less unmarred.

"Sirius… did you hear that spell he was chanting?" Waver asked warily as he walked to the two males.

"He was mutterin' sometin'… but ah was a tad bit too excited ta hear em…" The old man scratched his head sheepishly, that is, until he noticed the sharp look in the boy's eyes. "What's wrong lad?" He grunted in a significantly darker and concerned tone.

"Sirius… he just recited the first 2 lines of THAT aria." Waver stated ominously.

The eldest of the three froze momentarily before looking back at the boy. "… Ah… ah see…" He grunted darkly. "Musta instinctively an accidentally set up an innate bounded field on his body ta replicate ta first line. Kiritsugu told us tat was one of his reality marble's powers… but ah didn't tink he'd accidentally do sometin so complicated an advanced so soon."

"That makes two of us." Waver nodded. "In a way it is a good thing that he is one step closer to utilizing his reality marble to its fullest potential… but on the other it's a huge risk to allow someone so young to start studying innate bounded fields. Remember what Kiritsugu told us about when he applied his family's crest to making a field for his body? Merely doubling his speed was enough to nearly break his body down completely. If the boy tried that with the 3 circuits he has on him…"

"Ta lad would tear himself apart ta moment ta spell would end." Sirius nodded solemnly, knowing of magi who had ended up in such a condition utilizing similar spells. "Good ting we got here when we did. We were gonna bring him back wit us for ta summer break in a few days… but now…"

"It's fine Sirius." Waver interrupted. "We'll just make sure that he doesn't practice any dangerous magic while we're here and explain everything when we get him to your other place. It's too much trouble to change the tickets now. You said yourself, you got Shirou a combat teacher right?"

The old man nodded. "Aye. Ah just wonder how lenient wee Bazett is gonna be on ta lad when she realizes tat I dragged her away from her missions ta teach a brat she might have ta hunt in ta future…"

o. o. o.

A/N:

(Starts dancing in a devil suit) I am evil bas-tard! I am evil bas-tard!

Sorry for the late chapter, but yeah, I have another story and all that crap. It was also kind of hard to write this chapter since I was stuck deciding how the story should continue, being focus more on the training for a bit and do more character development or screw the development and go straight to the war. As you can see, I went for the former.

As for the comedy sections of the story. Some people like it, some people don't, personally… I just do it to get it all out of my system since Sirius and Taiga are the only ones that I can truly channel chaos in and still make the story reasonably on track.

As for how old Bazett is gonna be, she's 6 years older than Shirou, so she's about 18 right now.

So… yeah that's all I got for right now. Gotta actually start watching/playing ataraxia now to see how the hell she acts and stuff for the next chapter… if I use her in character instead of just referring to her. Damn it.

So review! Worship the log! Freaking get set for Fate Zero next month and all that crap! And Review again!


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8: Experience

I do not own Fate/Stay Night and stuffs:

o. o. o.

Shirou collapsed onto his bed in the Emiya estate, glad to be home after his exhausting month spent in England. He was slowly getting used to the country and the language seeing as it was his second extended amount of time being there in less than a year, but personally there was nothing better than being in the home that he grew up under Kiritsugu's care.

He had a new teacher now… well, less of a teacher and more of a fairly more mature version of Fuji-nee that happened to use rune magic and used her fists instead of a shinai, enabling her to run far faster and hit a lot harder than he would ever expect any girl to be able to do. He had experienced firsthand how truly outclassed he was when in their first fight the girl literally shattered his projections with her bare hands as if they were nothing. He then was afraid of her for another reason after she absolutely destroyed him in said spar. Shirou had attempted to utilize absolutely everything minus Avalon to at least push the girl back but the best he could do was slow her down a bit. Projected swords, spiral arrows, reinforcement, nothing could get that girl to stop as she plowed through everything he had like some unstoppable berserker, actually punching his normal swords and breaking them, and began to pummel him into the ground once she finally reached him.

He had a feeling that the first few times she did so she was getting back at him for taking her away from her job and venting stress. He swore that some of his ribs were still bruised from that one punch…

Bazett Fraga McRemitz was her name, and since Shirou vaguely remembered the name Fraga in his history and noble lessons, he was fairly certain she had access to magic that would murder him more times than he would bother to count or learn the names of. She was of fairly average height for a girl her age with short purple hair and was… for lack of a better term more developed than most females he has seen or talked to. Oddly enough despite the fact that she was his sparring teacher, she preferred to dress in a business suit of all things during their fights. Of course it did nothing to hamper her ability to destroy him in said spars, but Shirou assumed that in addition to the seals inscribed on them to enhance her speed and strength to ensure that they didn't tear easily and were properly vented to make them more comfortable. Despite her occasional impatient outbursts, she had an air of maturity whenever the boy talked to her, but Shirou always felt as if there was something off about that. It was almost if she was trying to be someone that deep down she really wasn't.

Initially the girl clearly didn't like the thought of sparring the boy or teaching him anything since she was already an ENFORCER of all things and had better things to do than waste her time training some no named kid. That alone made Shirou terrified of the bright purple haired 18 year old teen, after all, even if he didn't know of his future capability of manifesting a reality marble, his status as an incarnation would eventually put him on her hit list if he was ever discovered…

Shirou was fairly certain that between Rin Tohsaka, Taiga Fujimura, and now Bazett Fraga McRemitz, his perspective of women would be forever twisted in a sadistic and unhealthy way. If it weren't for Sakura Matou and her gentle and timid personality to balance them out, the poor boy was fairly certain that he would never feel truly comfortable or safe around the female gender for the rest of his life.

The first few weeks of sparring against Bazett and living with her in a spare workshop of Sirius' in the northern part of England had been roughly a routine. They got up, did their warm-ups, ate the breakfast which Shirou made all in silence, did some more warm-ups, then went at one another for as long as they could or until Shirou was pretty much unconscious. Bazett would then take him back to the cottage and she would leave to contact the clock tower to check up on what's been going on and all that. Then she'd return, they'd have a brief but filling dinner so long as Shirou could move his arms, a brief and microwaveable one if not, before Bazett would begin to help him out with basic fighting techniques and counter tactics to mesh with his bizarre and in her opinion downright suicidal style that he was trying to create. After they got back to the house Shirou either practiced his magic, studied, or most frequently simply passed out of exhaustion.

It should be noted that after a few days of having the microwaveable dinners and Shirou's cooking for dinner, Bazett's frequency of aiming at Shirou's arms and crippling attacks in the afternoon training drastically decreased… though when asked about this fact the girl would play ignorant and avoid the topic.

Every few days or so Sirius or Waver would come to visit and train Shirou on his magic studies, mainly on the ones that wouldn't be used in immediate combat... and heal the wounds that Bazett and Shirou couldn't manage in the mean time. Theory, bounded fields, history of other nobles and families. The three covered everything together. It was on these days that Bazett left the cottage to get parcels from her job and make some excuse for being gone for so long. Whatever Sirius had done for the girl, it must have been pretty big considering how much she grumbled about how annoying her bosses were whenever she came back.

For the most part the teen didn't speak much to Shirou for those initial weeks, preferring to maintain an air of indifference, irritation, and maturity about her. She instructed him, she sparred with him, she occasionally ran him through battle scenarios to see how he thought and fought, but other than that she didn't bother small talking with what she considered "just some kid with a few interesting spells".

That however changed after those few weeks when she walked into the cabin when the boy and Sirius were studying and demanded Sirius in English seeing as she didn't know that Shirou had just finished learning how to perform the standard translation spell. Its technical term was "manifesting the comprehension and production of alternate human based verbal communication", but it was otherwise commonly known as "the spell of ears and tongues". Apparently Bazett wasn't told beforehand who Shirou was related to, and Shirou wasn't fully aware of how infamous his father truly was in the magus world.

It was only after Bazett had heard rumors that Kiritsugu had died and learned of the man's full name in passing conversation with one of her enforcer friends that she realized that she was teaching one of the most infamous magus assassins in the world's son how to fight… something she wasn't too keen on being forced to do blindly, let alone just finding out after already doing so. Part of her displeasure came from being involved with such a high profile individual without even knowing it… and the other part came from the fact that if word got out that she had actually taught the boy how to fight, she would get into a fair amount of trouble with not only some of the other enforcers who have a grudge against Kiritsugu, but a fair number of noble families as well not limited to the Archibalds and the Einzberns.

She went on to rant about how Kiritsugu was an infamous killer who held several records for his exploits including most high ranked and lethality missions completed and most high class magus targets killed within the timeframe that he was active. In short she pretty much argued that the man was a murdering battle crazy, suicidal, and terrifying psycho that knew pretty much every way to kill a person, magus and not.

Shirou pretty much had enough at that point. While it was true that Kiritsugu had done all that Bazett had claimed… actually the girl had pretty much demonstrated that she knew of only about a 4th of what Shirou knew his father had done in terms of crimes against humanity which was understandable since Kiritsugu stated that most of his killing methods were covert on a level that neither the Magus Association nor the Church would assume that he was involved since his actions utilized bombs, appeared as convenient accidents, and used non magi related means. The ones that they did suspect he had some hand in the events they could not actually prove anything. Still there was more than enough said to get on Shirou's nerves, and when the red headed boy did lose his patience on listening to his father's name repeatedly get dragged through the mud, without saying a word he stomped out of the room, slamming the door behind him, and left Sirius to fill in the enforcer on how badly she had just screwed things up.

The faker didn't know how long he had been using magic in the brisk British hills, firing off sword after sword in such quick succession that it wasn't long till his magic circuits became rather hot and the tree he was shooting his blades at was now resembling nothing but splinters and firewood.

All he knew was that after a certain point Bazett had appeared a short ways behind him. She didn't say anything as he turned around and glared at her. Instead she just stared at him as if she was looking for something for what seemed like hours… before taking a sparring stance against him.

The following fight was one that Shirou could honestly say was one of the hardest ones he's ever had one that he had pushed himself the farthest in. Despite his mentally and physically exhausted state, the boy lasted longer against the 18 year old than he had ever done so before. He still didn't stand a chance in hell against the Fraga, but he did last longer as his body progressively learned how to fight and his mind adapted to what real fighting was like. Granted looking back on things now he doubted that any future opponents he would come across would not fight bare handed other than demons, magical creatures, or other extremely talented magically enhanced martial artists, but still fighting someone of remotely average size with actual skill in combat was something that couldn't be taught, it could only be experienced.

His body was heavy like lead, his muscles were on fire and screamed for rest, and he was covered in injuries that he was fairly certain would take him more than a single day to recover from… but in his mind all he saw was Bazett and all he thought was "beat her"…

Shirou didn't exactly know how long it went for or if he actually managed to hit Bazett, but he did know that at some point he did pass out either from exhaustion or from the multiple wounds he had sustained during the time. The next thing he knew he was barely conscious in the cabin and feeling aches in pretty much every part of his body. What he remembered most though was the conversation from the next room…

"_What made ya change yer mind lass? Ya aren't ta type ta go back on yer decisions like tat…"_

"_He has potential. I couldn't just leave a poor kid like that alone in your hands for training, regardless of who his old man was. Lord knows your track record with apprentices is just as bad as Kaleidoscope's…"_

"_Ah don't say tat lass. Ah may get a bit carried away wit me methods, but ahm not nearly as bad as Zel… ah trained you afta all…"_

"_In rune based combat magic and conducting Fragarach's ritual old man, not in actual hand to hand combat."_

"… _So what did ya see when ya looked at ta lad?"_

"…"

"_Come on lass, ahm old, not stupid."_

"… _I saw a kid ok? I saw a kid who was hurt because he cared about his father… not the son of a guy who was notorious for killing magi or a possible future unstable serial killer…"_

"_Ah told ya lass… Kiritsugu's story wasn't what ya tought it ta be. Ta only person who ah tink really knows who ta man truly was deep down is ta lad."_

"_Must be one hell of a story…"_

"_One tat's not mine ta tell lass. If ya want ta know about ta true Kiritsugu Emiya… ya gotta ask ta lad. I can add a few tales here an tere… but ta lad knows ta most about his sire… even if he was only adopted…"_

"… _I'll think about it…"_

"… _So yer gonna keep on helping ta lad right? Not gonna tell all ta pricks an teir moters in ta clock tower about ta lad?"_

"… _Heh. Of course not. After all, the kid technically isn't the Magus Killer's son. There's no reason for me to tell anyone…"_

"_Hahahah. Ah yer a bleedin heart just like yer moter…"_

"_Please, if anything its hereditary from your stupid genes… Sirius Fraga McGinty…"_

"_Ah… lass ya know ah don't bear ta Fraga name anymore. Ah got banished afta all… can't even make a Fragarach ta save me skin now tat me sorcery trait is sealed away… all ah know is ta ritual an how ta make it, but me ability ta make it is long gone. Everytin else ah know how ta do is from me research an not relyin on ta trait ta learn everytin an ten goin out o me way ta learn different branches o magic, which is why ah was banished in ta first place…"_

"_That doesn't stop you from being my great great grandfather old man… and you're the only family that will still talk to me after I joined the Association. You know how the clan reacts to anyone that wants to see the world and goes through with it…"_

"_Right… now ahm ta only family ya've got lass… an ya should have more faith in what ah do! Honestly, where did yer trust in me go tat ya wouldn't tink tat ah would actually do sometin tat would be notin but bad news for us?"_

"_Around my 14__th__ birthday when you got completely drunk and sent me half a dozen male strippers to arrive during the party. That was the 1__st__ year I was living away from home and I had several people from noble families from the association over to congratulate me before my testing and interview with the lords the next week.. It's part of the reason why I was quickly dismissed by the nobles later on when I was demonstrating my abilities despite the fact that I'm a Fraga…"_

"… _Ahhh fergot about tat…"_

"_I figured. You were pretty drunk at the time…"_

"_Musta been… ah usually don't do tat ta lass' as a goof till tey hit 17…"_

Excluding the disturbing pieces of information that he had learned that night about his new teacher's 14th birthday, Shirou learned a lot about Sirius and Bazett that night before passing out once again due to his injuries. In fact it had taken a good 3 days for Shirou to recover completely from the exhaustion and the injuries from the fight, during which Sirius had once again left for his home in London.

After he got better, things once again fell into a routine between Shirou and Bazett. There wasn't much talking between the two when they weren't training or eating, but the tension between them had definitely disappeared, almost as if they had come to a mutual understanding of one another without really saying anything. The two joked among one another more often and Bazett seemed to actually smile around him now.

So Shirou spent the rest of his month and a half break training with Bazett both in magic based combat and close ranged combat. At first the girl was very skeptical about helping the boy create the beginning first few moves of his clearly suicidal sword style, but after much arguing and realizing that the faker wasn't going to budge on his idea, she relented to the point that she would help him practice a few sequences that would fit his criteria while still meshing well with a standard 2 sword style. It wasn't much, but then again it wasn't like she was a sword user or had much time to create a new style in the first place. It was more just practicing what they found had worked for the kid and then sparring to get him used to actually doing the moves in actual combat.

Waver's occasional lessons helped the boy become more adept at bounded fields and understand the basics of his father's magic crest. At first the red head was ecstatic about hearing that his father was capable of manipulating TIME of all things and imagined what it would be like to move at 5 times his natural speed while reinforcing himself… when Waver warned him of the repercussions of not only simply changing time over a wide area, but trying to alter time to his own body, especially since he only had 3 circuits remaining from the original crest.

Shirou had long since come to terms with standing on the verge of death when it came to utilizing standard magic… but risking blowing up his heart, major arteries, bones and other vital parts of his body at once just to move a bit faster for a few seconds wasn't something he was exactly comfortable with. All it took was for Shirou to manage to put an accelerating bounded field on a rock and then throw it a small distance before canceling out his magic to see what could have become of his body if he had done it to himself… he preferred to not to be shattered into tiny pieces thank you very much.

In the end Waver simply told Shirou that he had to find his own way to utilize the miniscule magic crest his father had given him. The time magic was indeed there, however it was far too unstable to be applied to his own person or anything he valued…

Of course it only took a day for the boy to come to the conclusion that he could somehow apply it to his fired projections, which would break anyways after they hit their target… the only question now was how to apply the magic in such a way that the swords would remain stable enough to not only last long enough to be considered an attack, but to also remain structurally stable enough to not shatter to pieces upon contact with the target… he had already determined that applying a normal time based bounded field on the projections was not a viable method as of yet due to the fact that he was not only still inexperienced with the new magic, but it took too much time and prana to utilize in an actual fight. He'd have to go into his 8 steps and find how to apply the magic into the right section in order to get this down…

Sirius' lessons on the other hand were more focused towards main stream basic magic and enhancing the boy's core spells: reinforcement, projection, structural grasping and a bit of alteration on the side. For the most part things went at a fairly average pace with Shirou. He wasn't a genius by any means. He just worked hard at what he was doing, be it sensing magical energies in others, learning the theory behind making familiars, and studying the science and theory behind the basic 5 elements.

When it came to his best branch of magic, most of their time was spent analyzing the boy's projections and picking out errors he had accidentally made or aspects he could improve on. Sirius took things to a new level when it came to structural grasping as well, forcing Shirou to not only fully analyze the object he was looking at, but to go a step deeper and grasp all the components on the same level as the main body. The Irish man claimed that the key to his own extreme form of reinforcement was by finding the gaps in the object he was empowering up to at least 3 levels of the object he was working on. Meaning he didn't just pump prana into the basic gaps into his body that normally existed between and in major muscles and organs, but then he pumped prana into the gaps inside of the materials of his bones, organs, and muscles, and then he pumped prana into the gaps in the very fibers that hold his body together. If what the old man said was true, then there were points where he was able to go even further and find the gaps inside the materials that made the fibers that made his organs as well, but that was difficult for even Shirou to believe was possible. This extreme version of structural grasping and reinforcement was something that to Sirius' knowledge unobtainable by someone who was not extremely talented and naturally gifted in structural grasping.

Of course Shirou was nowhere near that level of structural grasping yet. Not only did he see what the components of the object he analyzed, but his previous training forced him to see the very purpose, concept, and history of the object as well. This meant that while theoretically there was a possibility of the boy eventually reaching an even higher level of reinforcement than Sirius was capable of in due time, it would also take the faker longer to reach the level that the elder was currently at as well due to the fact that he was naturally dealing with more information in the first place.

As for alteration… in short it was really just Shirou trying to help Sirius go through the theory of removing a concept from an object while still maintaining its "completeness" and stability. The boy was just learning as they went along, but since it was just the halfway mark between reinforcement and projection it wasn't that difficult to catch up. They had made some interesting steps though, such as finding out that it was easier to perform the process of erasing an aspect so long as said aspect did not have an effect on the internal physical structure, such as turning a wooden toy back into a block of wood by removing the concept of what its shape was, such as "horse", "doll", "alphabet letter", "storage box", etc, from it. The longer the object has been in that state, or the more intricate the object is, the more prana and focus it would take to remove that aspect from it. The amount of prana used was slightly more than what it would take to change the base elements into that shape in the first place, but that had to do with the concept of the shape already being an intricate part of the object in the first place and had strong bonds with that which would be left over from the object. If the magus screwed up the process and didn't pay enough attention to what he was doing, the object he was altering would not only loose the concept that he originally was taking out, but would disrupt the object itself such that it would break down to its base elements and loose any other physical and some metaphysical aspects that would have remained had the spell worked normally. Sirius compared it to removing a card from a house of cards. The lower the card you want to remove, the more cards would fall down if you screwed up and the more difficult if became.

More complicated internal aspects such as material removal and enchantment removal were discovered to be significantly easier, or otherwise actually possible, if the caster had some sort of strong connection or medium to focus through to the removed aspect in the first place. For example, Sirius could actually remove the concept of "fire" from a burning fireplace thanks to his status as an average one such that the only thing left when he was done with the spell was extremely hot coals. It was easier to simply stop the fire through a far more basic extinguishing spell, however the results were more absolute this way as any possibility of the fire starting up again would disappear with the removal of the concept of "fire" from the coals instead of smothering the flames and being fairly certain that the fuel wouldn't reignite. The same could be done with removing the electrical charge from batteries and dehydrating plants until they were dust… albeit the last test was fairly more draining than Sirius had initially assumed due to the fact that water was an essential part to life and a living being's molecular makeup.

It was good theoretical training for Shirou since he normally focused more on practical applications of magic, but other than reducing normal everyday objects into base elements or basic structure reducing magic Shirou was unable to truly unable to utilize this magic completely as he had nothing inside of him or out that served as a significant enough medium to remove additional concepts from other objects. His element an origin were both "sword"… and technically he wanted the things in his hands to become more dangerous in a fight… not less.

Still, before he knew it, his summer break was over and with several goodbyes where Waver and Sirius were teasing Bazett who they were claiming was trying to put on a tough girl attitude the entire time, Shirou took the plane by himself back to Japan where one of Taiga's family's "associates" picked him up in a rather nice car, complete with one very hungry and weepy Taiga, and drove him back home where he immediately went to work cooking dinner lest the female screaming like a child in his living room use him for kendo practice again. Shirou would admit that he had gotten better at fighting… but not that much better without using magic…

And so this left Shirou resting in his bedroom alone after dinner with a full stomach and Fuji-nee already back home, simply enjoying being back home reminiscing on his training and how much had happened in that short amount of time…

… When the doorbell rang. Several times.

Shirou looked at the time. It was already past 10 and he didn't tell anyone he was back yet other than Fuji-nee. There was only one person he could think of that would visit him at this hour… and he really didn't want to deal with her right now.

Unfortunately for him said person didn't share his feelings and instead became more insistent with her pressing of his doorbell.

Grunting to himself and tiredly walking to his front door where the ringing had yet to cease. Closer and closer he walked, and as he did so he developed a rather appropriate headache to match the situation. By the time he reached the door his mind was near splitting as if he had been studying mundane history for several days straight.

The door opened to reveal a deceivingly calm and cheerful Rin Tohsaka. "Good evening Shirou-kun." She said pleasantly. "How has your vacation been?"

And thus the door closed as Shirou decided that if he had to deal with the harpy, the least she could do is not pretend to be everything that she was not to save him an even bigger headache. That way he could at least know what she wanted of him without bothering to translate every damned thing she said. He wasn't going to leave her alone after she bothered to come all the way to his place… but he would at least make it so that she would lose her cool enough that she wouldn't be in absolute control of the situation… not she knew what he was doing judging from the angry pounding she was giving his front door…

"Ah Rin, what are you doing here so late?" Shirou asked with the same smile Rin had on her face just moments before as he opened the door again to reveal a clearly more agitated and angry Tohsaka.

"Don't "Ah Rin" me you moron! Where the hell were you?" The girl growled angrily, all forms of modesty and self control in her small body now lost. "You left without any word for the entire vacation without telling me anything!"

The boy raised an eyebrow. "I was under the impression that as a human being I could go anywhere I wanted for extended periods of time."

"Not when you're my slave you aren't." The girl countered, getting a snort from the boy. "I was even thinking of helping you out with some of your magic out of the goodness of my heart during the break during my free time, but you obviously didn't care what I had planned to do for your benefit or even bothered to let me know that you were going somewhere…"

Shirou rolled his eyes. "Please, you probably just wanted to gloat about how much my magic sucked and have an excuse to stay away from that instructor of yours."

Rin flinched, knowing that the boy pretty much hit the nail on the head. Technically she wanted to spend more time with the only magus in the area that she didn't have strained relations with and talk to casually without having to watch what she says around… but she would be lying if she said what Shirou said wasn't true as well… which… she of course did.

"O-of course not!" The girl crossed her arms and looked away haughty. "What kind of person do you think I am?"

"The kind of person who would blackmail another who is already weaker than they are with their life at risk of being eternally experimented on to be their servant." Shirou stated bluntly. Rin didn't physically react from her stance, but the redhead could see the girl beginning to sweat nervously, indicating that he had her pegged.

Shirou enjoyed moments like these. It was a rare occurrence, but every once in a while Rin would let down her guard enough for Shirou to gain the upper hand in terms of dignity on the Tohsaka. The key was to keep on bringing up her faults and dishonest traits constantly and quickly so that she wouldn't have time to recover until she was a stuttering mess. Normally Shirou didn't like to pick on anyone, tending to avoid causing any trouble, but Rin and Taiga were special cases since they themselves caused him much trouble in the first place without any regards to his wishes. Technically, if Rin actually gave him more slack and treated him more like a human being instead of a slave or peon he wouldn't mind spending more time with her, but as it stood she was just another bully… only she could use magic better than he could… and in theory owned the entire city…

"Y-you…" She muttered and clenched a fist. "I'll let that pass this time Emiya, but don't you dare hope to get that lucky again…"

"Wouldn't dream of it." Shirou smiled gently, knowing that he had earned himself a small but very satisfying victory.

"So do you mind telling me where you were?" The girl crossed her arms expectantly. "You aren't the kind of person to just up and vanish for a while without telling people."

"I was out visiting the home of some extended family members." Shirou replied casually, knowing that this was exactly what Taiga told Tohsaka when the younger girl no doubted asked the elder when she discovered Shirou was gone. "They've dropped by every now and then and they wanted to help me out with my magic education whenever they had the chance…"

"That lie is so bad it hurts." Rin frowned at the redhead as if he was a fool. "How gullible do you think I am? Magi family members that happen to want to train you? You have your father's crest when you are adopted! If what you said is true, then they would have killed you and taken back the crest, even if it's only that pathetic little thing."

"Believe whatever you want, but it's the truth." Shirou shook his head. "They have their own crests since they are very distantly related but they happen to have liked dad. Not all magi are horrendously antisocial nobles that try their hardest to only barely know the people around them to keep up appearances you know." A metaphorical arrow shot through Rin's chest. "I did a bit of sparring training and my reinforcement, alteration, and projection skills have gotten a bit better… and they covered some of my basics in terms of magic that everyone else knows… but it's all pretty much stuff that I would have done with you other than the sparring, so in short they saved you the trouble of teaching me, so you didn't have to trouble with me at all." Another arrow pierced the girl's chest. Shirou on the other hand didn't pay attention to the girl's reaction and put on a thoughtful and distant expression. "Really… why do you bother to spend so much time on me when whenever we talk all you do is complain about how slow and pathetic I am in thaumaturgy and how I'm holding you back? I mean you've said it before but I'm really agreeing with you that it's a waste of time for you…" Yet another arrow pierced the girl who was now at a loss of words, unable to determine what to say or if she should feel embarrassed or enraged at what the boy was stating rather cluelessly. "… Especially since you have 5 elements and a boatload of spells that you can and have to master to satisfy that apparently sadistic teacher that you claim you have. It's like the only reason why you come here is to vent your frustrations onto me when you could be improving yourself…"

Several arrows pierced the girl, who was now slowly reaching into her pocket where she kept one of her emergency jewels fueled with prana. She really didn't care at this point. She would kill him and it would make her happy. It was a simple procedure that was absolute right now. Nothing would change her decision now. In a few moments Shirou Emiya would meet a violent and exploding end by her hands…

"Still, you at least bothered to help me out even if you didn't do it for my sake." The boy shook his head and turned around. "Come on in. It's late, but I'll make you something to eat since you probably rushed here after finding out I was back… probably by setting up a bounded field on the streets after I left or something… I thought I felt something funny as I was turning the corner…" He looked back holding the door open to look at Rin who looked like she was in the middle of taking something out of her pocket and in a halfway readied stance. "Well? Are you hungry?" He asked curiously.

The girl stared at the boy incredulously, not exactly sure how the hell to not only deal with the situation but with her own very confused emotions as well. "Wh-wh-what… the hell is wrong with you?" She stammered in unfocused rage at the boy, losing all composure in the process. "Honestly, how can you not understand that… I mean the fact that I… absolutely oblivious to…" She fumbled on her words and scratched at her head frustrated, not knowing what glaring topic to try and explain to the boy first, or if she should just bypass the entire process and stick to her original plan of just blowing the boy up.

"If you're not hungry just say so." Shirou sighed, once more showing that he was completely oblivious to what was causing Rin's frustration. "What's the matter now? I already told you where I went and I'm even offering to make you a late dinner."

"You are… just… unbelievable!" The girl shouted and pointed at him accusingly in pure frustration. "You know what? You're right! I have better things to do than waste my time with some 3rd rate magus like you trying to play babysitter! It won't even be worth my time to report an idiot like you to the association! I don't even know why I bothered with you in the first place!"

Before Shirou could even ask what was bugging her, Rin had stomped off down the street in a blind fury completely ignoring the boy and disappearing around the corner.

"What's her problem? I only offered her dinner…" Shirou asked to himself confused, clearly once again oblivious to the fact that he was the problem. Shaking his head, the boy sighed. "Oh well, maybe she'll make more sense when she comes to bug me next time…" He closed his eyes and sniffed the air for a moment before turning his head to look at a portion of the road halfway down to the nearest intersection. "There's the boundary she set up…" He muttered as he detected the line that crossed the entirety of the road and the sidewalks. "… Probably detects any magus that comes across it. It's pretty well hidden which is most likely why I missed it earlier… still to put one right in the middle of a road? That's just asking for a random magus to find my place…" Walking to the street and tapping into his circuits, the boy got to work getting rid of the field. Thanks to his father's teachings, he had a fairly efficient method of dispelling most bounded fields. The first step was… "Trace on…"

o. o. o.

"Well this is certainly interesting…" Kirei Kotomine mused as he watched Rin delve into her studies furiously with a drive that he rarely saw outside of the few spells that had gained the girl's attention. "You are exceptionally focused on what I teach you these days. May I ask why?"

"So long as you don't mind me giving you a false answer, go right ahead fake priest." Rin grunted as she read a book on advanced wind based thaumaturgy, something said fake priest had no doubt the girl could actually fully comprehend. She was as far as he could tell a genius after all, both in body and in mind.

"Hmph. Such well articulated scorn. As expected, that at least has not changed from the elegant Tohsaka heir." The man commented in amusement.

"Praise and scorn me all you want, I have more important things to do right now." The girl stated irritably. "The sooner I complete my studies under you, the sooner I can be done with you and get a real teacher…" _And the sooner I can shut Emiya up. Have better things to do than waste my time babysitting him do I? Fine then. I'll stop bothering him for now, but only until I'm finished with the priest. Then I'll force the fool to be my lap dog and drag him with me to the Clocktower when I get my acceptance. He'll have no choice but to do everything I tell him to or else… I think the first thing I'll do is make him my personal butler and bodyguard since all he really seems to be good for is fighting and housework…_

Kirei merely watched the girl in silence as she studied furiously from the corner of the room, curious as to what was so amusing about the subject to the girl that she would begin to chuckle so maliciously. He would admit that this new development had piqued his interest, however he decided against investigating the cause. No doubt it was another childish reason that Rin somehow blown out of proportion to fuel into her current self justified actions. He was merely her guardian after all. So long as she was properly taken care of and educated, she was free to go through the process in any way she pleased sans routes of heresy and forbidden magic. That was the task he was given by her deceased father in his will…

… and he was a man of god after all. Who was he to deny a dead man's last wishes?

o. o. o.

It is said that the world works in mysterious ways. Seemingly unrelated events could be very much entwined with one another if rather simple connections or changes are made between even just one or two seemingly miniscule elements. While a literal sense of the butterfly effect seems rather fictional, where if at the right place and the right time a butterfly's flapping wings could in fact manage to somehow cause a chain reaction that would eventually lead to something as great as a hurricane, a proportionally similar cause and effect could just as easily be made if significantly less specific conditions are met, especially in a world as secretive and influential as the one of magi… and vampires…

And thus Fuyuki City would experience such an event born from a man's dreams… 2 years before the next heaven's feel…

o. o. o.

A/N:

Ok. I have mixed feelings about this chapter and what I'm about to do. First of all, I am not confident in my writing of Bazett yet to do her character, which is why I skimmed over her for now. Plus I just wanted the time in England to be over with. Second, the holy grail war in itself, to me, seems as if it would end too quickly for my tastes to make a decently lengthed story with my particular writing style, so I'm twisting some events in the natsuverse in order to make a fairly innovative, creative, and character accurate side story before the war actually starts. And for all of you who are thinking I am throwing in characters from Tsukihime… no, you are wrong. No Shiki. No Arucreid. No Ciel. No Roa. I am using… other characters that do exist in the natsuverse as the antagonists for this bit and trying to keep things in character as I can without screwing myself over in the process. I will leave you guys a very vague hint though. Make no mistake, the events of Tsukihime did happen though as this next arc would be impossible to do if it didn't. It will be fairly lengthed, but the HGW will be bulk of the story. That bit will not change.

Next up is Shirou's and Rin's behavior. First, let me remind you that both of them are 13 years old. Neither one of them has as much control over their emotions as they did in the visual novels, and neither one of them is as mature as well. I tried to portray this when Shirou first unleashed his string of insults on Rin when she first arrived…

On the other hand, Shirou, (and this is myself analyzing his defections), is still virtually unable to determine, see, or even assume that other people value his presence as a person, truly enjoy spending time with him, and overall just think that people would help him for the sake of doing so... of course unless said people who wish to help him literally shout it to him in his face. This is portrayed in the part where he's insulting Rin's thinly veiled attempted good deeds without even knowing it. Rin obviously has some feelings for him, however as she is right now, she not only does not know of Shirou's distortion, but is so short tempered and fairly egotistical that she does not recognize her own feelings for him at this point in time.

Regardless… No. I'm not having Shirou get Fragarach for a long time if ever. It would be far too much and unbelievable if I did let him get another noble phantasm so soon.

So anyways… this chapter was a bitch for me to write for some reason. Hopefully the next one will be easier for me to pull off.

So review! Worship the log! Eat popcorn as Bazett beats the living shit out of Shirou! And Review Again!


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter 9: Alteration

I do not own Fate/Stay Night and stuffs:

o. o. o.

In a distant remote castle:

The man looked past his window silently upon the massive grounds that he claimed as his own. Bounded field after field surrounded and permeated his property in an intricate lattice of defenses that were a testament to his skills as a magus… yet still while this was beyond virtually any magically capable human of modern times, the fortress' defenses were still lacking when compared to those of his kin…

He shook his head. Honestly… he was indeed a capable individual among his kind… yet it was still centuries before he would attain the level of power he would need to truly be worth the rank he was designated among the 27…

Until then however, he would rely on his collection to stay alive and buy time…

"Father…" A female voice stated rather calmly to the standard human ear, seemingly appearing from the shadows behind the owner of the land.

To the man however, he heard the sweet voice of his daughter holding back some form of excitement, nowhere near the extent she had had when he had been promoted to one of the noble ranks, but still significantly eager. "Yes daughter? What news do you have?" He asked curiously, stroking his beard as he did whenever he was or was about to think. "Did you find the artifact?"

"No father. Brother is still searching for it… however I have found out that that man who you were always rather eager to… speak to has been active lately…" The younger smiled confidently. "He's away from the city as we speak…"

The collector's eyes widened momentarily before he donned a small but satisfied smile. "Ah… is that so daughter? Good work. I was disappointed when I originally found out how he spend all of his time in that blasted area… however now I can finally speak to him and give him some requests without any interruptions…" He walked lightly to a nearby cabinet where he stocked some very fine alcohol and poured himself a small glass of liquid from a rather valuable looking flask. "If you could dear daughter, please visit our dear friend as soon as possible and give him my request and invite him here. Be convincing if you need to be, however do not go overboard, he is a valued guest after all… but if that is the case, it would be best to bring your brother to be safe…"

The female looked at her father curiously. While by themselves the siblings were fairly capable fighters, together… "Bring brother? Are you sure that is necessary father?"

The human looking male chuckled faintly before swirling the alcohol in his glass. "He is a very capable person daughter. He would have to be in order to gain my interests after all…"

o. o. o.

England:

"So what's it like ta be a Lord lad?" Sirius grinned as he leaned up against a tree and drank some beer.

Thock.

Waver shrugged as he smoked another cigar. "It's a great honor… but honestly I'm getting sick of the dirty looks. The Archibalds pretty much gave me the title in order to enslave me to their family…"

Thock.

"… The mages with 4 generations or less of history are all jealous as hell of me because I somehow got the title…" He continued, ignoring the odd sound from several feet away from him.

Thock. Thock.

"… And those with huge family backgrounds are insulted that a commoner with no outstanding magical ability could get such a title, and honestly if I weren't so glad to be recognized for my work I would have agreed with all of them." He concluded. "To be frank, the only redeeming quality that I think I have is that I'm a bookworm, I'm fairly quick at learning most forms of alternate magic, and I don't restrict myself with pride like most lords."

Thock.

"Ah ya get used ta it." Sirius grunted as he looked at the obliterated soda cans that were laying on the ground. "Hold on ah sec. Ta lad needs more targets again…" He commented before taking out a knife from one of his pockets, pricking his forefinger and muttering a quick spell under his breath. The moment a single drop of blood fell to the ground, all of the cans seemed to not only revive, but placed themselves back on the small stone ledge where they had been set just a minute earlier.

Waver however looked in the direction of where the source of the soda can mutilator was. "Forget me though. Shirou's made some impressive progress in these past few years. How far did you say he is right now?"

Sirius looked in the youngest boy's direction and channeled some prana to his eyes. "Eh… bout 3/4ths of a mile… give or take…" He watched as three spiral shaped swords in the form of arrows blurred through the air and each nailed a revived soda can dead center in rapid succession.

Thock. Thock. Thock

Waver whistled, clearly impressed. "I have to say… it's not often you hear of a magus that age who can pull some long ranged activity like that…" He grimaced. "Especially so soon after that little mishap with that experiment of his…"

Sirius scratched the back of his head sheepishly. "Yeah… it was a good ting you were here lad. Ahm not tat good wit tose kind o wounds… Ah have ta admit though… ah didn't expect sometin like tat ta happen when he attempted ta try tat spell…"

"I wouldn't have either." Waver shrugged. "The idea and concept behind it is pure genius, and he is certainly the only person I can think of that can perform it… however the execution still needs a great deal of work if he wants to use it for its intended purpose…" He chuckled. "Funny… Shirou trains so much with weapons… yet it's the first real defensive spell he's trying to make that's done the most damage to him so far…

"Any ideas on how ta fix it?" Sirius asked curiously.

The lord glanced at the elder man before letting out a long stream of smoke exit his mouth. "A couple, but they all involve a load of research and effort. One path involves making the spell manifest as a portion of Gaia's existence while maintaining its properties, effectively doubling or tripling its prana cost, and another involves much studying of how the planet moves with the respect to the universe… neither are easy things to go about doing mind you…"

Thock. Thock.

"So…" Sirius sighed as he glanced at the setting sun. "We have 2 more years…"

Waver nodded. "Yeah… time really flies when you're life is on a clock…"

The old man glanced at the 24 year old. "How's he progressin in oter fields lad?"

Waver paused, inhaling deeply before exhaling again. "Average." He stated calmly. "Other than his fields of specialty and bounded fields… he's completely average and unremarkable in terms of thaumaturgy. His circuits are exceptionally good, in number and more so in quality… but he's still just average. He's more suited to be an enforcer with the way he approaches things… but Bazett could have told you that…"

"Aye she has." The red headed man nodded. "Ta lad seems ta be gettin pretty good in terms of fightn with 2 swords… though she can still kick his arse up and down these hills if she felt like it…"

"So long as she hasn't shown him Fragarach at least." Waver smirked.

"Secret weapons are secret fer a reason lad." Sirius shook his head. "Ah'd be surprised if ta lass actually showed it ta him."

"So you say, but that girl does occasionally act out." The younger magus glared at the elder. "If you haven't noticed, she has a tendency to bolt whenever it's time to do chores around the place or whenever she gets assigned a mission from the higher ups…"

"Ah yer just jealous cause ya wanted ta spend more time wit ma lass…" The old man chuckled darkly.

"Wha?" Sputtered the lord as he coughed on his cigar. "What the hell gave you that idea?"

"Oh ah see tings…" Laughed Sirius before a slew of arrows took out the remaining soda cans in rapid succession. "Not bad…" He muttered. "So ya tink he can do a ritual for ta war wit his current abilities?"

Waver nodded. "It wouldn't be as professional as most, but he is definitely capable enough to do so right now if he wanted. He probably would be able to feed his servant more prana than the average master with his current abilities as well. Of course that is him now. We still have more time to work on his flaws…"

Sirius sighed and closed his eyes in deep thought. "… Tats what ah tought…" He muttered and crossed his arms. "… Ah just hope tat he doesn't hate us afta he opens ta box…"

Waver frowned. "That's not for another year though, when we finally start training him for the war itself… Shit! Dodge!" The lord ran away from the soda cans and hit the deck, barely followed by Sirius before several dozen spiraled swords shot through the air at blinding speeds and absolutely destroyed the general area where the targets were, tossing up several clouds of smoke in the process as well as completely obliterating whatever soda can there was left on the ledge… and the ledge in general. "Damn it!" Coughed Waver. "I told him not to practice any variants of gradient parallel when we were in the way!"

Gradient parallel, aka, "complete copy" or in short the copy spell. A variation of projection in which the caster does not use an image from his mind as the base for his mana to take form after, but an object itself instead. It was slightly more applicable form of projection in the eyes of standard magi in the world as many found it easier to replicate what was right in front of them instead of something they attempt to blueprint in their minds. Like the original spell though, the produced items will erode in time due to the fact that Gaia recognizes them as irregularities and will erase it to restore the natural order. The distance from the original that the copies can be adjusted as well as the number that can be manifested are solely dependent on the caster's ability to confidently and stably weave large amounts prana evenly among the various clones. Due to the lack of significant experimental applications that this spell can be used for, in addition to the large amount of effort it takes in order to learn it, not many magi bother to learn this spell…

Of course Shirou was a practitioner of thaumaturgy that focused more on "practice" than "theory"… and his practice found this particular spell rather useful… especially when applied to his projected arrows and designed to activate after a small amount of time.

"At least ta lad's getting betta at it." Sirius chuckled amused as he brushed himself off after getting his hearing back. "Ya kno… ah had completely forgotten tat "complete copy" was a variant of projection till ah did a little research on it… funny what we can skip ova in class…"

"Funny doesn't pierce us with full of holes made by swords Sirius." Waver coughed and stood up. "As impressive as it was, I'm willing to completely ignore the sensation of being impressed this time in favor of being irritated that I was almost skewered by swords flying through the air…"

"Kill joy…" Sirius grumbled as he looked at his watch. "Ah… ya gotta go soon. Ta lad's flight is soon…"

"It's not my fault if we're late." Waver shook his head. "You and Shirou are the ones who wanted to do some last minute ranged training since he can't do it much back in Fuyuki. Plus I can't leave you to get Shirou to the airport…" He shivered. "You are by far the worst driver I have ever seen… and that's when you AREN'T drunk…"

"Second accordin' ta Kiri." Sirius laughed. "He claimed his wife held firs place in tat bout…"

"Guys!" A third voice shouted in both English and alarm from the direction the projectiles came from. "I'm so sorry! I thought that I had it this time!" Waver and Sirius turned to see 16 year old Shirou Emiya running to them at a very fast rate, no doubt thanks to his advanced reinforcement enabling him to run at almost 30 miles an hour, something that would cause most physically focused magi to drool in envy. The boy was tall and a bit lean, but in extremely good shape. He wore a blue and white tshirt with loose tan carpenter pants and sneakers, however the most notable trait about him was the facts that his skin was slightly tan and a few of the hairs on his head were going grey prematurely. Sirius and Waver had determined that it came from the boy's frequent use of projection over the past few years, however at the current rate the changes were happening the boy probably wouldn't go full grey until maybe the end of his college years.

"Ya did have it lad!" Sirius called out as the boy approached them rapidly. "Ya had it all ova ta place!"

"Funny." Waver rolled his eyes as he used some prana to clean himself off. "Come on Shirou. You have a plane to catch and I have a work to do at the tower."

"What about Bazett-nee?" Shirou asked curiously, still adding the honorific despite speaking in the native language. "I thought she was coming to see me go as well."

"Ta lass is gonna come by ta visit me and give me a lift back ta London tomorra. She couldn't make it t'day cause her assignment took too long." Sirius waved his hand casually. "T'night ahm gonna get smashed wit a few old mates from ta nearby town."

"Give Bazett my condolences." Waver shook his head. "She's going to have a hard time dragging your massive carcass back to the shop."

The eldest looked affronted. "O'course she is! Look at me! Ah'm bloody huge lad!"

The lord ignored the least mature of the group to turn his attention to Shirou. "Let's go. I have your luggage packed in the car and I have the car keys…" He paused and saw the boy looking worriedly at Sirius. "All the car keys…" The 24 year old added, knowing that the boy was extremely wary of the old man drunk behind the wheel. "You have your cell?"

"Yes mom…" The faker rolled his eyes as he took out the portable communication device from one of his pockets. Normally magi didn't tend to use modern technology, deeming them useless and inefficient compared to magical devices. However due to Sirius's and Shirou's specialties and Waver's willing to stray from the norm on occasion, all three were able to see the usefulness in being able to communicate and exchange information over long distances in the middle of public without using prana or looking suspicious. In addition to that, Shirou and Sirius were also rather adept in other fields of technology and engineering as well. So much so that the old man, if his claims were true, actually made and enchanted several computers from scratch that could hack into anything and was now sitting upon what he claimed to be the greatest databank of non magic related secret documents in the world…

He was still wondering what to do with it all other than abuse it to pay the bills.

Waver patted the boy on the back and began to walk to the workshop. "Good. Come then. Since you were so eager to experiment with your prana just now, you should be glad to know that before you get on the plane you are to structurally grasp 500 complicated objects completely before we get onto the plane… including the plane."

Shirou froze and paled. "500? Are you serious?"

The Lord smirked. "Of course. How are you to improve your understanding of yourself, your weapons, and the world around you if you hold back on your training?"

Sirius chuckled as he watched the 2 younger males walk away. Ah to be young again and worry about the simple things like too much training… albeit Shirou would probably have a massive headache the size of his mother in law by the end of the 500 scannings, but it was still technically safer than some of the other things he could be practicing. Smiling to himself lightly, the man turned in the opposite direction with the intent to be thoroughly smashed for an extended period of time.

o. o. o.

Fuyuki:

"I am rather impressed…" Kirei commented as Rin stood in front of him defiantly with her arms crossed but still maintaining a confident smirk. "I didn't expect you to fully complete the training I had in store for you 2 years early…"

"Careful fake priest." The Tohsaka sighed aridly. "You almost sound happy that you're done with me."

"On the contrary." The messenger of god corrected the girl. "I am happy that my charge has progressed so much in such a short amount of time. It speaks wonders of both your talents and of mine."

Rin rolled her eyes. "Who do you think you are fooling? You merely guided me in the directions I needed to go. The one that did all the work and effort was me."

The priest chuckled and turned to a nearby door. "But is that not the way that it should be between a true master and student with strong bonds? For the master to point out the direction the student must go and trust in the student's abilities, and for the student to trust the teachings and advice of the master? The bond between both would be so absolute that they would not question the other's abilities at all in the process, it is a fascinating concept isn't it?"

Rin faltered as her argument was turned against her so smoothly. "Bu… tch." She turned her head to the side and looked away haughtily. "Don't get ahead of yourself Kotomine. You know as well as I do that you barely taught me anything other than combat tactics and advice, and that was mostly stemming from your training in the church."

The man nodded. "Indeed… though you took quite well to those teachings as well… though you did get a bit too into it at times. Dare I ask who you were thinking of during your mock spars?" He pretended not to notice the twitch in the girl's hand.

"I… was simply looking at you faker." She snapped. "The sight of you annoys me to no end! I just want to beat your face in sometimes!"

Kirei sighed. "You would not be the first I'm afraid. My personality is after all one that does not appeal to many in today's society."

"You're telling me." The girl muttered, flipping her hair. "So let's just get on with this already. The sooner I'm done with you, the sooner I can do my own experiments and have a life again. Maybe I'll start by hunting down magi that are in town if there are any…"

The priest's face stilled. "I would advise against that Rin. You are very talented in many fields and have access to both prana and magic, however it would be best if you waited to gain more experience with me when it comes to combat before you leave to fight your battles alone. There are some magi out there who are unnaturally cunning despite having fairly common backgrounds and limited ranges of spells. I for example, would have little trouble killing you should you attempt to end me here despite my limited experience in performing magic and underdeveloped circuits."

Rin snorted. "Yeah but you're an executioner. Name me one magus that fits that quota that could defeat me hands down as you said."

Kirei could have named a multitude of individuals that fit the bill right then and there, including but not limited to her father and several enforcers that he had come across during his missions… but one name seemed to pop out among the others. "Kiritsugu Emiya." The man stated calmly.

Rin froze. "Kiritsugu… Emiya?" She repeated with a sharp eye. "Who's that?"

Kirei watched the girl carefully. The name rung a bell with her for some reason, but it didn't seem like she knew the man. He decided to humor her a bit and continue, if only to give himself some more hints. "He was a freelancer of extremely high skill and talent… so much so that he was dubbed the Magus Killer by the association and the church, both deeming him an individual to keep an eye on." He looked up as he remembered the man who caused him so much trouble in the 4th war despite only meeting him once. "In terms of a magus, he was fairly average, however from the way he fought and carried himself you could tell that he did not carry himself like one in the slightest. Poison, bombs, guns, blackmail, bystanders, he used any and everything at his disposal to the highest efficiency to take out his objective magus or not... and I assure you he had managed to kill any and all magi he was assigned to take out before he died. He was not restricted by either the magical world's moral codes nor the normal worlds. While I did say that as a magus he was average, as a specialist he would clearly stand a head above virtually all others in the association, enforcers included. You would not stand a chance against that man in combat, that much is certain." The priest turned to the girl with calm eyes. "He was the master of Saber in the last war, and the one responsible for the catastrophe that happened at the very end of it."

Rin was silent as she stared at her guardian with calm calculating eyes. "… Was he the one who killed my father?" She asked calmly.

Kirei closed his eyes and turned around. "It is unclear." He replied. "From what I was told, he was indeed responsible for taking out the most number of contestants in the war, killing Lancer, Beserker, and Caster as well as most of their masters… but the identity of the one who overtook Tokiomi is shrouded in darkness…" He should really become a poet. Being able to speak of himself so calmly yet so ambiguously on the drop of a hat must be a talent of sorts. "What I do know however was that at the end of the war, his servant and Emiya's were the last of the 7 standing… before the man for some deluded reason forced his Saber to destroy the grail…"

The room the 2 were in was silent for several seconds before Rin spoke up. "… I'll keep that in mind the next time I try to fight someone…"

"Please don't make it a habit." The man commented. "Overestimating an opponent is just as bad as underestimating one and can lead to overextending yourself and wasting energy."

"Thanks for telling something I already know priest." Rin grunted, clearly in a darker mood now. "Just finish the ritual already so I can get on with my life."

Kirei nodded with a calm and emotionless face. Inside on the other hand he was pleased to see that his words managed to spawn some sort of turmoil inside his student. He didn't know exactly what events he had just put into motion, however he was certain that they would be very interesting to say the least.

o. o. o.

He was dreaming of swords again.

Ever since Shirou had learned of his origin and element… of what he truly was deep down, he had frequently dreamed of swords of any and all kinds. Long, short, straight, curved, eastern, western, bastard, flamberge, holy, demonic, enchanted, blessed, cursed, elemental… the list was endless. Only the weapons he had already seen in real life appeared clearly when he dreamed while the rest were blurred to the point that even if he could focus his prana in that dazed dream state he would only be able to grasp the vaguest purposes of the weapons in front of him…

However recently, swords were not the only thing he saw when he dreamed.

Once more he found himself in that unidentified location, sitting alone on that blurry hill looking outward over the vast field that melded itself with the oddly colorless sky in the distance. From what he could tell, there was nothing defining the area around him other than the hill itself and the swords embedded blade first into the earth all over for as far as he could tell. As hard as he tried, he could not gain any details about the earth or sky around him. Even the colors eluded him despite the fact that he could clearly tell where the ground stopped and the air he breathed began. It was almost as if the dirt was still deciding what materials it should be made of and the sky was deciding what color it should be…

And the dreamer himself was fine with that as he looked around himself, peacefully waiting on the only hill there…

Waiting?

Yes. He was waiting. The sensation he was experiencing couldn't be defined as anything else. His body somehow knew that its place was there on top of that hill until… until… something happened. What… his mind did not comprehend, but everything else in his being seemed to know without a doubt... and he somehow knew that it would come so long as he stayed where he was right now on the highest point in this mysterious field…

So he waited and watched for the moment that the thing he was holding out for would arrive and he would be moved from the hill of blades…

And waited… and waited… and flew…

… And flew?

Wham!

"We're hoooooooooome!" Taiga Fujimura yelled happily as she climbed out of the car door that she had just literally kicked Shirou out of. "Doesn't it feel good to be back!"

Shirou… merely felt good that he had just barely managed to reinforce his body enough on reflex that he didn't break anything when he landed face first on the pavement. "Somewhat Fuji-nee…" He grunted as he picked himself up. "It would have been better if you didn't almost kill me as soon as I got her though…" He flinched as his head began to ache…

Much like Waver had claimed, Shirou had indeed performed structural grasping on 500 objects of various sizes, complexities, and ages on his way to the plane. Cars, trucks, buildings, phones, clothes, food, cash registers, security equipment, security personnel attire, clothes, watches, planes of multiple types and sizes, an entire terminal of London Heathrow Airport, the list went on for a very long time. So much so that by the time Shirou was to enter the plane, Waver had to hypnotize several flight attendants to get him inside due to the fact that the boy was barely lucid and responsive. The second they dropped him into his seat, the boy had passed out into a sleep so deep they barely managed to wake him up when the plane landed in Japan. From there the boy had managed to deal with the mere borderline skull splitting headache he still had, get his luggage, go to the bathroom, find Taiga and the Yakuza ride she had brought with her, and hypnotize them to let him sleep for the duration of the 4 hour ride back home…

Obviously he had forgotten to slip in instructions on how to wake him up once they finally arrived. Still, his headache was still only on a mildly painful level now. He could easily deal with it now.

Taiga of course didn't really care about that. Shirou was home, alive, not crippled, and thus physically capable of cooking for her. Him being in pain didn't really matter for her in her current joy filled state as she patted him heavily on the back. "Aw don't be such a killjoy! We all know you're tougher than that Shirou-kun!"

"For some reason I don't feel happy to hear that." The boy mumbled as he turned to see the 2 Yakuza that had escorted them from the airport take his luggage out of the trunk. The one taking his stuff was fairly big and tan while the other casually standing next to him was on the smaller and skinnier side…

Chack. Chack.

The Emiya's mind instinctively began to perform structural grasping on the 2 men the moment he looked at them, analyzing their clothes, their body types, and anything they might have been carrying on them. The one with his luggage had a Kevlar vest on underneath his business clothing and somehow had a gun strapped to his side… though he couldn't tell what model. The smaller of the two's clothes were also built to withstand combat, but the padding was more for blunt objects and knives than bullets. He wore 3 chains of valuable metals underneath his collared shirt and had a large knife of some sort in his pants pocket, one that he could tell he had a fairly long history with but nothing else since he was only looking at its general status through the man's clothes… both men were fairly used to basic combat and skirmishes, things that most Yakuza participated in from time to time, but nothing on the level of finesse that he had been training for…

"Something catch your eye Emiya?" Asked the smaller man curiously, snapping Shirou out of his analysis. While the boy preferred to stay on the opposite side of the law to the men there, he would admit that he was on fairly good terms with more than a few of the members of the local "families"… mostly because he did repairs for a good number of their bikes for very reasonable prices and he kept to himself.

"Ah…" The boy laughed and scratched the back of his head sheepishly. "Yeah sorry. It was nothing… just thinking about some stuff."

The man nodded. "No harm done. Be careful bout lookin at people like that though. If I didn't know you as well as I did, I'd clock you before asking what your problem was for looking at me like that…"

Shirou winced. Sirius had pounded the habit of doing structural grasping on anyone suspicious looking into Shirou about a year earlier and the boy was still having trouble controlling himself from time to time, especially when he was tired. Technically the habit was an absolute boon to anyone who was fighting someone new for the first time if their ability in the skill was high enough. Armor, weapons, even fighting styles could be completely divulged before the fight would even begin. Sirius claimed that he could even determine what a person's element was at the drop of a hat so long as it was among the basic 5, though that may be simply because of his status as an average one. Shirou on the other hand, was capable of dissecting a person's clothing and armor remarkably quickly as well as weapons and what the person was carrying on them. Unfortunately, so long as they were concealed, the objects he scanned were greatly reduced in terms of detail. For example, the knife the Yakuza had on him could be one of a multitude of models, all of which the boy could reproduce and project if he saw directly, but since it was in the subject's pants pocket he only knew that an unenhanced knife of a certain length was in the man's left pants pocket and he seemed to know how to use it. As for the individuals he scanned, Shirou could only determine at best: if the person was injured or sick, the person was channeling any prana or was enchanted/cursed in some way, if they had any history with any tools they had on them, how experienced in combat they were, and what their body was built for. It was a limited range of information, but it was useful none the less.

"My bad." He grimaced. "I've just had a nasty headache for a while and well… Fuji-nee just kicked me out of the car…"

The big Yakuza laughed. "Heh. No worries kid. Yoshi just likes to push people around from time to time." He walked to the driver's side of the car. "Oh, yeah. I almost forgot. The boss wants to ask for your help on fixing his bike again this weekend. He overdid it again driving around the mountain ranges a couple of weeks ago and nearly had a fit when Taiga told him you were away." He chuckled. "The boss nearly beat a few of the other guys senseless to try and get their bikes a couple of days ago…"

Shirou laughed. "Yeah sure. Tell him I'll get right on it as soon as I can."

"Oi!" Taiga yelled as she grabbed onto the boy's ear and began to drag him to the main entrance of his home as the car drove off. "Stop talking about the boring stuff! I've been holding out all day for your cooking and now that you're here I can actually do something to make it come out faster!"

"Owowowowow!" Shirou repeated in response to having his ear nearly torn off. "Careful! I need that to hear!"

"Honestly…" The college junior sighed. "Every time you come back from England it's like you turn more into a different person! More of your hairs are going grey and your skin is even darker! People don't get tans in England for winter break!" She began to cry to the sky. "Kiritsugu-san! What should I do? Your son is doing suspicious things on the other side of the world with your family! Shirou says its nothing important but still! I think he doesn't love me anymore! Waaaaa!"

"I get it! I get it!" The male hushed as he looked around nervously and hoping that no bystanders would get the wrong impression of him. "I'll start making dinner now! Just stop crying!"

"Yay!" Taiga cheered, already snapped out of her childish depression as she grabbed his bags and rushed inside before pausing and looking at the boy slyly. "Oh by the way! I invited Sakura over! You know that she's always eager to see you when you get back from your trips."

Shirou blinked before ignoring the suspicious way Taiga was looking at him. "Sakura's coming over? Ok then, I'll cook for her as well but first I have to make sure that I have enough stuff in the kitchen. I just got back so I have to first check what I have that I can use…"

Fujimura paused before glancing at the boy with a disappointed look and disappearing in the house with his luggage. "Ah… it's not my place to tell him…" She muttered loudly as she went to his room.

The faker looked at his guardian skeptically before shaking his head and brushed off what the woman said as another one of her random rants. As he walked into the doorway, he paused momentarily to scratch his left arm near the shoulder, brushing his sleeve up in the process and momentarily uncovering a thin faint scar that went around the entirety of the limb…

o. o. o.

At an undisclosed Location:

The large old man grunted in pain and irritation as he slowly regained consciousness. At first he assumed that he must have gotten FAR more smashed than he originally anticipated and done something incredibly stupid before he fell asleep, until he registered the fact that the aches in his body were not normally the ones that were associated with a punch drunk happy night in a random pub in northern England… they were the aches and pains of a post battle… and getting hit hard in the back of the head in a manner to knock him out…

… Technically there weren't many differences between the two, but Sirius had been through both enough times to tell them apart.

Slowly picking himself up and taking in as much of his surroundings as possible, the man began to make an assessment of his situation. _Walls__… __magic __resistant__ an __thick __with __no __vents __or__ drains __in __ta __ceiling __or __floor, __entrance__… __one, __current__ body__ state__… __minimal __injuries __an __limited __access __to __circuits__… __there__'__s __also __an __enchanted __bracelet __on__ my __left __arm__ that__'__s __designed__ ta__ do __something __nasty __but __specifics __unknown __without __further __analysis. __Luckily __te __bastard __didn__'__t __mess__ wit __ta __runes __on__ my __body. __The __room__… __a __bed, __2 __chairs, __an a __table__… __all __of __high__ quality__…_ The man grimaced as he slowly got onto his feet, his head pounding from the hangover. _From__ ta __poundin__ in__ me __head, __ahm __guessin __it __hasn__'__t __been__ long __since __ah __was __brought __in__… __but__ ahm __still __alive __an__ in __one __piece__… __so __whoeva __took __me __wants __sometin __of __me__ or __needs __me__ alive __an__ in__ peak __condition__ ta __get __it__…_

"Ahm up already." Sirius spoke rather loudly and a bit irritably. "Ya can show yerself now! Preferably if ya got sometin fer me ta eat! Just ta let ya know! Ahm easier ta talk to when ahm not hungry!"

Unsurprisingly, an old but amused chuckle made itself known from the other side of the doorway. "I see the rumors about your lack of tact were rather accurate…" The voice mused as the owner walked into view. He appeared to be middle aged with slick back dark hair, a full beard, an eloquent cloak over slightly outdated but still extremely formal clothing, and confident eyes. His demeanor was calm and confident as he swirled a glass of wine in one hand slowly. "Still, it is an honor to finally meet you in person Sirius McGinty. I am truly humbled."

Sirius on the other hand tensed the moment he laid eyes on the man. _Vampire__…_ He mentally swore as his structural grasping of the individual revealed the inner workings of his body and screamed powerful undead. However Sirius was not new to surprising circumstances and almost instantly regained composure. "Eh." He shrugged irritably. "Ya got one fan ya got a hundred. Can't say I approve of yer hospitality though… such a nice place and no grub? How often do ya play host?"

The man chuckled. Barely up and the human was already prepared to play a game of tongues with him… he truly was impressive. "Not often enough I'm afraid." He sighed. "I am a bit of a recluse you see, granted I still have frequent contact with the outside world but rarely do I actually go out or invite others to merely… socialize."

"I take it ahm not here ta simply keep ya company." Sirius stated the obvious. "Ya want me ta make ya some weapon."

The man nodded. "I would have put it in a less crude manner, but yes I guess that is why I brought you here. Don't be put off though, I am indeed a fan of your work. In fact I have over the years managed to… acquire some of your works to add to my collection and might I say that I value them all quite highly…"

The blacksmith's eyes narrowed, managing to identify his captor from his description of his hobbies. "Yer Louvre."

Louvre, a vampire, or the more technical term dead apostle, who has lived somewhere in Norway for around 500 years, personally taking the blood of 5000 people and infecting many times more if the rumors could be believed. His most notable trait though was the fact that he is a collector of mystic codes and conceptual weapons, making him in a way more dangerous than a vast majority of the dead apostles in the world. If what the enforcers said were true, the man has a pair of successors as well, his son and daughter who each bear his name and make him all the more dangerous. This was due to the fact that it is said that vampire's powers exponentially increase when near blood relatives…

Sirius had a bone to pick with this particular vampire for a while since the blood sucker had a habit of going out of his way to hunt down his customers and steal his work, so much so that the association at one point had restricted him from making codes for anyone other than nobles and high level enforcers for a fairly long time a few decades back in order to prevent the vampire from going after any other high profile targets.

The vampire however didn't seem to care at all what the bigger of the two thought of him and bowed, flattered. "… I'm honored that you know of me."

"Kinda hard not to know of ta vamp tat's made a habit o killn me customers." Sirius grunted. "Ya landed me in a pretty nasty pile o political crap a few years back cause o yer huntin."

Louvre sighed aridly. "I may have been a bit overzealous when it came to furthering my collection, however not all the blame lies with me Sirius. Had their previous owners simple allowed me to acquire the codes, and had the current association not lead itself blindly with its over idealistic and pompous way of thinking, things would have been far more convenient for you…" He stroked his beard thoughtfully. "Speaking of the association… how is the Kaleidoscope fairing?"

Kischur Zelretch Schweinorg. AKA The Wizard Marshal, Kaleidoscope, and Old Man of the Jewels. One of the 5 masters of true magic in the world today… and the number 4 of the 27 dead apostle ancestors. Despite being turned into a vampire years beyond years ago, the immensely powerful man lives his extremely long life as a human and in a high seat in the magus association, using his magic to travel between dimensions to participate in various activities and projects.

It should be noted that one of his previous projects several hundred years ago was aiding the Einzberns, Makiri, and Tohsaka establish the Holy Grail ritual…

Sirius frowned. "No clue. Zel went off ta do his thing couple o decades ago an ah haven't heard from him since. Why would ya want ta know? Most of yer kind aren't too keen on even talkin about him?"

Louvre smiled. "Why it's simple. I simply want to know of the current status of my fellow ancestor seeing as I have recently been honored with the number 10."

Sirius' eyes widened in shock. The 27 dead apostle ancestors are the aristocratic elite of the vampires. Over the years, some of the originals have been sealed away by the Church or have been annihilated. The leadership of some of different factions have constantly changed throughout the generations as they have been replaced, while others still reign as Ancestors in the present era. In fact the number of species in this list expanded as well to include but not limited to an alien from Mercury, a ghost, an actual FOREST, and a dog born from Gaea with the sole purpose to kill humans that is so powerful it actually holds the current number 1 position.

There are some missing numbers yet to be replaced, as they have been executed or sealed away by the Church, but the majority of them are still running all over the world without much to get in their way other than themselves. Most of the ancestors are very powerful beings, and many have the ability to utilize Reality Marbles as they are no longer human and view the world around them in a fashion that does not align to either Alaya, the spirit of humanity, or Gaia, the spirit of the earth.

Their general ranking is not determined exclusively by how powerful he or she is individually, but rather the paramount danger he or she poses to humanity. Zelretch for example, held the spot of number 4 even though he is human friendly, due to the fact that he once literally forced the moon, which was falling to earth, back into orbit… by himself.

Small wonder no one in the magus association ever attempted to slap a sealing designation on the man.

Still, number 10…

"Tat was ta Soil o' Genesis' spot." Sirius grunted, stuck between relief, curiosity, concern, and apprehension. "He was supposed ta be hard ta kill even by yer kind's standards. Who took him out?" Hard to kill was an understatement. With a body that consisted of 666 different monsters and beasts of all kinds whose essences would return to him if killed, the man pretty much was deemed unstoppable unless all of the beasts were killed at once before their essences returned to the original source.

Louvre nodded, his smile dropping a bit. "Indeed he was a formidable individual… if we could call him that due to his slipping sanity and abilities. However even he could not compare to the white princess when tasked to end her, and I heard that the Serpent of Akasha met his final end shortly after that as well… and after all that here I am. With a noble position that is so grand… that I am unable to truly meet its name as I am…"

The larger man frowned. "So ya want me ta make ya sometin tat will hold ya off till ya get strong enough to have tat number."

"Indeed." The vampire nodded. "By my estimates, I still need another 200 years before I acquire the sufficient power needed to earn the number 10. While I do have confidence that my collection can aid me in defeating most of the rabble that would attempt to end me, there are a few individuals that would obviously cause some concern, one of whom is that distasteful "Queen" of the association."

Sirius couldn't help but snort. Lorelei Barthomeloi was considered one of the most powerful magi in the association period. While her family, (which in general was deemed so "noble" that most of the reputable magic families in the world would be considered utter shit when compared to), had a tendency to hate and hunt vampires for sport as a past time, Lorelei took it a step further and hunted them down with a religious passion, and was damned good at it too. Word was she was strong enough to compare with the stronger of the dead apostle ancestors, already having 2 kills under her belt.

He occasionally wondered if she was on his level back when he was in his prime… but he never brought it up seeing as he preferred not to irritate noble females if he could help it. Normal females were hard enough to understand and bring back down to reality without something tearing off a chunk out of your ass.

"Owch." The red headed man laughed. "No wonder ya wanted me so badly. I almost don't blame ya fer kidnappin me now. Tat lass would make anyone run fer ta hills."

"Quite." The vampire said tersely. Clearly he didn't share Sirius' lighthearted viewpoint on the subject. "That being the case though, you can clearly see what I am looking for." He looked at the man in the eyes. "I wish for you to make me an anti-magus weapon. One that can pose a lethal threat to any magically capable being regardless of how strong their defense is and will work without fail. Should you create such a tool for me I will reward you handsomely and leave you alone to your work and I will no longer hunt down any of your clients. Refuse…" He looked at the man coldly. "And I will torture you and abuse your soul until you are nothing but a mindless husk that creates tools for me for all eternity…"

The room was silent for a moment before Sirius put on a dark grin. "Yer gonn have ta do betta tan tat Louvre. Ahm old. Nowhere near as old as you… but I'm still very, very old. Ta be honest, ah could make mahself keel ova anytime ah want fasta tan you and yer dead body can suck me blood. You know it an I know it. Piss me off too much an I'll just drop in ta middle o yer livin room an shit all ova yer couch an carpets like an old family dog. Ya also know as well as I do tat ma family either always stays in London under ta protection of ta Association… or tey're in Ireland wit ta rest of ta Fraga. Yer egotistical, but yer not stupid enough to go afta either. So try ta convince me ta work for ya… or else yer gonna have one big bloody dead body lyin here soon an you'll be wonderin if ya should try ta meet up wit Alcatraz in tat maze he accidentally locked himself in. Even Lorelei wouldn't follow ya tere."

Sirius was referring to the 27th ancestor, Caubac Alcatraz, also known as the Millennium Lock. He was a good friend of Zelretch as well in addition to being a magus on almost the same level, but roughly a century ago the idiot accidentally got lost in a maze he built in a treasure chest of his own creation and no one's heard from him since. Technically no one even knows if he's still alive at this point. It is for this reason that a majority of the other ancestors really don't like talking about him in conversation since it embarrasses them that one of their own had done something so stupid.

Louvre stared at Sirius with an unreadable expression before sighing and sipping his wine. "You really are as uncouth as they say. Small wonder you got along with Kaleidoscope so well." He took out a small sheet of paper from his clothes and began to read it. "You have been rather active as of recent years… traveling to Japan of all places and spending time with some boy and the recently promoted Lord Melloi 2…" He lazily looked at the unmoving Irishman. "I really don't know what this boy has that would interest you so much, but it would be a shame if he was among the casualties inside that city…"

"… Yer playing a dangerous game vampire…" The man growled as his mind worked frantically. Shirou was good, there was no doubt about that… but he had no actual experience in fighting other than sparring with Bazett. Throwing him head first into a major vampire incident was akin to suicide… even if he had powerful abilities, the odds of ANYONE without any experience surviving such a situation were so slim it wasn't even funny.

o. o. o.

Somewhere in Japan, a certain young man with mystic eye killing glasses sneezed.

o. o. o.

Having a dead apostle in Fuyuki City would definitely throw almost all of their efforts to keep Shirou's abilities under wraps out the window… but at the same time… there was an opportunity to get rid of the priest. At the very least he could force Louvre to waste some precious resources. Speaking of resources… "Tere are some pretty big people in tat city… an a nasty executor lives tere too… are you sure you can handle tem?"

"Humph." The aristocrat snorted. "A bunch of eastern hicks and a single priest? I have no reason to be worried in the slightest. Neither does my daughter… and in the case she does come across some trouble she has a few pieces of my collection to counterbalance anything a commoner could possibly use against her…" He walked away. "I'll give you a few days to reconsider your options Blacksmith. Until then I hope you enjoy your stay here…"

The blacksmith was quiet for a small while as he listened to the man leave… before smiling very faintly. "Well ten… I hope she's properly equipped for tis job o hers… cause until ya show me otherwise, ahm just gonna sit here an watch ta show from here…"

o. o. o.

Fuyuki High School:

Shirou calmly stood on the archery range line and drew back the longbow that was from the school storage, arrow notched, and hand back past his ear. The target was put farther away from him than normal for high school students, but for him it made little difference. _The__ arrow __will __hit __just__ above__ the __direct __middle __of __the __target__…_ He mentally concluded as he stilled his body and let loose the arrow, causing it to fly through the air and embed itself in the bullseye, a centimeter above the dead middle.

His ears were filled with clapping as he turned around to see many upperclassmen and students his age applauding him.

"Way to go Emiya." Smirked the current captain of the Archery team, someone whose name he hadn't committed to memory just yet. "I've occasionally seen you practice back when you were in secondary school, but it seems like you just keep on getting better if that's even possible. With you we could easily get ourselves ranked in the nation." He turned to the other upperclassmen. "You hear that guys! We actually have a chance at winning now!" A series of loud cheers responded, causing many of the underclassmen to shift around embarrassed.

"I'm not really all that impressive." The boy laughed sheepishly and scratched the back of his head.

"Please." Snorted Shiji Matou with a smirk. Shirou had been decent friends with the boy since the previous year despite the fact that their personalities didn't match at all. Between Shinji's overconfident and egotistical personality and Shirou's low key and stubborn personality, many people wondered how the two could stand being around one another. "The only time you miss is when you want to Emiya. I don't see why you downplay that so much… you could easily get a decent scholarship into a good sports school if you play your cards right." He smirked. "Well, that is if you decide that being a janitor isn't the life you want after all…"

"Coming from the guy that's still having trouble getting the arrow near the center of the target…" Ayako Mitsuzuri, another freshman snorted, getting some others to laugh as well.

"Hey Emiya, how much do you practice with a bow in your free time?" Another upperclassman asked. "Do you have any special equipment?"

"Special…equipment?" The boy repeated nervously, his mind instinctively blueprinting the bow made up of several materials that technically weren't released to the world's populace yet. "Er… yeah I have a few… but they were gifts from a family friend and he lives in Europe. Sorry."

"A European bow? Must be pretty high quality stuff." Nodded another older kid before patting the boy on the arms. "It must be pretty tough if you need to be this solid in order to use it…"

Shirou shifted uncomfortably on his feet. He was rather proud of the fact that he was in extremely good physical condition, but during his last year of middle school he had made the mistake of taking off his shirt to cool off in the middle of track and field day, giving everyone a good look at him. He wasn't ripped by any means, but he apparently had "muscles in all the right places" according to a few people he talked to, whatever that meant. After that there was a period of time where a significant number of girls began to spend time with him… and even faster still those girls stopped…

Oddly enough it was around that time that Sakura decided to visit his home more frequently after school…

"I just do a bit of working out every day after school and my temp job is fairly heavy labor." The boy feebly attempted to explain. "It's nothing big."

"That's not what I heard…" Giggled a classmate of his behind him. He pretended to have not heard it.

"You're still doing that job Emiya?" Shinji asked incredulously. "You really have to prioritize your time more. What's more important, some minimum wage job or the club?"

"Leave him alone Matou." The captain sighed. "It's Shirou's decision to do what he does. We just have to respect it…" He paused for a moment before grabbing said Emiya by the shoulders and crying manly tears. "But you won't abandon us will you? I want to have at least one good year in this club before I graduate!"

The boy laughed nervously. "Eheheh… y-yeah…"

o. o. o.

Several hours later:

"So how was your first day as at the high school archery club sempai?" Sakura asked curiously as she helped him cook dinner. She had really come a long way since she began to learn how to cook under his wing, but she still had a long way to go. Because of his travels, Shirou was proficient in both Eastern and Western dishes much to the delight of anyone who realized that they could do requests and get satisfactory results regardless of what they asked for. Sakura, while not as good as Shirou, was improving rather quickly and it would only be a matter of time until she was as good as he was in western dishes…

Till the day she surpassed him though, he reigned as absolute king of the kitchen and there wasn't a damned thing anyone could do or say about it.

"It was as expected." Shirou shrugged as he stirred the beef stew. "Upperclassmen wanted me to win them tournaments, some more than others, others were a bit more skeptical of my skills, and Shinji brought up the fact that I was still working…"

The girl looked down guiltily as if she was the one who did so. "… I'm sorry that nii-san is so rude to you all the time. I have asked him to be nicer but…"

The faker patted the girl on the back. "It's ok. That's just Shinji being Shinji. I'm used to it." He looked at the girl worriedly.

It had been roughly a year since Shirou finally pieced together the fact that Sakura was a magus, though the way the prana in her body manifested indicated she was clearly of a different brand than the standard one. He never did confront her about this fact, preferring to keep things the way they were between them, however he did notice that every now and then… something inside the girl acted up. Normally immediately afterwards she would do something rather clumsy such as trip and head butt a wall, or gaze off in a random direction and ignore the rest of the world. He would have been more concerned with what was happening to the girl if she had made a bigger deal about it, but after every event she would be back to normal almost instantly and behave as if nothing ever happened so he assumed she had everything under control…

Personally, he didn't actually believe that Sakura didn't know about him being a magus and vice versa. She had been all over his house over the past few years and even though the bounded fields around him and his tool shed were pretty hard to notice, even a complete novice would have been able to find them by now. Still, he pretended to play ignorant to their current situation all for the sake of ensuring that the peaceful relationship between the two lasted. Once they both admitted to the other that they knew of their studies in thaumaturgy, odds were likely that they would have to cut ties on the grounds that they would be suspicious of the other's attempts to learn of their craft and family secrets. In a way, they both knew this and that the other knew this, and so the two had an unspoken agreement to never bring up the subject around one another.

"Ahhhh." Shirou sighed as he stretched his arms above his head. "It really does feel good to be home…"

"It's good to have you back sempai." Sakura smiled gently, showing far more emotions than she ever would have several years prior. Her smile though disappeared and was replaced with a look of shock as she saw his tshirt's sleeves fall down and reveal the scar on his left arm. "What? Sempai, what happened to your arm? You didn't have that mark when you left for vacation."

The faker grimaced as he quickly dropped his arms and pushed his clothes back down. "Nothing! It's nothing to worry about Sakura!" He waved his hands frantically. "I was just helping Sirius-jiji with some of his equipment and some got wrapped really tight around my arm! It's nothing!"

The girl puffed her cheeks out angrily before relenting and looking away. "Humph. This isn't right Sempai. If you are going to get hurt like that when you go on vacation then you shouldn't go in the first place."

The boy laughed. "It's ok. It was all my fault in the first place. I wasn't careful with what I was doing and I got hurt in the process. I learned my lesson, don't worry…"

Oh he learned his lesson all right. If he had been 6 inches to the right of where he had been standing that day he would have had his heart cut in half along with most of his body instead of his arm cut off... it was one of the few times he wished his projection skills weren't so exact that they produced almost perfect copies of what he was making…

The two played continued to bicker lightly for a bit before they realized that the dinner was starting to suffer from neglect and immediately got back to work. Keeping secrets from one another took back seat when it came to cooking… especially when Taiga was in the next room moaning about starving to death…

o. o. o.

That night:

Shirou sighed as he sat in his storehouse, AKA his workshop, calmly breathing in and out to soothe his body. Sakura and Taiga had left about a couple of hours ago and in that time he had managed to finish his homework and do some spare studying on random magical facts. He doubted he needed to know stuff about spiritual evocation, but then again it was probably something everyone needed to know at some point to make familiars so he just went along with it.

Now though he was pretty much finished with his research portion of his studies and was now back to practice… and right now he was going to practice something that he had rarely had the time or privacy to do in recent days…

"Trace… on…" The boy muttered, hypnotizing himself calmly as he pictured the object he was tracing in his mind. It was the most valuable and treasured tool he had stored in his exceptionally small library of swords, spears, axes, shields, armors, and other similarly related tools. Feeling all 27 of his original magic circuits warm up, activating with his inner energy, od, and then running on and converting the energy from his surroundings, mana, into prana, Shirou calmly reconstructed the sheathe of Excalibur.

Warmer… warmer… hotter… hotter… his body was burning now as his circuits rapidly produced the energy needed to create the object that was in itself a mystery… yet despite the sensation he was experiencing he knew that this feeling was far from his limits. He had experienced this sensation so many times that he barely noticed the strain he was going through and the sweat that was soaking his shirt. In fact, he knew that what he was experiencing was significantly less than what he originally went through when he first began to project the artifact.

A light flashed in front of the boy… and it was done.

All of this transpired in less than 5 seconds in the real world, but to Shirou it felt like it had been a few minutes. Regardless of what the sensation was like to the boy, the end result was lying in front of him. A perfect golden replica of the sheathe that resided in his body lay in front of the boy. No matter how many times he saw it, the boy couldn't help but awe at its flawless and beautiful design, and try to convince to himself that the real thing actually existed in his body.

"If the sheathe was this brilliant… I could only imagine what the sword or the owner was like…" He muttered to himself aridly as he calmly brought his body under control again with breathing exercises…

That was… until the bounded field surrounding his home was set off.

o. o. o.

A/N.

Don't you just hate it when half of the chapter you were working on just up and disappears on you because the computer was being a prick?

So here's the next chapter. As you can see, I threw in another healthy chunk of natsuverse trivia into the mix in addition to giving Shirou another useful spell that only he could truly abuse to high holy heaven, and hinted at another one that would prove to be useful later on. I'll give you guys a hint, it would do jack shit against an activated gae bolg, but it would stop Berserker's massive destructive attacks in its tracks easily.

So then, bonus points to anyone who actually thought that would use Louvre, who if you didn't figure out by now, is the replacement for Nero Chaos in the dead apostle ancestor ranks after the latter got killed by Shiki and Arucreid in ALL the arcs of Tsukihime. I was actually just bored one day after writing another of the chapters on type moon wiki when I saw his profile and I went: "I have to use him somehow." Luckily, his presence in any of the current natsuverse storylines is so negligible at the moment that his description was never even given, so I can abuse him and his kids without having a guilty conscience. Yay convenience!

As for the relationship between all the characters, I'll try to make things move as much as possible, but seeing as this is a story that's trying to stick to a natsuverse style/theme, it might be a bit more difficult than anticipated, but then again that might just be because I'm slipping in my style of covering 500,000 different perspectives in the story at once. Ugh.

So in other news, Gabriel Blessing is actually alive! He only just got broadsided by the evil step bitch chainsaw wielding psycho mother loving monster called life and was kidnapped for a significant amount of time! But now he's back… and doing another story to get back in gear… but he's back! If you don't know who he is… I pity you. Then after you get over the shame of me pitying you, go to his profile, read his stories: Hill of Swords, and In Flight. Then lament because you haven't read them already.

So that's about it for now. I'll try and be quicker about the next chapter, but no promises. Having 2 jobs tends to eat up a bit of time.

So review! Worship the log! Watch Fate Zero! And Review again!


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter 10: Discovery and Adaptation

I do not own Fate/Stay Night and stuffs:

o. o. o.

Shirou had been expecting and dreading many things as he cautiously exited his workshop, ready to fight at a moment's notice. In addition to sparring, Bazett and Sirius had run him through several ambush scenarios that could and most likely would happen to him at some point the moment his relationship to his father reached the ears of the masses of magi in the world. Elements, curses, familiars, he had been assaulted by all of the standard methods at one point or another and had learned of the standard ways to deal with all of them…

However not even a dragon could instill the fear the boy had expected when he saw Rin glaring at him extremely coldly from the other side of the door.

"Long time Emiya-Kun." The girl spoke calmly while not changing her expression in the slightest.

"Rin… why are you here?" Shirou swallowed heavily. After the girl's sudden and completely spontaneous (From his point of view) tantrum several years prior, she had become nearly inaccessible to anyone in the school body. Sure she had maintained her perfect student appearance and occasionally socialized with others, but for the most part she had kept to herself completely whenever the weekend or vacation came by. This went doubly so with Shirou, pretending he didn't even exist even on the rare occasion that they were within feet of one another and in the same group conversation. "… And why did you set off my bounded field? You know what triggers it…"

The girl flipped her hair haughtily and looked down on him. "Humph. If you can't figure that out Emiya, then I can only assume that your training hasn't progressed much since I left. I'm not surprised…" She glared at him. "I'm here to ask you some questions, and if I don't like what I hear, I'm simply going to live up to my role as supervisor over this land and kill you."

The boy gaped. "W-what? Please tell me this is some kind of sick joke! We haven't talked to each other in years, because YOU decided to ignore me for some reason I clearly don't know of I might add, and THIS is the first thing you do the moment you decide to break the ice again? I thought you were supposed to be the logical one!"

Rin's eyebrow twitched, clearly not amused by either the boy's clear obliviousness on what he said to her that day, and because of the insult to her intelligence. "If it doesn't make sense to you then too bad. I'm not going to bother explaining something so basic to someone like you when I have more important things to find out from you…"

_If it's so basic, then why did it make you give me the cold shoulder for over 3 years?_ The boy mentally wondered, but didn't say out loud. He could tell that the girl was irritated enough as it is. If what he remembered of her temper was accurate, pushing her even farther wouldn't be very good for his health.

"Emiya…" She spoke up again, this time without any of emotion that she had in her voice before. "That's the name of the Magus Killer, isn't it?"

Shirou tensed up. No… please… he thought he could at least handle his first attempt on his life by now… but if it was one of the first people he actually had a decent relationship with at one point.

"Judging from your reaction, I'm guessing Kiritsugu Emiya really was the man who adopted you." The girl's eyes narrowed. "You probably already know this, but your old man didn't have much of a clean reputation when he was working as an assassin…"

_Breathe… calm down…_ Shirou instructed his body forcefully as he attempted to bring himself under control. _A wrong move now will get you killed. You still haven't done what dad's told you to do. You haven't lived a good life for those that couldn't have them yet. Breathe…_ Filling his lungs slowly with the cool night air, the boy stabilized his mind and heart with some brief meditation techniques he had learned in his spare time… gaining a calmer stance and look in his eyes before looking at Rin not with fear, but with focus. "Get on with it Tohsaka." He stated with a small amount of bite. "Are you here to kill me for something that dad did, or did someone else ask you to do it?"

The girl's fingers twitched, indicating that she clearly not expecting Shirou to react or speak the way he did. She quickly crossed her arms to cover her surprise in response. "Humph. Straight to the point? At least you managed to grow up a little since the last time we talked. Fine by me. Tell me, did Kiritsugu ever tell you about the ceremony that's held here? The holy grail war?"

Shirou instantly began to become on edge. "The Heaven's Feel ritual? I knew of it, but I didn't know it was held here."

The girl's eyes flashed. "Did you know your father was a participant in the war?"

The boy nodded. "Yeah. He was the representative for the Einzberns and was the master of Saber…"

"And my father was a master in that war as well." Rin concluded in an icy tone, causing the boy to go rigid. "Tell me, did the magus Killer ever tell you if he killed a man named Tokiomi Tohsaka?"

Shirou didn't know what to say. The situation right now was so alien to him that he was more scared about the potential damage between the two more than the fact that Rin might actually try to kill him depending on his answer. "I… I don't know…" He swallowed heavily, but feeling no liquid in his mouth. "Dad never mentioned the names of the other masters… but I do know the master of Rider personally…"

The prodigy blinked in surprise before maintaining her glare. "Fine then, you can tell me about him later. First, did you father ever say if he killed the master of the servant Archer?"

"Archer?" The faker blinked as he attempted to recall everything his father told him of the war. "N-no. He didn't. He was responsible for Berserker, Lancer, and Caster, but Archer…" He paused and remembered the story with that particular servant's master. "He was going to kill him… on the last day of the war." He started off slowly. "Dad even broke into his… I guess your family's, property and bounded fields to do it… but…"

Rin grit her teeth. She had known that someone had shattered her estate's extremely well built magical defenses during the war, but she had assumed that one of the other servants had did it, not a single magus. "Get on with it already!" She barked.

"He was already dead." Shirou concluded with finality, causing Rin to blink in surprise before glaring at him even more, not expecting this new set of information.

"Explain." She ordered.

"When he got inside, he didn't find anyone, but he came across evidence that he was killed in the study. There was a lethal amount of blood spilled there." Shirou said calmly. "He never explained any more than that."

"… Well at least that was a clue, even if it was a minor one." The girl muttered under her breath as she tried to put the pieces of the puzzle that was the 4th war together in her mind, only to quickly come up short. Deciding to put the small fact away for now, she pressed for more information. "Kiritsugu was the one who destroyed the grail at the end of the war. Did he ever say why?"

Shirou shook his head. "The only thing he mentioned was that the grail's price was too high for what it did."

"And you expect me to be satisfied with that?" The girl snapped incredulously.

"Don't blame me for something a dead man told me in passing several years ago Tohsaka." The boy coldly replied. "You trespassed upon my property when you could have just knocked and asked me about my father, not to mention you are on the verge of attempting to kill me for some minor reason after not talking to me suddenly for no good reason whatsoever. I know I've been technically been trespassing on your family grounds, but you've known about me for so long that it doesn't factor into the equation at this point."

_Her clothes can channel a fair amount of prana and have a slight resistance to physical and magic based attacks…_ He mentally summarized as he continued on his rant, hoping he wouldn't have to put this information to use. _She has 3 jewels on her right now… and her body is built for technique… she probably still practiced those martial arts that I remember her doing from last time… but because she triggered my field she isn't a real threat unless she knows what it does…_

Rin in response to the boy's attack on her simply smirked. "Oh? It seems you've grown a bit of backbone Emiya. Don't tell me you actually think that you stand a chance against me now if we fought…" Her grin slightly faltered when Shirou's demeanor only became more solid.

"It seems you've forgotten that you're also dealing with a magus Tohsaka. Do you really think that I haven't tweaked out my bounded fields here since the last time you visited?" The boy stated coldly, causing Rin to for once lose her calm as she felt his prana activate in his body almost instantly.

"What?" The girl realized her stupid mistake just before several dozen swords impaled themselves into the ground behind her and to her sides in a wide arc, no doubt to restrict her movement. _He projected them so far away from his body and without an aria… he's gotten better in what he can do at least…_ She mentally grunted as she channeled her own prana into the massive crest that was engraved on her arm, causing a whirlwind of energy to circle it before unleashing the wind based spell at the swords, expecting them to break away and allow her to escape. Had she paid more attention, she would have noticed her spell fluxuating significantly even as it was being formed and nearly fell apart on itself as it was unleashed. She didn't bother to look though as she turned around and pointed her index finger at her opponent and channeled some more prana into it, creating a black orb in front and shooting it off like a bullet…

Only to not only get blown back by the orb as it exploded in her face, but to slam hard into the flats of the blades that had clearly not been blown from behind her like she had expected to. "The hell?" She coughed as she glanced to see that the swords were still there before rushing to call up another spell to defend herself with… only to pause as she saw Shirou holding a notched black bow with a nasty looking twisted metal arrow pointed at her. "Even if these swords were strong… they should have been destroyed or blown away by my spell…" She grunted and calmed down, signaling that she was at his mercy.

"It probably would have… if you didn't trigger my bounded field." The boy stated coldly. It had only been 6 months ago that he had finally managed to perfect his new workshop defense. It normally remained dormant and undetectable, but if his father's original trespassing field was triggered, or if he himself used his personalized aria instead, this field would activate. The theory and mechanics behind the field were rather complicated and involved applying amplification based thaumaturgy in just the wrong way, but the end result gave Shirou a massive advantage in battle. In layman's terms, the additional field disrupted and weakened any energy based thaumaturgy activated within its vicinity. Prana, fire, wind, curse, or any other non physical manifestation and discharge based magic (with the sole exception of healing based magic) was either considerably weakened or self destructed in the caster's face within the field, enabling him to in most cases have an extreme advantage over most magi in a fight… though of course Sirius and Bazett proved themselves to be exceptions. "You haven't changed a bit Rin. You still let your temper get the best of you when you should be paying attention the most."

"Damn…" Rin grunted, knowing that the boy had pretty much won. Still, if she was going to die, she would do so elegantly and as such put on her confident air. "You're right Emiya-kun." She sighed. "Despite being a genius, I guess I got a bit overconfident and let you get the upper hand. I guess I should have expected more from the son of the Magus Killer…"

"His name was Kiritsugu Emiya, and he didn't want this for me." Shirou stated calmly. "What do you want from Tohsaka? I'd rather not my first kill be someone I'm friends with."

The girl raised an eyebrow. "You? Kill me with that? I know you're good with a bow Emiya, but you do know that I'm fairly competent at reinforcement and other magic as well. As strong as that arrow might be, I doubt that you could hit me with that…" She knew that odds were likely that he was capable of hitting her even without magic, but she couldn't help but wonder why he had brought a bow to a magic fight… then again he did use swords in magic fights as his main tactic so this alteration wasn't that much of a stretch…

"And if I happen to know Gradation Parallel?" The boy asked in an even tone, causing the girl to falter as she slowly pieced together in her mind what he was hinting at. Obviously the resulting picture was vaguely similar to what he insinuated, and thus extremely unappealing to her.

"… Tch… of course only you would make another worthless spell like that into something ridiculous…" She grimaced.

"I'm flattered." Shirou snorted. "Back to the main topic. Did you really just come to kill me because my adoptive father may have killed yours in a free for all battle where the participants were supposed to kill one another in the first place? I thought you were smarter than that."

"Well apparently not." She sighed casually, pretending as if she wasn't a millisecond away from being pierced through with a nasty looking arrow. "I'm 0 for 2 Emiya-kun. This really isn't my day…" She put on a thoughtful pose. "As for your question… I guess I just let my excitement get the better of me. I only recently found out about the relationship of our parents and completed my training under that fake priest. Congratulations, you've just defeated a fully fledged magus Emiya-kun. If you don't kill me, I might just get you a gift as a reward…" She smiled cunningly…

"Don't even try it Tohsaka." Shirou relaxed his facial expression. He still had the bow up, but the air between the two was less tense. "My combat teacher Bazett-nee already covered seduction mind games with me during our sparring lessons, and she has a lot more to flaunt around than you do…"

Granted, the enforcer was actually FORCED to give Shirou those lessons by Sirius (Waver claimed he didn't want any part of it, but still watched from the sidelines when said lessons took place). Still, after fighting a very developed woman dressed in nothing but rather skintight clothing that left little to the imagination flirting with him every few seconds, (albeit her smiles were more murderous than seductive for a good portion of the time), Shirou could proudly claim that he was significantly less distracted by the female gender and body as a whole during combat situations for the rest of his life. Granted, all of the lessons they had were closer to "awkward" then they were "sexually stimulating" and were all done while he was attempting to not get beaten to death, but progress was somehow made none the less.

As such, Shirou would probably not have a stable relationship with anyone until his early 20's as he would associate any female trying to flirt with him a female trying to punch his face in.

On a side note, it should be known that after all of these sparse lessons, Bazett would always take a long shower in order to "wash away the shame". None of the males in the group dared to talk any further about the subject.

Rin's eyebrow twitched. "Did you… just insinuate that I'm flat Emiya-kun?" She asked politely while smiling sweetly at him.

Shirou paled. At that moment, the fact that most of her offensive magic was rendered ineffective or that he was a twitch of a finger away from killing her didn't matter at all to either of them. "R-Rin… focus…" He stammered. "I still have an arrow focused on you. Don't do anything stupid now…"

"Please answer my question." The girl smiled. Neither had little doubt who was in control of the situation now.

"I-I meant that you haven't f-fully gone through puberty yet…" The boy frantically tried to save his ass. "Bazett-nee is 21. She's fully grown and everything."

"Is that so?" The girl brushed her hair to the side as if thinking. "So I guess that means that you are attracted to mature women then? Like this Bazett-nee?"

The boy calmed down… momentarily considered the thought… and then shivered. "Bazett-nee is more of a sister to me, like Fuji-nee… going after her would be too weird, but to be honest I don't really have a preference. I've never really thought about that much…"

"So does that mean I could be your type?" She asked with a deeper voice, clearly trying to get under his skin.

Shirou on the other hand merely stared at her calmly but clearly looking past her indicating he was thinking about what she said. "Maybe…. Tsundere are pretty difficult to get used to though." He mused, clearly not thinking before he spoke out loud.

The air between the two was quiet save for the chirping of insects nearby.

"… You do realize that the moment I see an opening, I am going to kill you… don't you Emiya-kun?" Said identified tsundere questioned in a perky tone.

"At least it's for a reason that's actually my fault that makes sense this time." The boy muttered under his breath before looking at the situation again. The initial killing intent between the two was all but gone, leaving only the same feeling the two normally had when Rin had come over years beforehand. Realizing that nothing was really going to happen that night the boy shook his head, dispelling all of his projected weapons and the bow in his hand, surprising the girl somewhat. "I've had enough of this. There's no real reason to fight anymore and we both don't have any intent to do so now either." He looked at the girl's still stunned face. "What? You didn't really think I'd actually kill you did you?" Shirou raised an eyebrow as he began to walk back to his home, past the girl and exposing his back to her and opened the front door. "I thought you knew me better than that Tohsaka. I don't act like other magi and I personally don't care for most of their rules and crap like that." He glanced back at her. "While I am rather annoyed that you thought you could just walk into my home and expect me to just roll over and play dead, I'm not so egotistical as to claim some stupid vow of revenge on something like that. You already know what my magic is based off of so there's no point in worrying about you stealing it."

The girl glared at him cautiously, and for good reason. Magi in general weren't known for being rather forgiving. Actually, more often than not it was quite the opposite. "So you're just letting me go then? I could just come back another day and kill you for real…"

"Then have a decent reason to do so next time." The boy yawned tired. "You're a genius. Come up with something that doesn't make you look like a fool in the face of the clocktower or something that actually looks impressive on your resume…"

Rin glared at the boy before sighing. "That's harder than you'd think Emiya-kun. Putting down the fact that I beat a third rate magus and claiming it as a noteworthy feat isn't something people do everyday…"

"Correction. I'm a second rate magus." The boy proudly spoke up as he walked inside. "Just got promoted to it last month actually…"

The Tohsaka blinked before snorting. "My mistake. Not that it makes me feel any better about losing to you… worse comes to worse I could always just tell them that you're an incarnation whose relationship with your elements makes you really dangerous."

"So long as I'm already dead when you write that letter, you can do whatever you want." Shirou laughed. It was scary to the boy how morbid his sense of humor could be at times, but he just assumed it was from being exposed so much to the magic world these past few years and listening in on some very dark stories going around. "Just let me know when you're planning to come over next time so I can at least prepare a decent "last supper". I've learned a few dishes while I was in England and I wanted to see how they fared outside of the usual crowd."

Rin laughed. "Sure why not? I'll just bring over some of my own dishes as well so that you can feel pathetic when you realize I'm better than you…" She paused for a moment. "… Although if you actually know some people in the association that could get me a scholarship, like a lord if you actually are lucky enough to know one and not somehow get experimented on… I may just decide to not kill you for the time being…"

Shirou paused with a thoughtful look on his face before giving the girl a look that all but screamed "oh yes I do know someone that fits that criteria". "Maybe. Come back to me after you have that temper problem of yours fixed… and before you kill me… then we'll talk."

"You're loving making this hard for me, aren't you Emiya?" Shirou heard Rin growl as he closed the door behind him… allowing the boy to sink to the floor and finally let his mental exhaustion catch up to him. His breathing both quickened and deepened, and his body began to shake uncontrollably.

Of all the people to give him a firsthand experience with fighting at inopportune times in the magic world, it had to be Rin. The girl who literally owned the city, had access to all 5 basic elements, was a certified genius, had access to an entire library of thaumaturgy and theory, and no doubt was already capable of magecraft that he would only be able to wish he could perform. There had been so many points where things could have gone wrong just now that left him dead it wasn't even funny. She could have actually knocked on his front door. She could have managed to dispel his bounded field. She could have attacked him when his back was turned. She could have been truly an irredeemable bitch. Thankfully none of those had come to pass as his initial statement of her being a tsundere, while a bit rude, had proved itself to be fact and as such she had somewhere deep down admitted that she either was a good person… or in a worst case scenario it wasn't the right time to kill him yet.

He prayed it was the former.

Not wanting to take any more chances, the boy focused his magic sensing and focused on Rin's "scent". So long as the girl's power didn't flux and she actually left the area, he had nothing to worry about, but in the case that she didn't do either he didn't want to find himself being caught off guard again.

He was so focused on the girl's departure that he didn't realize he had a new message from Waver until the following day.

o. o. o.

England:

Waver clicked his teeth as he closed his phone, irritated that he couldn't get a hold of Shirou, and irritated at himself that the boy might be sleeping since it was past midnight in Japan. "Why is it that I have a feeling that things are going to get far worse before we even have an idea of what the hell is happening?" He muttered to himself as he looked at the massive amount of paperwork in front of him pertaining to Sirius' disappearance.

"Because that's the way things tend to turn out whenever someone of stature disappears." Bazett ominously responded from the doorway of his office with her arms crossed and her face down casted. "I take it Shirou didn't pick up."

"It's late night on a school night for him there." The lord muttered as he took out a report done by a forensic specialist who used familiars as his main focus of magic. "Even I would be asleep at that point, and I'm a bookworm."

"Yeah…" The woman sighed as she looked away. "I guess you're right…"

_Initial readings were heavily impaired due to large amounts of alcohol in the air, masking and diluting the subject's and assailant's scents… _Waver read the report. The writer used familiars that tended to use their magically enhanced senses to degrees that they could determine many facts about what happened at the scene of events months before other procedures could gain results. "It wasn't your fault Bazett. The old man was drunk and caught off guard in an area that you weren't even close to. You couldn't have known." The Lord tried to assure the woman. "We already know that even though there was a rather big fight at the scene, there was almost no blood spilt. That means that there's a good chance he was only kidnapped. Only a few days has gone by since the incident. We still have time to find him. Sirius is a hard person to kill, you know that more than anyone."

The enforcer gave the man a weak smile. "Don't I know it… but even he can be broken down by the right monsters in this world…"

"Then we just have to hope that he isn't in the hands of one of them." Waver replied. The moment Bazett had called him to tell him that Sirius was gone and there had clearly been some sort of inhuman fight on the outskirts of town, complete with gouged out earth and small craters, he had gotten to work and pulled as many strings as he could to become a ranking individual in the case. Thankfully since Sirius was a fairly prominent member of the Clocktower despite not being a lord, there was a fairly decent response to his disappearance and an adequate forensic team was dispatched to research the area.

_After adapting to the situation, it was determined that the subject had initially been approached by a single undead female target. Initial analysis of the bout indicate that the assailant possessed high level motor functions and comprehension skills, little combat based thaumaturgy ability, and was also unable to overwhelm the subject until a second assailant had arrived. Secondary suspect, male, appears to be related to the initial while is also undead. After appearance both assailants attacked subject, yet the initial's tracks and scent indicate that her power and prowess increased significantly after her relative's arrival. It is due to this that it is suspected that both assailants are dead apostles due to the interlinking blood resonance phenomenon. For more information on this ability, refer to chapter 9.1.7b of the True Ancestor and Dead Apostle research and analysis manuscript. Soon afterwards, subject was overwhelmed, rendered unconscious, and accosted by assailants. Scents and trail become impossible to follow after .29 miles away from ground zero. Recommend…_

"So what does it say?" Bazett asked curiously as she saw Waver's frown deepen.

"Dead apostles." The lord grit his teeth, knowing that things just got worse.

"Vampires?" The girl blinked in shock. "A blood sucker beat the old man? That can't be right! Even if he was getting on in years and piss drunk, there's no way a single random apostle could have taken him down and still had the energy left to drag him away without leaving a trail!"

"It wasn't a single one." Waver waved the paper. "It was 2 of them at once, and judging from the reports they were related…"

"Shit… the blood resonance effect…" Bazett clicked her teeth, knowing well that fighting blood related vampires when they were near one another was one of the fastest ways to screw yourself over in the field. It was one of the very first things they taught future enforcers when they covered dead apostles. "That explains one thing at least…" She paused as the thought of related vampires and Sirius rang a very vague bell in her mind. "Hey… did the report say how they were related?"

Waver shook his head as he scanned the paper again for good measure. "No. It just says that it was a male and a female that had similar scents and showed signs of the resonance. Why?"

The woman hesitated as she tried to think hard about what seemed so familiar to her. "I don't know… but I remember the old man telling me once or twice about having some dead apostle trouble a few years back, and I think he mentioned the vampire had kids or something. Maybe that has something to do with it?"

The lord raised an eyebrow. "McGinty had dead apostle trouble? Wouldn't the enforcers have done something about it then?"

Bazett shook her head. "It was a different kind of trouble and it happened a while ago. I forgot the entire story, but it had to do with the codes he made. It got so bad that the association had put him under house arrest in London and restricted who he could make codes for for a while. He didn't like that."

"I can only imagine." Waver grimaced, imagining how Sirius would have and most likely did react to that kind of news. The man was a workaholic at times, but he also hated staying in one place for long. "Thanks for the advice though. I think we can work with that." He bent over to his desk and took out a cigar, then lit up the end with some prana. "I have a feeling I'm going to go through a load of these before this entire thing is over with…" He muttered before looking at Bazett sympathetically. The young woman had clearly let the event get to her if her drooping posture and darkened skin under her eyes indicated anything. "Go get some sleep. There's nothing you can do right now and to be honest you'd probably just be in the way right now without some. I'll let you know if I find anything good. Worst comes to worst, we need you to be at full capability."

The fighter nodded before slowly walking out of the doorway, giving the smoker one last look before she left.

Waver sighed as he channeled some prana into a small device on his desk that looked like a giant old record player. "Michael. Jacob." He called to his 2 assistants. "I need you two to pull up any documents relating the Mystic Code Crafter Sirius McGinty to any Dead Apostle activity sans the Kaleidoscope in the past 80 years. Should any apostle in particular appear rather frequently I want as much information on them as well. I expect a list of said documents on my desk in order of relevance in the next 6 hours. Do I make myself clear?"

"80 years sir?" The young voice of Jacob, a freshman at the academy asked warily. "Isn't that a bit much? I mean I've heard that the man is old but…"

"I didn't ask for your opinion. Have the list for me in 5 hours." Waver growled, shutting the boy up and no doubted causing his other assistant to get angry at his partner before turning off the device. In all honesty the two boys were rather good at research and information gathering, which is why he sponsored them and had them serve as his assistants in the first place, but since they were both still young and didn't know how much of a pain it really was to be a new lord, Waver had to more often than not kick their asses into gear. Shaking his head again the man looked at the paperwork in front of him and felt a headache growing. This was going to be a long day.

o. o. o.

Japan:

Shirou sighed as he finished his duties at the small pub in the commercial part of Fuyuki that he worked at part time. He didn't bartend seeing as he was clearly under aged, however he was tasked with moving large boxes of various kinds of alcohol all over the place. The pay was slightly subpar and the boss left much to be desired, but it was a form of exercise for him and kept him moving and not thinking about magecraft much. Plus thanks to his ability to work late nights and still be fairly rested for the next day, he could earn a fair amount despite the poor hourly wage.

At the moment though he was considering dropping this job for a similar one nearby at a booze shop run by some nicer and more legit looking people… he was fairly sure that it was called Copenhagen…

"Here's your pay kid… don't blow it like most brats your age do…" Grunted the owner of the shop, a rather unkempt middle aged man who appeared to partake in his shop as much as his regulars.

"I'll try not to." The boy laughed lightly and bowed politely. The man may have been rude, but at least he paid when he was supposed to and didn't try to stiff the boy more than he already did at his current salary.

"… Be sharp kid." The owner grumbled as he closed up the building. "There've been word that some freak's been attacking people at night for the past week or so. It's not safe to walk anywhere alone after dark. It would suck to have to replace a decent hand like you."

"I'll try to be careful." The faker accepted the man's very loosely given warning with a smile. "I'd be more worried about you though boss. You've been grunting about your back lately…"

"Watch it brat." The man grunted as he swung out one of his rather large arms. "I may not be fast like you, but I can still deck out any idiot that tries to take me on with one blow."

"Yeah. Don't I know it." The boy laughed, having already seen the boss do just that to a few unruly customers a week prior…

It had been roughly half a month since the boy had returned home and Rin nearly killed him. Surprisingly nothing else interesting had happened since then other than the notification of Sirius' disappearance. Shirou would have been more worried especially since he wasn't told much about the situation, but since Waver had told him that he had undertaken the issue personally and the fact that Sirius was not a person that would just roll over and die quietly, he just assumed that things would work out in the end.

After saying his goodbyes to his boss, the boy made his way back home on the other side of the river to the residential part of Fuyuki, casually taking in the early spring night air and cool breeze that gently brushed and relaxed his tired limbs. It was fairly late at night in the city, but there were still a few people out either getting drunk, going home after getting drunk, or thinking they were going home while drunk but heading in the wrong direction and possibly getting into a fight.

"Eh? The hell do you want ya bastard?" One such example of the latter made itself known from an alleyway that Shirou was passing. "Bumpin into me like that and not even saying sorry? I think I'm gonna have to get you to pay for damages!"

Normally Shirou was all for sticking up for the underdog and it wasn't like he wasn't incapable of doing so, but when it came to Yakuza dealing he tended to shy away from things. It wasn't that he was afraid of them, it was just if he made a mistake or caused a scene, he might accidentally get on the wrong side of things and cause problems for Fujimura's family. Turf wars were fairly easy to start and near impossible to end without bloodshed. However just as he was about to leave, an odd and rather repulsive "scent" caught his attention from the direction of the conversation…

"Get your hands off of… the fuck? Hey guys! Something's messed up here! He's stronger than he looks and ghaaaa!"

Shirou froze as the bloodcurdling scream instantly put him on guard and made him give the alleyway a better look, channeling prana to his eyes to give him not only night vision but a better view of any and everything within possible view. The sickening scent he had detected earlier had increased in strength and his ears were starting to detect more men shouting various things that he couldn't make over the commotion. Unfortunately whatever was happening was around a corner so he couldn't see anything happening, however very quickly his nose was able to pick up a real scent in addition to the decayed magical one his magical senses had already recognized…

The iron filled scent of blood.

Wasting little time, the boy rushed down the alleyway and projected himself a tan cloak to hide his features. His hypnotizing ability was fairly solid, but in the case he couldn't get everyone he saved, it would be best to at least cover up as many of his features as possible. Skidding to a halt at the end of the path, the boy quickly scanned everything in front of him and prepared for anything he could have imagined.

He should have prepared more.

He had seen some videos and pictures of what magical creatures, or phantasmal beasts, have done to humans in the past, he had seen even more of what humans did to one another and to other creatures in general, but coming face to face with the real thing truly put things into perspective. At least 3 bodies, all rather large looking men from what he could barely tell, laid strewn and bloody over the ground, torn open, ripped apart, and bleeding heavily out of multiple holes their bodies. It reminded him of when he accidentally cut off his arm, only instead of one quick cut that severed his limb, the injuries these men had were the complete opposite, looking as if a savage animal had torn into their flesh and ripped chunks off of them. Even without structural grasping he could tell that all 3 of them were dead… Off to the side he could see one last man cowering against one of the buildings that made the alleyway, sitting in what looked and smelled to be his own urine, not that Shirou could really blame him as the teen tried to keep in his own meal… however what truly made him pause was the assailant who was hunched over one of the dead bodies…

He was dead.

There was no other way for Shirou to describe the state of his body after structurally analyzing it. The killer looked like average man in a suit… if he didn't have bloodstains over his clothes and unnaturally pale skin… however to Shirou his body was already decomposed on the inside. Organs, bone, everything was no longer functional in terms of what living beings could use… yet the body still moved due to what he could barely tell was cursed blood and tainted prana…

This poor dead fool was a vampire's servant. He couldn't tell if it was a "living dead", a "ghoul" or simply a "dead", not that there was much difference other than physical strength and the bare hint of individuality, but Shirou knew for a fact that whatever it was, it could only mean that there was an actual vampire in Fuyuki, and that terrified him…

_He's dead…_ Shirou's mind confirmed his soul and body what they already knew. _They're dead. Dead. Dead. Dead. Dead. Dead… because of you. You didn't move fast enough. You should have been able to detect the person in front of you is dead and because of that more are dead dead dead dead dead just like the fire dead dead dead dead all around you again again again. When will this end? All the blood everywhere, red like that one time. Just like that time all over again when you ignored them all and again only you will live only you will live only you will live only…_

The remaining thug's whimpering along with the zombie's shift in attention snapped the boy out of his stupor as he realized that his arrival gained him the attention of the abomination. Shirou watched as the monstrosity turned its swollen eyes on him with its mouth open and filled with the blood and flesh of its victims, not even bothering to close the hole as it inspected its newest potential target.

"Not again…" The teen muttered to himself shakily as the monster began to stumble to him with its hands stretched out to grab him sloppily. After all his effort in training… all the hell he had to get through in order to be strong enough to prevent these situations… he still failed when it counted most, not even a dozen meters from his person… and he ignored it until it was too late. "Not AGAIN!" He roared in rage as his magic circuits flared in response to his emotions and produced a very large amount of swords around his person which in the next instant flew at the zombie like opponent with relentless speed and power.

It wasn't even a contest. The blades rapidly tore out chunks from the dead individual's body with unparalleled ease, each contact making a sickeningly soft sound that no human body should be able to make even against such a force. In less than 5 seconds nothing was left but decomposed red chunks of human sprayed across half the alleyway and Shirou stood in front of the entire thing panting with a pale face under his cape.

It was only due to luck that the already dead men were out of the way of the onslaught and as such could have their bodies returned to their loved ones in one piece.

"Wh-what the fuck?" The remaining Yakuza stammered as he tried to edge away from Shirou. "I gotta get the hell out of here!" the man began to run when several large swords impaled themselves across the alleyway in front of him to bar his escape.

"Sorry… about not coming in time to help your friends…" Shirou muttered in a raspy voice as he turned to the now literally scared shitless man. "But I still have to deal with you. I don't feel like messing 2 things up completely in a row today…"

o. o. o.

It was well past midnight when he got back home. After hypnotizing the remaining survivor of the attack to forget everything he had seen, he had attempted to inform Rin about the situation, but unfortunately she wasn't home and didn't seem to be reacting to the boy trying to trigger every single alarm based bounded field she had… well, the alarm based fields that didn't react to cause bodily harm to him at least. It was the weekend so it was understandable for people to be away he guessed. It wasn't as if he had anything better to do… actually informing the person in charge of the area that there was a damned good chance that a vampire was here was pretty high on any list of priorities. He heard that there was a member of the church in the city as well… but his dad warned him that he should stay away from the man as often as humanely possible. The teen never met said dangerous individual, but anyone that could put his father on edge like that must be as lethal as they come.

He didn't know long it took him to get back home, but he reasoned that it didn't take long since staying out alone when a vampire was out wasn't a smart idea and he naturally knew to stay somewhere safe as much as possible.

"I'm home…" He said rather drowsily to no one in particular as he entered the front doorway. He really didn't feel like eating right now after what he had been through, but apparently his stomach had different plans. It was late so Sakura and Fuji-nee wouldn't be here. He guessed he could scratch something small and simple up from the fridge. Preparing and cleaning it up would at least calm his mind down a bit.

To save someone means another must be sacrificed.

The process of thinking that Kiritsugu Emiya implanted into his son's mind echoed in the boy's head once more. Its key purpose was to derive Shirou from trying to be a superhero. The words themselves nor their meaning were what convinced him from parting from that path, but they stuck with him none the less as a way to solidify and reinforce his decision and belief that not everyone can be saved… yet the urge to help people in their time of need still was deeply engraved in his soul none the less.

He had failed.

Once more it had been possible to save people from dying in horrifically violent and painful deaths… and once more he had ignored them, only this time he was fully capable of doing so. He was no longer that terrified and exhausted 8 year old child. He was a magus... a manipulator of the natural laws, and specialized in combat… yet he still did nothing despite all he could do. What was he waiting for? Even before everything went to hell he could tell that something wrong was going to happen from his senses but…

… Why did he smell food when he didn't even reach the kitchen yet?

"About time you got back." A far too comfortable Rin Tohsaka yawned as she lounged in his living room and watched tv. "I hope you don't mind, but you weren't home and I thought you might get hungry after it got a bit late. Oh, and you'll be pleased to know that I used the front door this time."

"… Huh?" Shirou intelligently blinked as he attempted to mentally shift gears from self philosophy to dealing with unexpected female in his home and failed miserably.

"I honestly don't know why you have so many things hooked up to your television." Rin sighed as she nodded to his setup. In addition to a large flatscreen LCD Television, the boy also had one of those new PS3s (not that he used it much other than for playing dvds), and a surround sound system hooked up to it as well. Obviously so much technology would cause most magi to look away in disgust in order to hide the fact that they had no idea how to work the damned things, but Sirius and Shirou were techies for both magical and non magical appliances, so it was no wonder that the man gave the boy this setup for the previous Christmas. "It took me forever to get it to turn to the right channel." She held up a remote that looked fine, however the small residue of prana in it made the boy think that she had lost her temper with it at one point or another and used magic to fix it. "How the hell do you know what button to press with these things?"

"Um… reading the manual helps…" He answered dumbly. "My version of structural grasping also…" He shook his head, snapping himself out of his stupor. "Never mind that! What the heck are you doing in my home without me knowing? Again!"

"You're welcome for cooking you food and not trying to kill you this time." The girl muttered to the side before brushing aside her hair. "I came to apologize to you about before, but seeing as you weren't home I decided to compound that with a meal." She sighed aridly. "If I knew how long you were going to be though, I would have held off on cooking so soon though… I mean everyone knows you work part time, but I didn't think you'd be this late… you should be greatful…"

Rin's words called up the real reason why Shirou was so delayed on returning and the memories hit him like a sledgehammer, causing the teen to lose any confusion. "Rin…" She spoke calmly, looking away as the memories drenched in red flooded his mind. "We have to talk."

The girl looked at him skeptically. "What's with the attitude Emiya? Weren't you the one who wanted things to be peaceful between us last time? If this is about me using the kitchen…"

"There's a vampire in Fuyuki." He said calmly, silencing her in an instant. "I killed one of its familiars when I was coming back from work, but not before it killed and was in the middle of eating 3 men." His hands clenched and he grit his teeth, knowing that he could have saved them if he had acted sooner.

Rin on the other hand stared at him with wide eyes for a few seconds before they steeled quickly and focused on him. "Tell me everything." She stated in a tone that left no room for negotiation.

It took a little less than an hour for Shirou to explain the entire situation to Rin (and eat and clean up the dinner she made, which he reluctantly admitted was extremely good despite being a bit cold), but by the time he was finished he had regained some of the composure that he had lost since the beginning of the ordeal. Rin on the other hand was clearly not pleased by the information she had just been given and had put a hand to her chin, something she did whenever she was seriously thinking about something. "Damn… it could have been anything but… to have a vampire that actually preys on humans here…"

Rin's comment resonated with Shirou as he agreed with her comment. Despite the fact that vampires need blood and sometimes flesh to maintain their bodies, most of the modern ones actually tend to stray away from feasting on humans and go for animal blood instead. It was more efficient that way and it allowed them to hide easier from both the magus association.

"At least you made sure to hypnotize the survivor to forget everything." Rin mused. "No doubt the police are going to have a field day trying to figure out how to manage 3 dead bitten up corpses and another one that was torn to shreds with sword impact marks in the ground… I really would have had to kill you if you let him go without dealing with him."

"Give me some credit Tohsaka." Shirou muttered. "I'm better than that. It's not like I'm some half assed magus that can't do anything right. And just to let you know, I repaired the holes I made too after I erased the guy's memories."

"But you couldn't take the bodies with you or at least destroy them?" She asked skeptically.

Shirou frowned. "I already tore the dead to shreds and I wasn't going to desecrate the bodies of guys who were simply at the wrong place at the wrong time. Plus, what the hell would I have carried 3 bodies and a pile of meat across town in a way in that wouldn't have made me look suspicious?"

"Jeez. Someone's touchy." The girl muttered.

"It comes with stumbling across 3 bodies and a zombie and coming to the conclusion that your home town is now the residential area of a vampire." Shirou stated bluntly.

"At least you aren't the one who's going to have to manage this mess." Rin retorted just as irritably before sighing. "I have no choice. I have to tell the priest about this. I thought those murders and disappearances lately were just coincidence, but at least this means we caught onto things early before it really gets out of control." She looked at Shirou. "Come on. You're going to come with me and tell him what you told me."

The boy instantly shook his head in denial. "No. You can tell him yourself Rin. You know that I am not going anywhere near the church."

The girl rolled her eyes in frustration. "Oh quit being such a baby. Just because your dad said…"

"That's exactly why I don't go." The boy's eyes narrowed. "My father, the Magus Killer of all people, said that the priest in the city here is extremely dangerous and is someone that I should avoid as much as possible. Sirius-jiji and Waver-nii both agreed with what dad said completely, and it isn't because the man is an executor. They know something about him that I don't, and if they say that I should stay away from him, then I'm doing just that."

Rin's eyes scanned her fellow magus carefully before relenting. "Fine. It's not like I don't blame you. Kotomine is someone that would grate on anyone's nerves and he did say that he didn't get along with your dad." She sighed and shook her head. "I'll pretend I was the one who found the dead and talk to the priest about things. In payment though, you're going on patrol with me to help out with the situation."

"What?" Shirou shouted in surprise. "Why would I do that?"

A sadistic grin made its way onto the girl's face. "Because I own you, or have you forgotten that slave?"

The sword element groaned and instantly knew that he wasn't going to win this argument. Rin never changed her mind or listened to him when she started speaking to him as if she was his master. He could only hope that things would get better for him as time went on. Technically he wasn't against them working together, in fact he was going to suggest it himself… only with them as equals, not sadistic magic powered tsundere and unfortunate sword wielding man slave…

o. o. o.

Elsewhere in Fuyuki:

A woman watched from a fair distance away as police blocked off the alleyway from the small crowd of curious locals tried to see what happened. Rumors and guesses were being tossed left and right. Some reasonable, some actually accurate, and others were simply foolish.

Deciding to actually do something productive, the individual calmly walked to the opening where everyone was gathered before altering her path and headed towards one of the police cars that was parked to the side, one where there was an individual man in blue waiting on the side lines, no doubt to keep an eye on things from another perspective.

"Excuse me officer." She spoke up, causing the man to turn and gain a full view of who was talking to him. She was clearly foreign as her eyes and height could tell anyone. Standing roughly a head taller than the average male in Japan, the long black haired woman was a knockout. She had a model's figure with curves in the right places and was dressed like a model in a fashionable but simple black corset fused with a short sleeved dress that didn't reveal too much but just enough that any man could sneak a peek and not be disappointed. Her dark skirt went just past her knees where her shiny black boots stopped going up. "I just got here and am confused." She spoke with only a hint of a European accent, fluttering her eyes in front of him almost hypnotizing. "Can you tell me what happened?"

Had the man have any resistance to magic, he would have been able to resist her charm and stick to protocol when talking to civilians, but despite being born and raised in Fuyuki city, which was one of the most magically rich places in Japan, he did not. "Erm… Yeah…" He mumbled as the subtle mind control magic took hold. "There was a murder here. 4 bodies… 3 yakuza and 1 unidentifiable."

"Can you tell me about them?" She asked in a deep and seductive tone as she walked up to him.

"The 3 were chewed up… like it was an animal attack…" The officer began to slur. "The 4th… I've been told was shredded as if he was sliced and torn to pieces. I haven't seen the bodies yet…"

"Any witnesses? Any damage to the crime scene?" She purred, appearing to anyone else as if she was flirting with him.

"One. A Yakuza with amnesia… in the precinct." The possessed man replied. "Why would there be damage to the alleyway?"

"I see." She mused, already disinterested with the man as she turned away. "That will be all then…" She didn't even disappear when another police officer shouted at the unfortunate individual.

"Oi rookie! The hell are you doing! Pay attention!" An older and clearly more short tempered man barked, snapping unwary subject out of his stupor. He had completely forgotten what or who he had just been talking to.

A short distance away, the seductive woman frowned as she walked in the opposite direction of the crime scene. She had only been in the area for a week and her familiars had already been discovered. Not only that, but since she had not established a strong connection with any of them in order to increase her intake of prana in the area, she could not detect or see who had made the discovery and how they had disposed of her toy. From what she could tell though, a magus had been the one to discover her presence if the existence of a survivor was any indication. A sloppy one at that considering he left the bodies there… but strong enough to trash a body to pieces if what the officer said was true.

The daughter of the 10th dead apostle ancestor sighed as she strutted down the city streets a bit and began to look for more possible meals. If she had been detected already, then the odds of that priest coming after her soon were pretty high. Since that was the case, she might as well build her forces while she can…

After that, she can start to really look for this brat that her father wants her to get a hold of. Shirou Emiya.

o. o. o.

Somewhere in the middle of Europe:

The man grunted to himself irritably as he walked around in the unnamed ruins of a castle in eastern Europe, careful not to miss any sign of suspicious activity or objects that could be of use. In his hands he had a device designed for searching for objects laced or forged by magic, though from the way he moved it around it could have just as easily been a metal detector or a geigercounter.

This had been the 4th site he had explored since helping his sister drag in that crazy drunk human to their father, and he still had no luck finding the artifact. He hoped that he would find it soon within the next few sites. He knew for a fact the object was in this general area, but unfortunately there were more than a few marked and unmarked possible ruins and tombs it could be in. Even more unfortunately was the fact that after the next few "safe" sites were locations under the ownership of either the association or the Church. He had some weapons from his father's collection to help him through one or two of the lower protected sites, but after that word of his presence would surely have spread to the others, making things extremely difficult from there.

He shook his head and breathed the dusty air of the castle he was in. The place would have been a decent location for an apostle's castle if it weren't for the fact that the area in general saw too much activity in general to make it practical.

Checking the time, the vampire noted that it was getting close to sunrise. He would have to go back to his hotel soon and wait for night again. He had managed to pretty much comb the entire ruins by now anyways and nothing struck him or his sensor as a magical weapon or hiding spot. Ah well. Its not like he expected it to be easy.

It's not every day a vampire manages to get their hands on a noble phantasm after all…

o. o. o.

Omake: Sirius' torture session, take 1:

"Gah! Fer ta love of all tat's filled wit decency in ta world just let me out of tis chair already!" The large man roared in pain and suffering, shifting his mighty body left and right in a desperate attempt to free himself. "Ah can't take it!"

"You do realize that all you have to do is agree to my demands and I'll release you." Louvre sighed as he walked into the room to see Sirius squirming like a small child.

"Bite me!" The bigger man hissed before trying to hop himself forward to his goal despite the fact that the chair was magically connected to the floor.

In front of the two men lay a good portion of Louvre's collection of mystic codes, conceptual weapons, and other artifacts, all perfectly organized and mounted for all to see… and Sirius had been forced to "see" for the past 6 hours, being given the ultimate museum treatment.

The vampire had to give him credit. His prisoner may be a bit dense and childish at times, but the man certainly had the stamina to match his skill and size. At first the display had actually been rather entertaining, but to see it continue after this amount of time had depressed him considerably. It was a shame that the man he was depending on to make him the ultimate weapon was such an infant at heart.

"If you have need for something important and within reason, one of my servants will attend to your needs." Louvre sighed as he walked out of the room. "Once more, once you have agreed to my demands and restrictions, you can experiment with my collection as much as you want…

Unfortunately for the noble vampire, what he heard as he exited was not exactly something he would have preferred to hear.

"Don't worry mah babies! Ah'll save ya from ta mean man. Papa will take good care o ya as soon as he gets out!"

o. o. o.

A/N:

I don't really feel confident about this chapter, but then again, I'm pulling an entire arc from my rear so meh.

Some people are going to assume that I'm OPing Shirou and that he'll be way too strong by the time the war comes along. Other than the fact that so far all he has is spamming basic sword rain and shooting sword arrows, all I have to say about that is… I thought about it, and I came up with a solution that will truly balance the board when the war gains steam… if the board doesn't shatter into tiny little shrapnel piece of pure awesome first. Honestly, I am truly scared at how the war will turn out now as things move along. It's such a simple change to the original FSN plot, but at the same time it would shatter the power base completely in how things could have been executed in the standard universe…

To put things into perspective, I am now not hesitant at all about giving Shirou the new "toys" that I'm going to give to him in this arc because of this latest decision… and I assure you people, these "Toys" I'm giving him will put him on a very, VERY high level of GAR.

As for the artifact that Louvre's son is looking for, yes, it is the Mace that was talked about as the object that he got to prepare for Barthemeloi, and even though it is never spoken about in detail, I have managed to create a believable set of powers and history for it. And it will be almost useless for Shirou in most fights for reasons the story will explain when it finally is revealed.

So that is all I have for now. Hopefully with the story picking up again I can get into the pace of things and make things a bit smoother.

Oh yeah. FATE ZERO IS FSKING AMAZING AND CARNIVAL PHANTASM IS PICKING UP AGAIN AND IS HILARIOUS! WATCH NOWWWW!

So Review! Worship the Log! Watch Berserker turn Lancer into a Noble phantasm! And Review again!


	11. Chapter 11

Chapter 11: Analysis

I do not own Fate/Stay Night and stuffs:

o. o. o.

Sirius frowned as he scanned the magical contract in his hands for the hundredth time. First analyzing the rune sequence on the paper in order to ensure that the spell hadn't been altered to work against him in some fashion, and then to the actual deal, rules, and regulations that were written on the inside of the spell.

It had been a couple of weeks since he had been captured and while his torture sessions were not as bad as they could have been, Sirius knew that he was being pressed for time. Shirou was being targeted and Louvre's son was looking for some artifact that had the potential to give the vampire the boost he needed if the blacksmith wouldn't deliver. Should the son actually find the object, a mace if what he heard was correct, then they wouldn't need the rude Irishman anymore and dispose of him. Of course no one had actually said that per say, but the message was clear enough to those who actually pay attention to the situation. The longer the vampire had a reason to keep Sirius alive, the more of a chance he had to escape or find a way to contact the outside world…

"I see you are seriously contemplating my offer now." Louvre chuckled amusedly. "I am glad you are finally seeing what I have to offer you…"

_Keep talkin ya bastard. Ah'll find a way outta here soon enough._ Sirius mentally grumbled as he waved the paper in his hands. A magic contract was an absolute agreement between magi made to prevent any form of backstabbing for large deals using a magic that bound one to their promises known as geis. Should any of those who signed the agreement break it, they would instantly loose access to any and all magic they could possibly perform for the rest of their life since the punishment would be fueled by one's own magic circuits. For most magi it was a punishment worse than death. "Tis isn't ta first time ah've had ta sign a contract fer a job ya know. Yer kind isn't the only ones who tend ta bleed their own kind dry wit tese sort o tings…"

The vampire nodded. "Indeed. I have heard that the association can be a rather dangerous place from time to time even for one of their own. So what do you think of the agreement? It is rather reasonable for what I am asking, isn't it?"

"Fer ta most part yeah." Sirius shrugged. "Ah make yer weapon an notin else, sans anytin tat I make fer prototypin, not try ta escape, or contact ta outside world about where ah am or what ahm doin, and ah'll go home witout a scratch or me blood getting sucked from any o yer kin under yer control an yerself, an tat goes double fer ta lad so long as no fighting breaks out. It is betta tan what most would expect…"

"However there is a complication." Louvre raised an eyebrow curiously, already picking out what his captive was about to say next. "Do explain."

The bigger of the two tapped the section where the agreement was describing the making and purpose of the code being made in particular. "Says here tat ahm supposed ta make ta most efficient and potent anti magus mystic code ah can tink of or remember how ta build." He shook his head. "Ah can't do either. It's impossible ta do tat now."

The vampire frowned. "A code that you know how to build that you cannot build? Or is it you won't make it for me?"

Sirius shook his head, ignoring the silent threat. "Can't. Ta materials fer tose brand o weapons no longer exist and it's impossible ta fabricate or reproduce tem. Also ah don't know where ta few weapons tat are made of tis stuff are at ta moment so in short we have ta reword tis part o ta paper or else it won't even allow me ta sign it witout killin me or removing me magic on ta spot."

The vampire's face contorted slightly in dissatisfaction. "You mean to tell me you don't even know who owns these weapons that you yourself have made?"

Sirius chuckled, enjoying his captor's frustration. "One's owner is dead and ta oter never really had a wielder yet ta begin wit. Yer gonna have ta settle fer sometin less specified. Ah can still make ya a decent tool tat will make ya one hell of a threat, but ta ultimate anti magus weapon is outta ta question." He handed the vampire the contract with a smirk.

Louvre on the other hand was clearly not amused now as he learned that the most powerful tool that the mystic code crafter could possibly make for him was now out of his reach. Crisply grabbing the paper out of the man's hand, the apostle brusquely and silently walked out of Sirius's chamber to fix the agreement and get the larger man to finally work for him.

Sirius smirked as the dead man walked out of sight. The situation was very delicate right now, but he couldn't help but laugh at the irony of the way things were right now.

o. o. o.

Japan:

"A surprising number of disappearances and murders have been reported Saturday night as police officers struggle to identify…"

"Man. What the hell went on after I fell asleep during the weekend?" Taiga shook her head in wonder as she ate the meal that Shirou prepared that morning."

"Things have gotten really dangerous." Sakura shivered. "It's really scary to think this would happen so suddenly…"

"Yeah… small wonder…" Shirou muttered absently as images of the previous night flashed through his head.

"Sempai? Is something wrong?" Sakura asked worriedly as she saw the elder teen's vacant expression.

"He's probably shocked cause the murders happen on his route back from work." Taiga mumbled through her rice bowl. "3 guys eaten up like animals and another one cut to pieces. I heard that the ones still in one piece were from one of the other gangs in the area. It has a lot of grandpa's guys on edge this morning when I woke up…"

"Y-yeah, that's it. I'm just a bit shocked that something like that happened so close to me." The redhead laughed nervously.

"Don't do something stupid like think you could have done something about it Shirou." Taiga frowned. "Whatever the heck was responsible for this, leave it to the police. In the mean time don't go to work or stay out late for now. I heard that the local schools are shutting down all afterschool activities and a curfew is being set up until things calm down."

"I… I wasn't going to blame myself for this!" Shirou attempted to lie rather transparently. "I'm just still getting over the fact that it could have been me there!"

"Please don't say that sempai…" Sakura pleaded Shirou. "I don't want to think what would happen if you really were a victim!"

"Shirou! Look at what you did!" Taiga yelled at the boy. "You're making Sakura cry!"

"Ah! I'm sorry! I'm sorry! I didn't mean to do that!" The boy waved his hands wildly in defense.

Sakura's gaze relaxed and a small smile made its way onto her face. "It's ok Sempai. I know you didn't mean it. I was just worried about you that's all…"

"How the hell hasn't he seen it yet?" Taiga muttered to herself quietly before shaking her head. "Let that be a lesson to you Shirou! Never make a cute girl like this cry! Sakura's probably the best you'll ever get your hands on so don't you dare try to push her away!"

"Huh?" Shirou blinked confused, ignoring the blush that suddenly erupted on Sakura's face. "What are you talking about Fuji-nee? Why would I push Sakura away?"

"I-It's nothing!" The shy girl squeaked in a slightly higher pitch than normal as she began to rather messily and quickly clean up breakfast.

"Still." Tiaga sighed. "Just don't do anything stupid Shirou. We'd be wrecked if we found out you were bitten to kingdom come and died… and then you came back as a zombieeee!" She fell back into her immature persona and began to make groaning noises.

Shirou tiredly looked at Taiga before glancing at Sakura momentarily. "You know Fuji-nee, it could always be a dead, an undead, a vampire or a ghoul you know…" He didn't have to look to notice Sakura freeze for a split second before resuming what she was doing, only even more sloppily.

"Dead and undead?" Taiga blinked in confusion. "What's the difference? How do you even know the difference? You aren't the comic book type even though your fantasy knowledge is pretty good."

The magus scratched his chin sheepishly. "Eh, one's like a pure zombie and the other's a potential vampire in the making. I heard of it in passing once in a conversation a while back. I never really bothered to learn of the details though."

"Well I guess that makes sense. To be honest they all seem the same to me." Taiga pouted, ashamed for not knowing something like that despite loving vampire and zombie stories.

"Yeah, they seem the same to me too." Shirou laughed lightly, only once meeting eyes with Sakura in the process.

o. o. o.

"A vampire? Here?" The priest's voice asked in a rather surprised tone through Rin's telephone.

"That's what I said, isn't it priest?" Rin snapped back irritably. "I killed one of its familiars last night…"

"So the story of the body cut to pieces was your doing? I thought you had more finesse than that." Kirei's amusedly commented.

"I was shocked from the bodies and seeing the undead for the first time up close. I got a bit jumpy with my wind spell, that's all!" The girl haughtily replied. "It's not like I'm used to just walking across people getting eaten by other people you know. That's more your thing."

The man of god chuckled briefly. "Hmhm. You are most likely correct about that. I am surprised though. Given the circumstances I thought that you would most likely come to me as soon as possible after the discovery."

"Getting covered in a dead man's blood for the first time tends to cause people to lose their cool ok?" Rin shouted angrily. "Just deal with the bloodsucker already! You do your side of the city and I'll do mine! We should be able to kill it by the end of the week!"

"Rin, I hope you don't plan to try to beat the vampire by your-" Kirei's voice was cut off as Rin turned off her phone.

"Of course I don't fake priest. My help just is too much of a coward to meet with you personally." Rin grumbled as she turned away from the phone and got ready for school. It was a bit earlier than normal for her to get up, but she needed to get things done so she had set her alarm an hour early despite knowing the fact that she hated getting up early.

It took her roughly half an hour for her to get to the school grounds and due to the fact that she arrived sooner than normal she could see that the steady inflow of students she was used to coming across was much smaller than normal. However due to this she managed to point out her current slave from the crowd walking in… with… her…

Rin bit her lip in minor frustration. She didn't know how the hell those two met up or why they were so close, but she wasn't going to ask any questions about their relationship. Not yet anyways. She watched from a brief distance as the two talked amicably and brightly before the younger of the 2 walked off to the middle school. Shirou probably never noticed it, but moments after they split apart, the girl's happy smile quickly drained into a rather blank to borderline soulless expression.

Odds were likely that she was like this most of the time and only really happy when near the Emiya. The thought of that fact made the Tohsaka even more depressed.

Still, Rin was not one to let bad memories get the better of her and a few seconds after the girl was out of hearing range she made her move to Shirou. "Oi Emiya. I thought you were into older women." She spoke up behind him, causing him to freeze up much to her satisfaction.

"T-Tohsaka." The boy laughed nervously as he turned around. "Please don't make jokes like that. I'm just good friends with Sakura."

"You can say that again." The dark haired girl smirked, noting that barely anyone was paying attention to them... "So you're not going to blow me off tonight are you?" Until that moment at least.

"Eh…" The redhead paled as he looked to see people staring at them. "I think we should talk somewhere else so no one else can overhear us and misunderstand our conversation…"

"I don't know what the big deal is." The average one casually inspected her nails. "I'm just making sure you're going out with me tonight. What's so hard to understand about that?"

_Other than virtually the entirety of what you just said? _The Emiya mentally shouted and was fairly certain that Rin actually heard. "I don't want people to think we're a couple or something. I mean I'm just helping you out with that project that you feel that you can't do by yourself." He put on a strained smile and laughed sheepishly.

"Oh Emiya-kun you don't have to be so shy." Rin laughed lightly. "You offered to help me out after all."

"I help out everyone Tohsaka. It's nothing monumental." Shirou argued feebly as he felt the eyes of a fair number of people focused on the 2, and for good reason. Rin was the idol in the freshman grade and other than a few girls she hangs out with on occasion she doesn't really socialize much, making her a bit of an enigma. The fact that she is casually speaking to "the janitor" of all people from out of nowhere in public is something that very few people in their grade would be able to comprehend without someone repeating the fact to them just to make sure they didn't misinterpret what was said. "Why are you doing this to me?" He hissed quietly through his teeth frantically.

"But it's really something only you can do. That makes your help even more important." Rin smiled and yawned. Shirou could have sworn she muttered something about payback but he couldn't be too sure. "But regardless. I'll see you tonight Emiya-kun. Don't be late. I've heard that things are pretty dangerous in town lately. It wouldn't be polite to keep a lady waiting." She smiled sweetly and walked away, leaving a very shell shocked Shirou and many portions of the student body standing in confusion by the main entrance of the school.

Shirou would not be left alone during school for the next 2 weeks, but that is irrelevant to the story.

o. o. o.

England:

"This isn't good…" Waver grit his teeth as he went over the facts once more. "This isn't good in the slightest…"

Despite what the lord had ordered of his assistants to do several weeks prior, the two boys had hit a snag with their data acquisition. While they did manage to gather any and all data about Sirius' relationships and encounters with multiple dead apostles, the one that clearly stuck out most was the Norwegian vampire Louvre, who apparently had a thing for mystic codes and conceptual weapons. Unfortunately, any and all other data on the vampire had been restricted preventing the two boys from gathering any other information on the most likely culprit. Even more concerning was the fact that it had become classified not even 3 years ago. It took the past couple of weeks for Waver to even get permission to access the data, and right now he really wished he didn't.

Louvre was now a registered dead apostle ancestor.

This changed the game significantly. Ancestor activity was restricted for the sole reason that if any idiot was allowed to hunt down the members or follow the research that they themselves had started, there could be a number of calamities that could and would happen ranging from war to spells that run wild and expose the association to the public. The 27's data was for the most part managed by the enforcers and highest ranking lords of the association, and more often than not Lorelei Barthomeloi spearheaded the hunts.

Since the vampire had a history of hunting Sirius' products for years, had 2 known children, a boy and a girl, and was speculated to be not as powerful as his position would indicate, it wasn't difficult to assume not only that Louvre was the culprit, but also why it had happened. Louvre probably knew that his position and his power were not secure and needed something to solidify it. Sirius was out of London and was known for producing strong weapons. Louvre took the chance to kidnap the man and succeeded.

Understanding what had happened and why helped, but the problem now was that since this case was now dealing with an ancestor, he should be informing the higher ups about this which would in turn take the management of the case out of his hands, something he really didn't want to do at the moment… especially since most nobles wouldn't really put Sirius' safety into consideration and just use the kidnapping as an excuse to storm the vampires' castle, not that anyone knew exactly where it was at the moment.

Moving his limbs mechanically, Waver grabbed one of the strongest cigars he had inside his desk drawer, stuck it in his mouth, lit the other end on fire and inhaled deeply, closing his eyes and leaning back as he did so. Ah how he wished Rider was here to give him some advice for times like these. The man was brash, impulsive, and absolutely clueless in terms of common sense, but despite that he had for the most part been a well of experience for both battle and adaptation, and was far, FAR more insightful than he let on when it came to negotiations and battle. Despite the fact that he had lost against Archer, the man had not once lost his composure and was indeed one of the biggest threats during the war. In hindsight, the lord could honestly say that there really was no true mistake the servant had made during the war. Even while some of his actions were a bit… stupid… at times, they weren't mistakes.

However Waver was not a king of conquers. He did not have an army, a noble phantasm or equally powerful code or conceptual weapon, he did not stand over 2 meters tall (though he did grow that extra 6 centimeters that Rider had mocked him about and then some), and he did not have any truly significant magic that made him stand out from others. He was just a very adaptable and intelligent man that was in a position that he by all mean should not be in but regardless ran head first into without thinking…

He snorted. This was just like the 4th holy grail war all over again.

Regardless, he would need some extra firepower in order to deal with the current situation. Bazett was a damned good start, but even so it was not enough to take down an ancestor… especially one with a family and had a stockpile of lord knows how many extremely dangerous mystic codes and conceptual weapons. Shirou… no. The boy was still too green. Granted if he actually laid eyes on the collection of weapons Louvre was rumored to have he'd probably jump to being a real threat to the vampire, but it was too much of a gamble to assume he would ever see the collection in the first place…

He paused for a moment as he thought of the vampire's collection and Shirou. If the monster ever got a hold of what Kiritsugu left for the boy and learned what the swords in the box could do… He shook his head in irritation. He shouldn't think like that. Sirius wouldn't sell out Shirou. He loved the kid like a grandson… or a great great grandson, or whatever he was with respect to age.

He wanted… no, he needed backup for this, but he also needed to be in a position of power during the entirety of the ordeal else things get out of hand. He already committed himself to going through with confronting Louvre at some point, but the specifics were still to be determined. Much like how Rider approached the war and the conquest that made him a legend…

Slowly, very slowly, a plan formed into his head. It was sloppy. It was brash. It would probably get him killed or arrested by the association if he did somehow survive…

And if he didn't know any better, he was fairly certain that it would make Rider laugh his head off and pat him heavily on the shoulder for taking such a glorious approach to his current problem.

… He wasn't sure if he approved of that feeling.

o. o. o.

Japan:

"Oi Emiya! What the hell is it with these rumors of you being friendly with Tohsaka all of a sudden?" Shinji yelled at a very blurry eyed Shirou, the latter of which had his head laid sideways on his desk very tiredly.

"It's a misunderstanding. I'm just helping her out with repairing some of the stuff at her house for a low price. We're only just acquaintances." The boy spoke out in a mechanical tone with empty eyes, clearly indicating that this wasn't the first time he had said these exact words over the course of the day. While the cancellation of all afterschool and club activities was a big topic of conversation for most of the school, for the freshman year the story of Emiya and Tohsaka "getting together tonight" clearly took priority.

"Misunderstanding my ass!" The blue haired boy yelled defiantly. "No one can ever get close to her, even me! And yet overnight you somehow are on her buddy list? I'm not buying it!"

"Then shop somewhere else Shinji." Shirou bluntly replied, clearly not interested in the topic of conversation that everyone wouldn't leave him alone about. "I'm telling you what I'm telling everyone else. I bumped into her yesterday, she asked for help, and I agreed. Please don't think that I'm interested in dating her."

The Matou and several people listening into the conversation blinked and stared at Shriou as if he grew another head. "Huh? You aren't interested in Tohsaka at all? She's one of the most sought after girls in the grade! Why not? Are you gay or something?"

The faker frowned and lowered the volume of his voice such that only the blue haired boy could hear him. "Shinji, I am not batting for the other team in the slightest, and if I even think you are spreading word of me being gay to other people, the teachers at the middle school will know who spray painted "S.M." on the cultural festival's "maid party" sign and what it really stands for."

Shinji Matou paled as several people blinked in confusion as to what Shirou just said to Shinji that could warrant that reaction. "O-o-ok! You win Emiya! I'll back off! Sorry for making assumptions!" He laughed nervously, getting him even more odd looks. Shinji was known to be a bit of an asshole at times when he was talking to anyone other than a cute girl, but he was also stubborn.

Shirou sighed tiredly as he put away his books and prepared to go back home. He doubted that he would manage to get his homework done with the amount of time he would leave himself with tonight, but now he was certain since he couldn't pay attention in class with everyone bugging him about Rin. "So long as you remember that Shinji." He shook his head before looking outside to see the sun still in the sky. "Hey… just a warning, you really shouldn't be outside during the night for a while."

"Eh?" The playboy raised an eyebrow. "You mean that serial killer and those disappearances. The police have that covered. Why should I worry about it?"

The faker glanced at his friend with a sharp eye before looking away. He had almost forgotten that while Sakura clearly was a magus of some sort, Shinji was just as obviously not despite the fact that his personality matched what he was told was the standard old family heir's. "… I'm just being cautious, that's all. I decided that I'm not doing my part time job until this thing blows over either."

"Are you serious?" Shinji glared at Shirou. "It honestly takes a homicidal maniac running around town to actually get you to stop working?" He clicked his teeth in irritation and looked down on Shirou. "Well if that's the case I'm starting to have second thoughts on your commitment to archery club Emiya. We can't have you skipping club events just because of work. I'm going to have to bring this up with the club president when activities resume…"

Shirou rolled his eyes as he left the room. "Whatever Shinji. Just make sure not to stay out late at night until the murders stop or something. Oh and actually learn hit the target by the time I leave if you do kick me out." He didn't bother to see what his or his classmate's reactions were as he walked out of the room, yawning as he did so. He had more important things to worry about right now…

o. o. o.

Several hours later Shirou was at home as usual with Taiga and Sakura cleaning up dinner. His meeting with Tohsaka wasn't for another 2 hours so he was in no rush to get them out, but the fact that it was already dark outside had him a bit on edge for when Sakura had to go back home.

"Ahh. That was a good meal." Taiga grinned and patted her stomach happily. "You're really getting better at this Sakura."

Said chef for the night blushed and looked down. "There's no need to thank me Fuji-san, Sempai is still much better than me."

"Not for long he isn't." The teacher in training smirked, getting Shirou to twitch an eyebrow. "You've been getting better ever since you started to learn under our resident superhero."

"Not again with the superhero stuff." Shirou sighed as he leaned against the wall and looked at the clock. "It's getting pretty late. You guys should get home soon if you don't want to try to risk needing a superhero on the way back."

The eldest's happy grin dropped into a resigned expression. "Yeah. You're probably right. I'll…"

"Actually, I think I'll walk her back tonight." Shirou interrupted, getting a surprised look from both females. "I mean, if it comes to a fight or something, I think I'm technically a better pick for a bodyguard, aren't I Fuji-nee?"

The Yakuza girl pouted. "If I had my bokken you wouldn't be saying that…" She mourned the mysterious disappearance of her favorite weapon, but there was nothing she could really do about it now. "Still… aren't you risking a bit much Shirou? I mean I can always get some of my grandfather's men to give her a quick lift…"

"I don't want to be a bother to people…" Sakura mumbled quietly from the sidelines.

"Just trust me Fuji-nee. If something happens I'll run with Sakura first and ask questions later." Shirou sighed. "If we get into a tough spot I'll make an opening for Sakura to escape…"

Whack!

"Honestly." Taiga sighed, tapping a rolled up poster in her hand and ignoring Shirou holding his head in mild pain. "You say you stopped wanting to be a superhero, but you go and say things like that. It's so hard to understand you sometimes Shirou." She shook her head. "But at least we know you stick to your word about this kind of thing. I'm probably worrying about this too much since it isn't that far to Sakura's. You can take her this time…" She put on a sly grin. "Just don't try to do anything I wouldn't do when you get there."

"It would help if I actually knew what you are and are not willing to do Fuji-nee." Shirou grunted while rubbing the back of his head, completely missing the woman's teasing.

Sakura on the other hand was blushing too much to make a reply.

A few stammers, jokes, and grumbles later, all 3 were standing outside of Shirou's home and about to leave for their destinations.

"Just be careful you two." Taiga sighed. "If you come across any trouble, run straight back for my place. Gramps' guys will back you up in an instant."

"We'll be fine Fuji-nee." Shirou sighed as he began to walk down the road to the part of town where the western buildings were build, and consequently where Tohsaka's place was. "Come on Sakura. We don't want to keep Shinji and your folks busy."

"R-right!" The girl stammered before bowing to Taiga. "I'll see you later Fuji-nee."

"Later lovebirds!" Taiga waved the two off before walking to her place, disappearing around a corner.

"Honestly." Shirou sighed, misinterpreting Sakura's shyness for embarrassment. "I wish she would stop making fun of us like that."

"She's just… trying to keep things light hearted. That's all." Sakura fidgeted. "It really is dangerous to be out at night now…" She glanced at him cautiously, hesitant to speak anymore. "Um… Shirou… about what you said about the attacks…"

"Hm?" Shirou blinked in confusion. "What did I say?"

She looked away nervously. "A-about the ghouls and dead and undead…"

Shirou's heart skipped a beat. Sakura was actually willing to risk acknowledging their status' as magi because of the situation? He… no, they both knew that while their feelings for one another wouldn't change, their relationship would forever be altered if they allowed the magic world to become a part of their bond, and it was something he doubted either one of them would be able to adapt to at this point in time. So he did the best thing Sirius told him to do whenever an uncomfortable situation like this came up. He laughed it off and played dumb. "Heh. Did you really believe what I said Sakura?" Shirou smiled lightly. "I'm sorry. I'll have to lay off the scary stuff for you from now on."

The girl looked at him concerned for a moment before she put on a small smile. "Y-yeah. I never was good with scary stories. I'm sorry for worrying you sempai…"

"There's no problem." Shirou grinned. "It was my fault to begin with. Besides, if I really wanted to scare you, I'd start telling stories about dad's and Fuji-nee's attempts at cooking."

The girl giggled. "Yeah, that does sound a lot more scary than any zombie story…"

The two stuck to the main streets, not wanting to risk getting caught in some back alley if things went south. The roads were empty for the most part… that is until they reached the bottom of the hill that went up to Sakura's home…

Shirou froze as a familiar foul stench reached his "nose". "No… not now…" He muttered as he glanced in the direction the smell was coming from, down a side road to his right. Off in the distance he could see two figures slowly converging on a third. Common sense was enough to tell which were familiars and which weren't, but the boy stood in place, rooted as he glanced to where Sakura no doubt saw the same thing and was wide eyed in fear.

"S-Sempai…" She whispered, shaking all over and no doubt knowing exactly what it was she was seeing at the moment.

Now of all times? This couldn't be happening, but it was. Should he act now he and Sakura would be forced to recognize one another as magi, but if he didn't then another person would die right in front of them…

"Help!" The innocent woman shouted in fear as the dead men converged on her. "Anyone help me please!"

As if a trigger was pulled inside the boy, the words seemed to break the faker's hesitation instantly as he slammed the hammer down in his mind and ran forward. Prana surged through his body, enabling him to run at speeds that no human would be able to run at while at the same time 2 short swords materialized in his hands.

He should have been far more concerned about the situation than he was right now, but for some reason his heart pulsed at a calm rate that matched the still nature of his mind. Sakura was watching and there was a vampire somewhere in the area right now, and someone was about to die soon if he wasn't careful, yet he was perfectly calm with the 2 swords in his hands just about to slice into his unaware prey in the shadows.

1.

2.

3 seconds was all it took for him to cross the distance between where he once stood and where the woman in danger was about to get assaulted and in turn assault the attackers themselves. While the weapons Shirou used were unremarkable in any way magically, they were still extremely well made and sharp as hell. Combined with the boy's enhanced strength the blades cut through both dead men quickly and deeply as he passed them, severing one of their arms and almost decapitating the other with a sound akin to a butcher's knife embedding itself into a thick slab of overly tender meat. It had helped that since his targets were dead their muscles and tendons were significantly less solid than compared to a normal human, but still cutting through solid bone or a spine in a single stroke took a significant amount of strength that he didn't have at the moment. The strikes were extremely fast, but they still lacked the power to cut through the bodies completely and as such only one of the familiars collapsed from the wounds. The other on the other hand paused and turned to look at Shirou who was turning around for another pass to kill the remaining zombie.

"Another one? I wonder which one of you is the one who broke my toy earlier…" A female voice clearly not belonging to the dead man's body mused darkly and curiously just before Shirou drew both blades in a sweeping motion and completely cut off the head to the zombie in a single strike. Normally something like this would cause blood to spray everywhere, but since the victim was already dead there was barely any blood coming out at all even after both parts of the body fell to the ground.

And just as quickly as it had started, it had ended.

"Wh-wh-what the hell?" The woman stammered as she tried to stumble away from Shirou who was breathing heavily despite killing the 2 familiars extremely quickly. She squeaked as the boy snapped out of his stupor upon hearing her and made eye contact.

"Sorry…" He smiled weakly as his hypnotizing spell slowly took hold on the woman if the slowly fading look in her eyes were any indication. "But I'm going to have to make you forget everything you just saw…" Sure enough a few seconds later said woman had collapsed to the ground in a deep sleep.

Sighing to himself in frustration, the savior looked around to see if there were anymore enemies to watch out for and seeing that there wasn't, he decided to, while a bit mean, dump the unconscious woman's body in a random person's backyard. He couldn't take her somewhere more secure right now, but considering how dumb the dead were, sticking her in an enclosed area would probably be enough to keep her alive until morning. Plus she reeked of booze so she'd probably assume that she got drunk the previous night and fell asleep there willingly so it all made sense to everyone in the end. As for the bodies… he just left them where they were. There was no real point in hiding them right now. Dead bodies had already been found before, these wouldn't make much difference.

"S-Sempai…" Sakura shivered, snapping Shirou out of his focus on the situation to remind him that 1, he had just used magic in front of her and 2, he had used said magic to decapitate dead people which normally meant 3, there was at least 1 vampire in the city.

The boy swallowed heavily before shaking his head and setting his priorities straight. "Sakura… we can talk about this as much as you want later… it's not safe to stay out right now." He put on a dry smile. "Don't worry. I'll make sure you don't get hurt."

The girl shakily nodded as she looked around just in case another undead was nearby as the stronger of the two made his way to her.

"I take it you don't have any real offensive spells." The stated calmly as they walked brusquely to the Matou home.

"I do… but I don't have any real experience in combat…" Sakura looked away in shame before turning to him again. "But you weren't scared at all! The way you…"

"Was that how I looked?" Shirou mumbled as he looked at his shaking hands. "Cause I can tell you I'm scared as hell right now. That wasn't the first familiar I killed… but because of that the maker of those things made sure to keep a connection to them this time and got a good look at me before I finished it off. It knows what I look like." He grew more tired by the second as he realized how much trouble he was in at the moment. "Odds are that the vampire in charge is going to try to gun for me next…"

The girl looked at him in surprise and concern. "You're going to fight against one of those things alone? You'll be killed!"

The boy laughed lightly and shook his head. "Don't worry. I already got some help with this. Besides I'm tougher than I look." He looked at his hands as if he was seeing past them. "My body is made of blades after all…"

Before Sakura could say anything in response to the boy's cryptic reflection, a third voice made itself known. "Oi Emiya! What the hell are you doing with Sakura!"

"Nii-san!" The girl gasped in surprise as she realized that she was already home.

"I walked her home Shinji. You know that it's getting dangerous outside at night so I escorted her back to make sure she was safe." Shirou sighed. "As for why I in particular am with her, we were both seeing one of the teacher in trainings and happened to pick the same one." Technically it was true. Taiga was a fairly popular assistant teacher that was shifted between the local middle and high schools frequently so it did make sense.

The elder Matou glared at Shirou. "Am I really supposed to believe that Emiya?"

Shirou raised an eyebrow. "Then what are you supposed to believe? Do you really think that Sakura and I were doing something else in the time between now and school?" He didn't catch the accidental insinuation that his question could have been mistaken for nor the shocked look Sakura gave him.

Shinji on the other hand gaped at the redhead for a moment before regaining his composure. "Tch. No I don't. You don't seem like the type at all. You're too boring and honest to get anywhere in a relationship." He turned a sharp eye to his sister. "Sakura. Get inside right…"

Shirou's nose was filled with a sweet but foul smell moments before the source made itself known from behind the Matou. "That's quite enough Shinji…" A decrepit voice spoke out, causing all of the teens to jump in surprise and turn to the owner. Out walked a bald and aging man, depending heavily on his cane in order to move. On first impressions he looked like he would keel over within the next year or so without any help. "Don't be rude to our young friend here after he went through all this trouble to escort Sakura back. It has been very dangerous lately outside at night…" He raised an eyebrow muscle at Shirou in curiosity. "Though I do believe you need to work on your manners a bit more. It is still rude to stare the last time I checked…"

Shirou would have responded to the old man's comment, but he was having a bit of trouble holding his stomach at the moment. The second the newcomer appeared, Shirou had once more performed structural grasping more on instinct than anything else, and what he discovered was unsettling to say the least. The old man's body was not human. If he wasn't already used to seeing the vampire's familiars at this point he would have without a doubt thrown up at that moment. While on the outside it indeed appear to be a human body, albeit frail, the inside was squirming with rotting flesh and moving… things that seemed to do more work than the rest of his organs and muscles combined…

And the worst part about it was that he could tell that the living things inside the old man were EXACTLY the same as the things that occasionally writhed inside Sakura.

"G-grandfather…" Sakura stammered in a soft voice, seemingly drawing attention to herself since they arrived at the building.

"Hmmm." The old man eyed the two skeptically. "You two seem to have had quite a scare recently judging from your pale faces. Shinji, show some manners and get these two some water."

"Huh?" The only non magically attuned person there frowned. "Why me? Get Sakura to do it."

"Because your sister looks like she wouldn't be able to pour herself a glass let alone get one for another." The old man sighed. "Now go." There was a very faint commanding tone in his voice, but even Shinji managed to get the hint as he reluctantly went inside to do as his elder commanded. The moment he disappeared inside, Zouken turned his attention back to the 2 again. "What am I going to do with that useless boy?" He muttered before getting on topic again. "I assume from your disposition that you have come across whatever it is that's been causing problems in the city recently… and from the excess prana around you, I assume that it wasn't something that should be taken lightly…"

"A couple of victims of a vampire were about to kill a woman on our way back." Shirou admitted while still on guard. He didn't trust this old man in the slightest. His body. The way he smelled figuratively and literally. It all rubbed him the wrong way. Still, Shirou knew to hold his tongue as much as he could. An odd body for a magus usually meant a hard magus to kill and an even more painful death for yourself if you did something stupid. Sirius had been the first one to prove that theory to the boy.

Still, how the hell was this THING Sakura's grandfather?

Zouken on the other hand seemed to no mind of Shirou's stance and focused on the situation at hand with surprise. "A vampire? Here?" The decrepit man frowned. "That is indeed troubling news…" He looked at Shirou skeptically. "You seem to be relatively uninjured despite the encounter… and I know that my granddaughter has no aptitude for offensive thaumaturgy… you must be quite experienced…"

"Not as much as I would like to be…" The boy replied skeptically. "Is that a problem?"

The Matou head chuckled and shook his head. "Not at all. If you weren't then I fear for what would have happened to Sakura. For that I thank you… Emiya if I am correct?"

"You know of me?" Shirou asked curiously. For some reason the fact that this old man knew his name sparked more fear in his body than when he first came across the 3 dead bodies on Saturday night…

"Well of course." Zouken answered as if he was talking about the weather. "It would be strange to not know whose dwelling my granddaughter spends so much time at, much less the name my grandson speaks of fondly almost as much as he curses at the dining table."

Shirou couldn't help but snort at that. The old man pretty much just described all of his conversations with his grandson. Mostly insults with a few thinly veiled compliments if he actually felt you were useful. "Yeah that sounds like something he'd do."

"I got your water." Shinji grunted as he loudly and angrily walked outside again with 2 glasses of half full liquid and almost shoved them into Shirou's and Sakura's hands. "You two better be grateful."

"Thanks Shinji." Shirou nodded, very quickly performing structural grasping on the liquid to make sure the boy didn't do anything to his drink, and then downed it slowly. His stomach was still wound up from the earlier events and this old man in front of him, however he had managed to gradually loosen up… if just a little.

"I hope you don't mind…" Zouken spoke up. "However I think it would be best if young Sakura refrained from visiting you for a few weeks. Just enough time for this whole murderer thing to blow over." He glanced at the boy. "Do you agree with this?"

Shirou sighed, noting that Shinji had grown a small smirk on his face from the statement while Sakura's face fell. His first instinct was to decline immediately and drag Sakura as far away from the monster man as possible. That of course wouldn't end well with anyone and cause more problems in the future. He could just leave Sakura here. She lived here after all… but now that he saw this old man he just couldn't in good conscience just allow her to spend all her free time in this building. Especially since Shinji's been proving himself to be more of an ass lately than normal PLUS he still needed to talk to her in private about their own revealed positions as magi else their relationship may never be repaired. It was true that he couldn't allow Sakura over at his place if she had to go back at night, but then again… "Not really." He shook his head, surprising the entirety of the Matou family. "I mean Sakura enjoys coming over so much, it would be kind of mean to just keep her from doing it…"

"Then what do you suggest?" Zouken asked curiously. "Surely you know how dangerous it is outside at night these days."

The faker shrugged. "Nothing grand. I was just thinking she could stay over my place a few nights if she wished. My neighbor is an assistant teacher that comes over all the time and I have enough space for multiple people to sleep over. Plus it's a fairly well set up place so I doubt that anyone would be able to barge in without us knowing ahead of time…"

Sakura instantly blushed at Shirou's proposition while Shinji scowled. "Emiya! Don't play innocent with me! You just want Sakura to stay over so you can…"

"Shinji!" Zouken barked, stopping the boy from saying whatever he was going to claim, which seemed to be insulting enough to cause Sakura to look at him fearfully as well. "You have said enough for the evening. Go back inside. You still have school work to do if I remember correctly…" The withering glare from the old man was enough to cause all 3 teens to shiver, and as such it was more than enough to cause the boy to retreat inside the house, but not without giving Shirou a dark look as he did so. "My apologies." The man shook his head. "So as I was about to say before we were interrupted, while it does normally concern me that you want my innocent granddaughter to stay over your home, I think that I can trust you to make sure she stays safe."

"You can." Shirou nodded without hesitation. "I'll make sure nothing happens to her."

"But of course you will." The old man smiled harmlessly. "Because if you don't I can assure you I will get my redemption on you in ways you can't imagine…"

_Oh I can believe that old man. Your body is proof enough…_ The boy agreed silently. "Well then… I guess I'll be going then. I'll call up the house if Sakura wants to stay over for the night."

"Please do." Zouken nodded. "It was a pleasure to meet you young Emiya. I hope to eventually have another enlightening conversation with you soon. It is very refreshing to talk to a young one who is able to speak his mind while still being able to remain polite. I'm afraid I don't get much of that with either one of my grandchildren…"

"I'll see what I can do." Shirou nodded as he walked away, making a mental note to do the opposite if possible. "I have some stuff to do, so I'll be leaving now. Later Sakura."

"Goodbye… Sempai…" Sakura watched as Shirou disappeared into the night despite wearing a blue and white t shirt.

Zouken on the other hand merely smiled. _How ironic. His father took care of the Einzbern's grail the previous war, and a few years before the next one his son will serve the same task for the Makiri's… but the war will have to wait for now…_ He turned and slowly walked inside his home. _The vampire takes priority. I will have to send some of my familiars out now in order to gather information on what foolish undead has trespassed onto land that they have no business being on… _He paused as he saw his adopted granddaughter's expression once more become emotionless, something that he was more accustomed to seeing her being over the years. _Although… perhaps on it would be best to take some initiative steps for the war soon… it seems as if the Emiya boy has the potential to be far more able in progressing my plans than my worthless grandson…_

o. o. o.

In the industrial side of Fuyuki City:

Kirei Kotomine blinked emotionlessly as he tore through several undead in a single passing with the 6 black keys, common blessed swords that are often used by members of the church, between his hands. He didn't even need to use their ability to paralyze a target by piercing their shadow with the blades in order to manage the situation. While vampires themselves were rather challenging opponents at times depending on how old and experienced they were, their undead counterparts were unfortunately more often than not complete cannon fodder.

The man was not one to promote violence (unless it was to serve a purpose of his of course), however to spend time dealing with such underwhelming opponents was rather mundane and depressed him. Normally in these situations one of the only satisfying thoughts he had was that these weak things had gone and unleashed unimaginable torture, pain and suffering to their human victims, who were in turn even weaker than the things he was killing… however then he remembered that it would in turn just force him to kill more undead and waste more time with things that any apprentice should be able to manage…

For a moment he wondered if he should ask Gilgamesh to help him out with this chore, just to see the King of Hero's reaction… but he realized that it would most likely be to shoot him through with several dozen noble phantasms. The golden clad servant was never one that could take a joke well… then again, he wasn't much of a comedian himself. He was more of a tragic playwright… except his work was for his entertainment at the expense of others instead of the other way around.

"How mundane…" He muttered in a disinterested as he glanced back to have a look at the dead bodies that he had once again returned to being just that. There were roughly a dozen of them, but they fell in less than a minute. "I do hope that the one making these annoying dolls poses more of a challenge." He turned to the opposite direction where a shadow slowly walked out from the darkness. "I'm not a fan of wasting my time on such trivial things."

"My my…" The daughter of Louvre chuckled seductively as she walked out with a swagger. "You are quite the priest. The rumors of you being a scary executioner were no mere stretch of the truth…" She brushed a finger on her lips temptingly as she put on a thoughtful pose. "Although it shouldn't be much of a surprise. This land is surprisingly rich in mana. A strong leyline if I am not mistaken… it really is little wonder why one of your kind is actually here."

"2nd strongest in this nation, next to the Aozaki's." Kirei admitted as he seemingly let his body relax. "So you weren't drawn here by the land's resources… And you are clearly not a native or from this land in general… plus your conduct is clearly not one that your kind would employ if you desired to stay here for an extended period of time. What are you after?"

"Smart too…" The female grinned hungrily. "Plus you don't mind talking to a woman unlike the rest of your dull religion friends. I'm halfway inclined to turn you right now…"

"I would prefer if you didn't." Kirei admitted. "My faith is not one that takes kindly to being one of your kind. Now if you would so kindly answer my question. I prefer to take more peaceful routes to my goals rather than dirty my hands…" The blades in his fingers twitched as if they were claws ready to strike.

The vampiress smirked. "And what hands they must be. I've always wondered what fingers that can handle those black keys of yours could do for more… interesting activities…" She sighed. "But I will humor you for now." She glanced at him curiously. "I'm looking for someone here in this city. Even though you priests don't normally associate yourselves with magi, there may be a chance you may have heard of him regardless. Are you familiar with a boy named Shirou Emiya?"

Kirei's eyebrows momentarily widened before they returned to their normally even level… albeit there was a spark of curiosity in his eyes now. "Shirou… Emiya? No. That name in particular does not ring a bell…"

"Your expression says differently." The woman purred as she loosened her stance and reached into a pocket for something. "Are you protecting the boy?"

"On the contrary." Kirei replied as his body tensed. "I have never heard of him in my life until just now. You merely reminded me of someone that I happen to hate the most."

"Really?" The vampire tilted her head as she withdrew a pitch black whip with several barbed ends from the pocket and unraveled it in the night. "What did he do? Curse the holy father?"

The priest's normally empty gaze hardened into a frown. "He threw away everything that I dreamed of obtaining when it was right in his hands... and soon after that… he killed me…"

"Well well. You are looking to be more like my type by the minute. A shame you aren't nearly as interested as I am…" The woman purred as a sadistic smile made its way onto her face. "But then again… I'm about to do the same thing he did!" Utilizing the speed and ability that came with being a vampire, she whipped her arms around quickly and shot the other end of the weapon she wielded at the priest as if she was commanding a serpent. The black polished material it was made of barely reflected in the night as the dozen barbed ends darted at even faster speeds. Such an attack easily had enough force to decapitate, pierce through, or slash any normal person…

It might as well have been moving at a snail's pace for Kirei however as he deflected the ends of the weapon with his own at a speed that virtually paralleled his opponents despite him clearly being a human.

What he was not expecting however was the unnaturally heavy force that the tips of the whip held in them. It was only thanks to his training that he dodged the blow that plowed through his defenses fast enough to only have his left arm scratched deeply (despite the fact his robes were lined with Kevlar), instead of severed and have his chest caved in as well.

He did not have any time to dwell on the abnormality nor the pain as the whip snaked its way back to him in the darkness with the intent to take his head if the curves in the coil were any indication. The few times the metal tips touched the buildings to either side of them or the floor, deep gouges and chunks were made upon contact as if the metal was imbued with the concussive force of a sledgehammer. With the tip of the weapon sprayed out into multiple ends that covered a wide and constantly varying area, it was certainly a tool that was difficult to manage upon first encounter without prior knowledge.

Without hesitating in the slightest the priest retreated the assaulting blows, dodging whenever he could and deflecting those he couldn't with extreme care and expertise. The dull sound of metal meeting metal was matched by the hollow echo in his bones made by the impacts, quickly numbing his arms and trying his patience as he attempted to get out of the reach of the long ranged weapon.

Left. Down Left. Sidestep. Block the front. Ignore the pain and use the force to gain more ground. Right. The lethal and rapid dance continued without pause for blood nor destruction of any property nearby. Trashcans and fire escapes were slashed into bits, providing no protection at all. Dumpsters were crushed, ensuring that anything inside would be killed just as easily as if they were the dumpster itself. Kirei frowned at the unfortunate situation he found himself in and his carelessness before deciding that he had enough for the night. He was no longer in the mood for combat or vampires with so many new questions running in his mind. Seeing as he was nearing the edge of the woman's range, he made a quick backpedaling dash backwards while at the same time throwing the 3 blades in his right hand at the writhing split end of the weapon. While impossible to follow for normal human eyes, both the priest and the woman watched as 2 of the blades entangled themselves among the writhing strips of thick cloth enough to disrupt the course of where the sharp tips flew, driving them to flail up instead of straight at him, while the 3rd blade soared past the end of the whip and straight at its controller.

Just as fast as Kirei set situation, the woman adapted to hers as she twitched her arm and caused the body of her weapon to arch and deflect the black key and cause it to fall harmlessly to the ground. "Not bad at all…" She purred and flicked her wrist. The keys that were entangled in her weapon snapped in half due to the monstrous pressure they underwent a moment later. "Though I do hope you didn't actually think that I'd try to dodge it and risk either letting you escape or have your tool pierce my shadow, did you?"

"It was a valid tactic." The man responded calmly as if he didn't really expect it to work in the first place. "Whether or not it actually worked was up to you." He glanced at the whip which he was out of range of at the moment. "… I have rarely heard of a vampire who actually relies on a mystic code for battle."

"Hmm. Yes I am rather attached to this little piece my father acquired for me. It's called the mountain lion…" She stroked the grip affectionately as she walked forward. "So tell me priest. What will you do now? Will you beg? Will you attempt a last stand? Will you run? I have seen all that and more from your kin at one point or another…"

Kirei snorted as he flicked his wrists and despite his injuries threw 6 more black keys in rapid succession, prompting his opponent to dodge and deflect the projectiles in an instant with a flick of her wrist and a quick shuffle, but enabling him enough to widen the gap between them such that she could not reach him and should she chase after him their fight would be in the public, something neither one of them were too keen on at the moment. "I will do none of those things." He stated in a calm tone. "If you must know, you have piqued my interest vampire. So long as what you do is worthwhile and you do not do anything foolish, I will be satisfied with merely watching your activities for now."

The woman raised an eyebrow. "Oh? This is certainly unexpected priest. Are you not obligated to end every one of my kind that you encounter on sight?" She pouted. "And we were just about to have some fun too…"

The priest merely began to turn away. "My faith and my obligation to do my duty are 2 separate things. Rest assured I will come for your life again, however my interest in your being here is of higher priority to me… for the moment at least. Do try to keep it that way. In the mean time I will have to make do with dealing with those abominations that you are making…"

The sound of Kirei's footsteps growing fainter was one of the few things that could be heard by the woman's keen ears as she remained in the gap between 2 large buildings. "Well now…" She mused as she withdrew her weapon and walked in the opposite direction. "It seems as if this little chore for father will be more interesting than I originally thought…" She put on a small smirk. "I wonder if that boy on the other side of town who killed my toys will be just as entertaining?"

o. o. o.

Europe:

The Vampire clicked his teeth irritably as he explored the last safe castle in southern Italy. He had less than an hour left before he needed to leave for his apartment so he could get there before daybreak, and still he had nothing. If he came up with nothing here then he would have to waste weeks prodding the defenses of the castles owned by the association and the church before examining even the outer grounds…

The castle he was in right now was the smallest one so far. It was located in the middle of a thick forest and had only 1 moderately tall tower that had already collapsed halfway. The few main buildings that remained standing were rotten from the inside out, stones included. The ruins seemed to have been undiscovered or unexplored for the most part since he had found that the dungeons of the area contained corpses that still had rotting flesh, clothes, and golden teeth to complete the decor. He left them alone however as he didn't have the time to waste on such mundane trinkets and images.

He was returning from examining the top of tower and about to exit the run down building when a small irregularity on the dusty floor near the stairs caught his senses. Underneath the staircase lay several decaying barrels, however he could feel the faintest of breezes coming from their general direction. His red eyes, which were so adapted to the night that it might as well have been mid day for him, turned to the faint anomaly with curiosity and the barest hint of hope as he scanned the area. Slowly he walked over and examined the floor between the barrels with the precision of a doctor or a scientist… and there. Underneath the thick dust, just a hairline away from being truly covered was a distinct line in the floor that was perpendicular to the decayed boards that made the ground. Feeling his hands tremble in anticipation but knowing full well that this may just as well lead him to a dead end, the blood drinker quietly but quickly removed the decayed storage out of the way and lifted the hidden door to reveal a pit that delved even farther into the darkness with the remains of a ladder connected to the edge.

He didn't even think twice before he jumped down to the empty hole, having no need for light nor a safe place to fall as his superhuman reflexes all but ensured his landing was faultless.

Snorting to himself, the son of Louvre looked up at where he fell down. 10 meters. Something he could easily jump if needed. Turning to the new path he discovered, he took out his prana detection device and was thoroughly impressed to see that it was reading something rather strong. This meant that either what he was looking for was in this direction, he had accidentally come across a powerful but abandoned workshop, or he was about to encounter something that he would most likely have to fight to the death…

To be honest, any one of those three was enticing for him after spending nearly 3 weeks looking at stones and corpses like it was going out of style.

He didn't have to walk long though to find what he was looking for as he entered a wide cavern that stunk of death and worms. Obviously he had found another one of the mass tombs that littered Italy's underground from the years predating his father's birth. The walls were littered with rectangular holes that each contained the body of someone who died from some plague or war or famine or whatever. Humans haven't really changed much in the manner in which they died over the centuries in his opinion. Still this made no difference as on the far end of the room he spied not a hole in the wall, but an actual coffin adorned with rather expensive, if not severely decayed silks and riches.

The vampire felt his hands tremble with anticipation as he walked forward towards the coffin. As he did so he took out a small black fang shaped object from his pockets, a tooth of a dragon that he had used on multiple occasions to forcibly dispel any wards or charms set up by magi and members of the church alike. Much to his surprise however he did not need it until he actually reached the coffin, where a weak ward pushed him back. No doubt it was to keep away his kind as the body belonged to a holy man, but it mattered little as he removed it with ease and threw off the top of the coffin moments later.

Inside laid a large skeleton dressed in ceremonial priests' robes and resting in a bed of silk. If the materials minus the body were sold today on the market, it would probably be enough to feed an entire family in Asia for years on end… but that mattered little to the corpse nor the vampire…

No, what interested the Son of Louvre was the red gold gilded mace that rested in the hands of the cadaver that leaked of potent prana and thaumaturgy…

The mace of Odo, Bishop of Bayeux…

o. o. o.

Omake: Sirius' torture session, take 2:

"You are… pure evil…" Sirius gasped, his body convulsing erratically and his breathing haggard as he attempted to recover from what he had just experienced. Every fiber of his being was screaming in protest to what it had just been exposed to, and they screamed even louder when it registered to them that they would witness such an atrocity yet again soon enough.

"I am loosing just as much as you are." Louvre sighed aridly as he drank his alcohol in moderation. "It is quite expensive to replace those objects that are being misused. You know what you need to do in order to stop it though. If not I'm afraid we both will be loosing more of what we value soon enough."

"Ah swear Louvre… If ah get outta dis… ahm gonna turn yer body inta sometin fer a local middle school art department…" The code crafter growled in pure rage.

"Hmmm…" The vampire frowned. "I do believe that is in fact the most unsettling threat you've made on my life yet Sirius…"

"Let me out and ah'll show ya unsettling!" The bigger man roared as he struggled in his seat in an attempt to get his hands on Louvre.

Clang.

The off tune ringing of metal not only caused the raging man to stop what he was doing, but actually whimper like a small child as well. "No… not again…"

Louvre sighed as he looked onward to the forge and workshop where he would have Sirius work when he actually cooperated with his demands. He had spared no expense to get the materials and equipment needed to make state of the art codes… however at the moment such items were not being used or guided by the hands of an expert weapon maker… but in the hands of inexperienced undead who really had no idea what they were doing.

"No! Ya don't use a hammer fer shaping class 1A materials on delicate…!" The large man tried to order one of the dead workers handiling a very fragile looking material before the zombie crushed it relentlessly, causing Sirius to make a sound akin to a small woman's gasp mixed with screeching tires. "How? How could ya do such a horrible ting?" He asked with wide watery eyes as if the zombie had just worked on a baby's head instead of some nameless clump of metal. "What did tat hamma an tat lump o crystal spida eggs eva do to you?"

Louvre stood to the side with mixed feelings. On the one hand he was certain that it would not be long until the blacksmith would finally yield to his requests…

On the other hand… he just felt dirty on an extreme level for making a big man like that make the face of a puppy that you raised before crippling it and leaving it out on the street…

o. o. o.

A/N:

Done in 1 week. Damn that was fast. Also note to self: never post on a Thursday night. Your review count will suffer greatly.

Ok. So for basic stats of the mace which I believe is fairly balanced.

Mace of Odo, Bishop of Bayeux

Rank: D (B) (Certain requirements are needed for higher rank)

Power: TBD (I already came up with one, but I'm not spoiling it yet)

History:

While the tale of its owner is not well known in many a history book, the mace itself is unusually influential in modern society as it was this mace in particular that first gave the world the impression of warriors of the clergy wielded them in the battlefield in order to prevent shedding blood, as first depicted in the Bayeux Tapestry. This influential effect lead to the uprising of the use of these weapons as symbols of power for future clergymen, allowing this weapon to not only eventually achieve the rank of a noble phantasm and abilities of a conceptual weapon, but develop these abilities in the original mace despite being crafted by mortal hands and buried with its owner long before any powers developed.

And before anyone complains, yes conceptual weapons can be noble phantasms. Avalon can be used as one and Rho Aias is one as well.

So onto other news. Skyrim and AC Revelations. Yeah. Just when I was finally getting down Dark Souls too. Well I can certainly kiss my free time goodbye.

And other news… meh. I got nothing. Little has changed in a week.

So Review! Worship the Log! Don't screw with the giants that heard elephants or said elephants! And Review again!


	12. Chapter 12

Chapter 12: Prototype testing

I do not own Fate/Stay Night and stuffs:

o. o. o.

England:

It had been 3 days since Waver had collected enough information to put his plan into action and taken the first step when a very angry department head walked into his room with his assistant and several other department members.

That was 2 and a half days longer than he had expected them to react.

"Lord El-Melloi!" His boss growled at him with a dangerous look in his eyes. "It has come to our attention that you have enacted activities that are most unbecoming of your position."

Waver didn't flinch from his desk. Compared to nearly being killed by Gilgamesh when the golden man was less than 2 meters away, his boss was nowhere near as terrifying. "Oh?" The young adult raised an eyebrow curiously as he continued to scan his paperwork as if he was in just another conversation. "Can you elaborate please? I'm afraid that I am unaware of what you are talking about as I have made sure that everything I have done is within the range of the power entrusted to me by the association and the Archibald family."

"Don't test our patience boy." Growled a woman of noble standing. Waver recalled that she had a family history of around 7-8 generations. This of course meant that she was likely to be as big of a pain as any other noble in the clock tower. She took out a flier and placed it roughly on his desk. "What is this foolishness about setting up a dead apostle ancestor hunt without informing or asking approval from the committee or the higher members of the tower?"

The flier, while a bit crude for anyone's tastes, was Waver's first step in dealing with the Louvre situation. He had posted it up on every board that was in areas where enforcers tended to frequent and its message was clear as could be. Lord El-Melloi was setting up a hunt for the dead apostle ancestor Louvre. The location was decided and confirmed, and most importantly, should the apostle be defeated and his collection be found, all participants would have their choice of whatever mystic code (minus the ones that were deemed too important or dangerous of course) obtained in the vampire's dwelling.

In short, it was roughly the equivalent of what Rider did in the beginning of the 4th war when he stopped his chariot in between Lancer and Saber and asked them to join him in world conquest in terms of insane audacity.

He had already received a fair number of acceptations from several enforcers and given another few days he was certain to have enough members to confidently begin the next step of his plan… that is if he managed to get past the obstacles that were in front of him.

"I doubt that I could have made the message any more clear my lady." Waver replied politely. "I have decided to form a party to hunt the dead apostle Louvre. I have done enough data and research to accurately guess where his fortress is located, and am looking for individuals with enough skill and efficiency to aid me in this task."

"You are actively hunting down an ancestor!" Shouted another lord. "That is strictly forbidden for one such as yourself!"

"Under most circumstances you are indeed correct." Waver nodded. "However there are circumstances that enable me to circumvent that condition. You see, while I am among the lower ranking lords, I am also in charge of the McGinty disappearance case. This enables me to act as a higher authority with regards to anything that is sufficiently related to this job, and it just so happens…" He took out a folder that he had prepared just for this moment. "That I have recently determined that the apostle of our conversation is the culprit of said crime and must be dealt with in a timely and efficient manner due to the fact that there is a chance that he managed to convince McGinty to start making mystic codes for him." He leaned back into his chair and met their unsettled eyes with his own. "It has been 6 days since I discovered this fact and tower protocol dictates that I am required to inform my superiors of ancestor activity within 1 week. Therefore I have yet to do anything wrong."

His superior in the department stepped up. "That may excuse you from not informing anyone about your exact discovery Velvet, however you are still overstepping your position by setting up the hunt in the first place."

He sighed and reached into his desk for one of his cigars. "Once again, due to current circumstances, I have not exceeded my position in the slightest. Current rules indeed dictate that all apostle information is indeed restricted, anything regarding the hunts are less finite since very few individuals outside the enforcers are interested in encountering any of the 27 in combat and the fact that it is difficult to even pinpoint where their locations are. Again my position in managing McGinty's disappearance has enabled me to fulfill the requirements of starting a group to investigate this lead to the best of my abilities and utilizing my resources." He pointed to the flier. "Those pieces of paper were my resource and despite the crude display, it has served me quite well so far."

"You seen quite convinced that the location you have pointed out is where the apostle, and McGinty in turn, are located." Mused the eldest and until then quietest member of those that entered his room. "How is it you came across it so quickly?"

Waver nodded, somewhat relieved that he was answering a question that wasn't directly accusing him of something for once, and took out several maps. "To start with, I have always been a magus that has focused more along the lines of practical analysis. To this end, I have mastered several basic spells that while alone are fairly useless and mundane, but in conjunction or fine tuned are fairly efficient and useful for what I do. Among them is my information retaining and information recording spells, similar to ones that are used by high ranking alchemists in Atlas. Using those I recorded all the information regarding Louvre's movements and past locations in a night and created an outline per half a decade of Norway that shows the possibility of where his dwelling may be." He pointed to several maps of the country that held various percentages and notes of past appearances and activities. "After that, I then spent the next day analyzing any and all significant thaumaturgical and vampirical related activity reports in Norway and made charts that, by every 5 years again, indicate the level of said activity."

Taking the cigar out of his mouth, the man drew a rune into the air lazily with its burnt end, causing the papers to fly up in a neat order next to one another. Another rune drawn caused the ones that were made off of the vampire's activity to be transparent, and a third rune caused all the ones that had aligned timelines to overlap. It didn't take long for the visiting lords to see a correspondence between Louvre's activity, the directions he traveled, and undefined thaumaturgy activity in the country. Interestingly enough, the locations changed every 10-20 years looking at the graphs, but they seemed to occasionally return to a previously occupied spot like a random cycle.

A 4th rune from Waver caused all of the charts to return to his desk except for a handful which indicated one area in particular, including the maps that were up to the current date. "My third day was spent researching the local legends and histories of the areas that Louvre might be occupied in now in order to gain a better understanding of the geography and whatever means he might employ as a defense…" He shrugged. "After I was certain in my findings, I spent the rest of the night making my posters, setting them up, and sleeping as much as I could."

The nobles relented as they were put up with evidence that they could not deny was rather accurate and irrefutable. Waver may be of low standing in terms of magical ability and specified advanced theory when compared to other lords, but he had earned his standing with his ability to relentlessly study something to the point of knowing the subject to perfection such that whenever someone asked him to prove a theory or some idea, he was sure to provide a perfect and absolute response that no one would be able to argue against unless it was something of secretive nature such as the sorceries or family specified magics.

"Impressive…" Grunted the department head reluctantly. "As expected of Lord El-Melloi…"

"Thank you sir." Waver nodded his head.

"A question. Why are you so dedicated to aiding McGinty?" A member of the department of Spiritual Evocation asked. Waver received mixed feeling from that particular department since he returned from Fuyuki. On one hand, he was partially responsible for the death of one of their most prominent members, on the other he gave them an extremely insightful and detailed report on heroic spirits and noble phantasms soon after returning from the war that made many of the researchers there worship his name for a good while. "While he is a member of the tower and a notable one at that, he is not truly that significant in the grand scheme of things nor is he a lord."

Waver shook his head. "He is a companion that has aided me in my research for several years now. While he is an unsightly individual at times, he is also a breath of fresh air for me as well as a new perspective for my experiments and studies. In turn I aid him when I can. My recent display of runecraft for example is a result of his tutelage. Likewise his recent breakthrough in soul infused weapons that he demonstrated at the previous mystic code and enchanted artifact conference were partially due to my assistance." He blew out a ring of smoke. "Should he pass on, it would take me a long time to come across someone of his capability and control to sufficiently aid my research to that degree…" He shook his head. "Well… there's that and the fact that if I let him die there's the chance I may receive the ire of the Kaleidoscope should he ever return…"

A small period of silence permeated the room as all there looked at one another warily, knowing exactly what Waver was talking about. The master of the 2nd sorcery was not exactly a predictable individual so the young lord's excuse, while a bit casual for their tastes, was certainly reasonable.

"It's a shame you did not put other significant individuals thoughts on your actions into your calculations." Stated a new voice belonging to a person outside the room, surprising everyone there. Turning around, they all laid eyes on the Queen of the clocktower, Lorelei Barthomelloi, standing in her standard noble clothes with proper posture and looking directly at Waver.

As mentioned previously, Waver was not intimidated at all by his department head's anger in the slightest as he compared their presence with Gilgamesh's. As such, Lorelei's presence and focus on him alone merely made him terrified to the point where he could not be able to perform magic efficiently.

"L-Lord Barthomelloi." Waver stammered. "This is… unexpected."

"I was about to say the same thing of you Lord El-Melloi." She stated with a hint of irritation which was not missed by anyone in the room. "Imagine my surprise when I discovered that not only had the location of an Ancestor had been discovered and I had not been notified, but that there was a crude gathering of magi who were going to join in for the sole sake of some trinkets instead of the glory of killing one of the abominations."

Waver gulped. This was not good. Pissing off the Queen was as close to getting a death sentence as one could get in the Clocktower. "My apologies my lord… however I believed that time was of the essence and in order to ensure that McGinty had a significant chance of remaining unharmed I determined that I would not only have to remain a part of the hunt, but as the one in charge as well. I am one of the few people that are aware of how he has… altered his body, and what to look for should his magic be interrupted in any way." Waver hoped that his explanation and his hinting at the mysteries that Sirius had performed on himself would at least intrigue the woman enough to postpone his death until after he rescued the man.

The Queen on the other hand merely snorted and turned around. "Your relationship with the code crafter nor what magic he has performed on himself has no interest to me. You have my permission to gather a force of 100 for this hunt Lord Melloi, however be warned. Should you fail to kill the monster or should your assumption of his location be incorrect, I will have you stripped of your rank and executed, even if you somehow manage to retrieve the crafter."

Waver swallowed heavily and bowed. "Your generosity is a blessing my lord. Thank you."

"Hold your empty praises and gather your forces faster." The woman scoffed as she walked away. "Seeing those pathetic posters set up everywhere is a blight to my eyes. Besides, that ancestor is a weakling compared to the others anyways. It's not worth my time to hunt him down if he was found that easily."

The youngest lord there nodded shakily before turning to his other guests. "If you will excuse me ladies, gentlemen. I have to go remove my posters and set up a more tasteful request for my hunt post haste… else Lord Barthomelloi will kill me." He didn't bother to wait for the others to leave as he poured prana into his legs and reinforced his body to above average levels, courtesy of studying Shirou's and Sirius' approach to the application, and bolted down the wide hallways and past the queen to do as she requested.

"Hmm…" Said woman mused with an impassive face as she watched the male run and turn around a corner. "He runs fast for a pencil pusher… even with magic…"

o. o. o.

Japan:

Shirou yawned as he and Rin walked through the streets of Fuyuki for the 5th night in a row. The late nights were starting to get to him and it was starting to show with his slumped posture and progressively sloppy cooking. It was still very good mind you, but it got to the point where Taiga actually said that he was slipping… before downing the meal in front of her like a starving child.

"Hey Tohsaka… there any chance you have some sort of spell or bounded field effect that can… I don't know, attract any nearby vampires or familiars to it?" The faker asked casually. Despite the seriousness of the situation and the growing number of people disappearing, he and Rin had yet to encounter any significant number of vampire servants in their part of town. While unsettling, it also meant that their nights were full of the two just walking around and talking about random things.

"Even if I did have a spell like that, it wouldn't work." Rin yawned, having suffered from the lack of sleep more than Shirou. "If these things are on average far enough that even you can't detect them, there's no way the spell would be able to reach them."

"Well that stinks…" The boy muttered as he rolled his shoulders and used his "nose" again. "Or not… I still got nothing."

Rin smirked. "Don't worry boy. I'll still give you a treat for trying if we don't get anything tonight."

"Ha ha." Shirou rolled his eyes. "Why do I have the feeling that you've never actually had a dog?"

"Because they're a waste of time." The girl answered as if it was obvious. "Why get a useless animal when you can make a familiar?"

The son of the magus killer sighed. "And I have another reason why I am glad I wasn't raised like a normal magus…"

"What?" Rin tilted her head to the side confused. "What did I say? What's wrong with preferring a familiar? Did you even have a dog before?"

Shirou shook his head. "No, I've never had a pet before and I still am having trouble making familiars, but that still doesn't mean I've never seen the benefit of having a normal animal before. I mean taking care of something less fortunate and helpless than you that returns the favor with affection seems pretty nice when you think about it…" He paused for a moment before donning an expressionless face. "Well… Fuji-nee technically falls into that category too, but I'll pretend she doesn't for the moment…"

His female partner snickered. "That woman is still bugging you for food? She really should grow up."

_And thus we have a textbook definition of the pot calling the kettle black._ Shirou mentally commented. "At least she doesn't have a habit of trespassing on my property like some 2 bit thief." He muttered.

Rin took offence immediately. "At least I can do more than just make swords appear out of thin air. Really, all you do is just fire off pieces of metal all over the place. If you could make something interesting like an enchanted weapon or something along those lines I might actually consider you useful, but since you can only…"

Shirou began tuning Rin out at that point. For a moment he was tempted to produce one of his more interesting swords to shut her up, but he decided against it. Root knows how much more she would rant if he busted one of those out for some reason… "So any word from the priest yet?" He asked, hoping to distract her irritation with him for her irritation for her guardian. Much to his secret joy, the tactic almost always worked.

"No. Which means either he's dead, wounded, or he's still doing his job and hasn't found anything yet. Personally… I hope it's one of the first 2." Rin immediately answered without skipping a beat.

"I see there's still plenty of love between you two." The boy commented with a tired tone… before stopping in his tracks. "Well… at least we know for a fact that he hasn't killed the vampire yet."

"Is that so?" The more versatile of the 2 asked curiously as she expanded her senses until she got the barest hint of prana usage a fair ways away. "You really are a dog…" She mumbled, somewhat ashamed that Shirou could detect something so distant so easily.

"Come on. This way." Shirou urged as he dashed in the direction of the irregularity, clearly using reinforcement if his speed was anything to go by.

"Wait up damn it!" Rin shouted as she followed suit, albeit she was slightly less used to going from 0 to 25 miles an hour so quickly. Keeping the combat specialist in sight she ran after him while muttering curses under her breath until she saw him stop at the beginning of an alleyway. Halting next to him, she understood why he didn't simply just go guns… er… swords blazing. In front of them stood at least 20 zombie like humans of various ages and builds. The number wasn't exact however as the sparse lighting in the alleyway between the averaged sized buildings made it difficult to determine. "Whoa…" She blinked. "Didn't expect this many…"

"She's playing with us." Shirou stated darkly. "There's no other reason to get this many in one place without her being here herself." He stepped forward, already with 2 swords in hand when Rin's hand stopped him from progressing. "Something wrong?" He asked without turning around.

"No. Not really." The Tohsaka sighed as she stepped forward herself and rolled up her sleeves. "I just think you should let me do my job that's all. I mean you've been doing most of the killing since this thing started. Let me have a bit of fun for once." She didn't notice the temporary look of shock on the boy's face as she closed her eyes and began to chant in German. Slowly a mass of prana swirled around her left arm where her family's magic crest was implanted, growing in power by the second. It was enough for Shirou to step back out of pure reflex and keep his guard around his partner as she continued to chant her foreign aria. It wasn't long till the undead had actually noticed that something odd was happening at the end of the alleyway, but by then it was too late as the girl finished the last syllable of her spell and swung her arm. At least a dozen massive blades of tore down the alleyway and butchered the zombies to the point that the ones in front were nothing but mere chunks of flesh before the attack even reached the middle of the group. Mere flesh and bones provided no resistance for the attack as it continued forward unrelentingly until it collided with the building on the other side of the alleyway and was finally halted by the coarse concrete, leaving several gouges in the material.

Shirou gulped as he inspected the damage. He was fairly certain that he could handle those numbers without much issue himself, but not with a single spell and so quickly without making much noise. Oh how he was glad he was on her good side again.

Rin smirked as she saw Shirou's expression. "Are you finally realizing where you stand with respect to me Emiya-kun?"

Shirou looked at her and then at the destruction before looking at her again. "… Um… yes?" He said hopefully. Technically so long as he knew what she was doing and could get a shot in on her, he was fairly certain that he could hit Rin before she could let loose a spell of that level on him… but he didn't dare say anything lest she actually attempt using a spell of said level on him.

The girl clearly was expecting more if her disappointed look was any indication. "Ugh. Why do I even bother?" She shook her head and sighed tiredly. "Look, just make yourself useful and repair any damage I might have done to the area will you Mr. Janitor?"

"Yeah yeah." The boy shook his head and looked at the alleyway now covered in corpses. Looking at everything but the dead and taking a deep breath to calm himself he tapped into his circuits. In an instant he had the structure and data of the path in front of him and everything inside all mapped out. Rin had made 38 different gouges into the roads and buildings, but only 1 of them would actually require immediate attention if left alone. Fixing this would be easy. "Trace… on…" He muttered from right in front of Rin as he lightly touched the ground underneath him. Using his reinforcing magic, he seamlessly fused all the cuts in the area shut and within seconds the area 50 meters in front of him was good as new… if one ignored the scores of dead bodies at least, but that was next on the faker's list of things to clean. Despite the sickening feeling in his stomach, the boy analyzed each and every one of the corpses in front of him before chanting his next spell. "Key components and structures… Isolated. Withdrawing…"

Slowly but noticeably, each and every one of the corpses in the alley began to decompose at an extremely rapid rate, clothes and all. He had told himself that it was better off this way as he doubted that the family's of those who had died would have preferred to have found their loved one's bodies butchered, and he was fairly certain that anything less than a pure disappearance would cause unwanted attention in their area. When he was done the only thing left of the bodies were puddles of unidentifiable substances. "That's the best I can do with the bodies Tohsaka." He sighed as he stood up again, barely feeling the drain in his body from the spell. "You'll have to do the rest."

Rin stayed silent as she analyzed Shirou's work. _He managed to fix everything perfectly from all the way back here without hesitation and decomposed the bodies such that even the clothes are now indistinguishable from the corpses. I thought that structural grasping, reinforcement and alteration were mundane arts… but he really has taken them to a terrifying level if he has such little trouble decomposing bodies so quickly. _"Humph…" She grunted and walked up again, channeling more prana around her arm in the process. "You're so useless without me." Moments later a small wave of water washed away the puddles that remained of the bodies.

"I'm sorry if I didn't brush up on getting rid of corpses Tohsaka." Shirou rolled his eyes as he turned the other way lazily…

… And in the next moment he had two blades crossed in front of him defensively while being blasted backwards and crashing into said unwary girl. The force carried the 2 a fair distance into the alleyway before they crashed into the ground hard.

"Ow! What the hell Shirou!" Rin yelled irritably as she picked herself up only to notice that 1, said Shirou was coughing on the ground and holding his chest in pain, and 2, there was now a 3rd person alive and standing from the direction they were thrown from. In less time than it took for the girl to put 2 and 2 together, she had instantly poured prana into her arm, ready to cast any spell on a moment's notice and managed to get into a crouching position. "Who are you?" She growled, no sign of fooling around left on her face.

"My my…" The newcomer purred in a sultry tone as she walked forward slowly, somehow so deep in the darkness of the night that only her figure was visible to the girl. "That young man is quite impressive. On mere reflex he conjured those cute little toys of his and got in the way of my attack while defending himself in the process."

"Tohsaka! Careful!" Shirou gasped between breaths. He may have been able to block most of the damage, but he still had the wind clearly knocked out of him and he wouldn't be surprised if at least one of his ribs was broken or bruised. "Has a code! Mass manipulation! Too hard to deflect or block!"

Rin faltered at this information as she frantically went through the spells that would now be useful in this situation. She could wonder how the hell her partner managed to figure out their assailants weapons' mysteries so damn fast later.

The boy's warnings caused the woman to stop momentarily. "Hoh? Now that is even more interesting… just one hit and you already know how my dear toy works…" A few more casual steps forward brought her under a streetlight for the 2 to see clearly. She was a beautiful woman indeed, but what caught their attention most were the whip in her hands and her blood red eyes. "You wouldn't happen to be Shirou Emiya would you boy?" She purred with a smirk.

Rin grit her teeth. "I thought you were still in training Emiya-kun. When the hell did you piss off a vampire?"

Shirou panted as he slowly picked himself back up. His chest was on fire and his lungs were barely working at a 4th of what they normally did, but he had experienced this feeling before countless times with Bazett. He would manage somehow. "I've never seen a damn vampire until just now. I'm just as clueless as you are…" He breathed as 2 more weapons appeared in his hands and several more appeared in the air around him pointed at his new target.

"Oh how cute, they think they can fight me…" The vampiress chuckled as she continued to walk forward. "But as for why I'm after you boy… well simply consider it bad luck on your part. If it weren't for who you know, this wouldn't happen… however I'm not supposed to kill you until father says it's ok to, so I'm just going to have to take you hostage for now." She turned her attention to Rin and her smile turned sweetly sadistic. "You on the other hand…"

"DODGE!" Shirou yelled as their opponent moved with blinding speed and caused her whip to shoot out at them with insane speed that tore at the air. The teens barely managed to jump out of the way before the spots in between them was crushed with indiscriminate force. An instant later Shirou's blades had shot out through the air towards his assailant, however his weak counter was blocked by the length of the woman's whip as if she barely noticed it. Before he could even swear though he had to dodge another lightning fast strike that once more tore up the asphalt street. To his side he saw Rin shooting off her Gandr curse rapidly, only to be blocked and denied as well before having to dodge the relentless attack as well.

"Come now. Surely you two can do better than this!" The undead woman laughed happily as her weapon danced around her, striking and defending at the same time.

"Any bright ideas?" Rin yelled as she jumped back while shooting off more curses in an attempt to hit the woman. "We can't get an opening like this and she would kill either one of us if it was one on one!"

Shirou grit his teeth as he glared at the woman and her weapon while firing swords at her, buying time so he could give Rin his analysis of the situation. "Her attacking range is 15 meters but in order to safely switch from attacking to defending with our constant assault its reduced to 7. Her code has a strong resistance to both magic and physical wear. If we continue like this we're dead." He jumped back quickly to avoid getting shredded. Judging from his current position, he guessed they had another 30 meters before they were cornered by the woman in the alley. "If we're going to get out of this we have to overwhelm her code."

"I have my jewel but I don't have enough time to get it out!" Rin argued firing off more shots.

"I'll make some then!" The faker yelled as he stupidly ran forward so that he was between the 2 females and conjured several more blades that fired off rapidly while at the same time barely managing to deflect the few heavy blows that barely reached him. His eyes could barely follow the tip of the whip as he countered as many strikes as he could with blades in his hands, feeling as if he was hitting a cannonball every time.

Slash down with the left arm. Parry with the right. Block to protect the right collar. Twist slightly to prevent direct hit to left thigh. Duck right. Damn, didn't have enough strength and had the flat of the blade hit his head. Duck. Tilt left. Block at the shoulder. Still not enough strength used. Arm was nearly dislocated.

Despite Shirou's blatant display of selflessness and swordsmanship, he was getting pushed back and or injured with each strike he encountered. His style was built for this sort of opponent and situation, but not this particular weapon, and he was outclassed by too much to utilize his suicidal technique at all. Each sword he blocked with shattered in his hands, only to be replaced by another copy a split second later to block another strike of the serpent like whip. He had reinforced his clothing and his body to high levels the moment the fighting began, however it still did little to prevent his limbs and ribs from feeling like they were pushed to the breaking point every time he was hit with a glancing blow that he occasionally missed. He didn't bother to wonder what would have happened to his person if he didn't have the extra protection when they hit.

"Shirou you idiot! What the hell do you think you're…!" Rin's shout of shock and rage was interrupted as she had to avoid an attack that managed to get past the red headed meat shield.

"Protecting the princess are we?" Laughed the woman as she did not slow down in the slightest. "And here I thought that chivalry was dead. You certainly are making an impressive stand for a mere child…" Several quick flicks of her wrist enabled her to give the boy some glancing blows that caused him to cry out in pain while still managing to keep the girl behind him too busy moving to do anything about it. It was obvious that she was still playing around. "It's a shame that shooting swords at me is the only thing you are good at boy…" She paused as she heard a soft chuckling coming from the boy. "Strange… I don't think I hit your head yet…" She mused and stopped attacking, if only to get a better view of her opponent seemingly going insane in front of her.

"You're right about one thing lady…" Shirou laughed as almost double the normal amount of swords suddenly appeared behind him compared to his previous salvos. "I really am only good at shooting swords…" Without warning, the small crest on the boy's chest glowed fiercely. "Accel!" He yelled fiercely as the weapons above him bolted at his opponents at speeds that dwarfed their predecessors' and surprised everyone else there. The air between the two became the speedway for flying swords that tore the air so violently that all 3 could hear each individual blade of metal cut through the atmosphere as it made its way to impale its target.

"Fast…" Hissed the eldest one there with narrowed eyes as she quickly maneuvered her whip to deflect the oncoming storm of swords, for once having difficulty keeping up as each projectile was significantly harder to track than anything else thrown at her so far. If that were not enough, the additional speed provided a boost in concussive force for each of the flying tools, causing her beloved code to lose momentum and make her focus completely on defense.

"Rin! Hurry up already!" Shirou yelled impatiently as he felt the consequences of manipulating time on so many swords at once. It felt as if the 3 circuits on his chest were burning a hole into his chest so deep that his heart felt like it was being marked by the crest. Every breath he let out was visible to the naked eye as his body temperature skyrocketed by his efforts. And that was the pain without the partially crushed ribs from his assailant's first blow.

Magic beyond one's capabilities would kill the caster. That was one of the fundamental rules that magi taught their students. Shirou was firing off roughly 30 swords at roughly double the acceleration and velocity that Gaia would normally read them being shot off at.

His personal best until that moment had been 9.

"R-right!" The girl stammered as she realized that she finally had time to move without worrying about getting killed and reached into her pocket for one of the jewels that she had been storing prana in every night since her father died. Grasping the sapphire in her fist and taking aim, the Tohsaka shouted the German aria needed to trigger the massive stores of power inside the stone and unleash a massive blast of pure energy to turn the tide of the battle. There was no element to the attack, only pure force in the shape of an amorphous light the size of a large car that barreled down the alleyway without discrimination, barely missing Shirou in the process.

Despite being clearly above human capabilities, the vampiress was hard pressed to find a means of escape without exposing herself to the flying swords. Seeing as she had no other option, the woman quickly twitched her arm and channeled her energies in a fashion such that her weapon retracted and coiled upon itself to form a shield large enough to protect her just as Rin's attack reached its target.

The entire alleyway burst with light as the attack met its target with unrelenting force and a deafening collision, so much so that neither Shirou nor Rin could tell what had happened to their opponent. No doubt someone would have probably felt something even if the vapiress had set up a field to contain any noises and disturbances in the area.

Rin panted heavily as the air in the area settled. "That should have done it…" She breathed out heavily as she looked at Shriou who was still hunched over and breathing at least three times as hard as she was. "Heh… you look like shit. Serves you right for doing something so stupid as to try to hold her off alone…" Any other comment she would have made however died in her throat as her danger senses screamed at her and she slowly turned her attention back to the destruction where a very malevolent figure was standing in the middle of the rubble with glowing red eyes.

"You… little fucks…" She growled angrily with an inhuman voice that reverberated between the buildings. Looking down in front of her, she glared not at the teens but at the smoldering cord of what looked like broken up charcoal, which both assumed was the remains of the tool that had been just moments before almost crushing them to death. The person in front of them was no longer someone that merely thought of them as entertainment. It was a demon that was fully set on making them suffer. "That was my favorite weapon!" Faster than the stunned Rin could follow, she dashed towards her with inhuman speed with one warped clawed hand ready to tear her into pieces. In less time than the younger female expected, her soon to be killer was right in front of her and in striking distance.

Time slowed down for Rin as she absorbed the terrifying sight in front of her. She was going to die. This was a fact that echoed in her mind relentlessly. Rin Tohsaka as of this moment was incapable of fighting against this monstrosity and was going to die. As soon as the next 10 feet was covered, she would be a bloody mess all over the ground. She wouldn't have her blood sucked. She wouldn't be tortured. She would simply be tossed like the small individual that she was. As a magus she had come to accept that she could die in such a manner years ago, but as a young teenage girl and living being she screamed in protest that she was going to die before accomplishing anything in her life…

She was so preoccupied with her dilemma that she almost didn't notice when Shirou just as quickly as her assailant appeared between them with a bow in hand and drawn back with a silvery transparent spiraled sword glowing fiercely, notched, pulled back and aimed right between the bloodsucker's shocked red eyes, his own fiercely calm and focused onto the point of impact.

"Let me show you one of mine."

A second blast of explosive prana crashed into the shrieking woman and forced her to go flying in the opposite direction with a colorless light at speeds that clearly indicated how dangerous his bow and arrow combination was. If Rin's unleashed gem was akin to a bazooka with a huge blast radius and hit area, Shirou's bow and arrow was comparable to a sniper rifle with a shotgun's spread, where anything hit was either pierced completely or shot back with relentless force. Out of the alley, down another, and three more blocks before a distant but notable crash was heard, followed by multiple car alarms and things falling.

Rin stood there speechless as her brain slowly caught up to what her eyes had witnessed. "What… the hell… was that?" She stammered as she finally found her voice and looked at the taller teen standing in front of her… and watched as he collapsed onto his knees breathing harshly.

"Ether… element… sword…" The boy panted, each word accompanied by a cloud of steam from his mouth. "Poured… all… my prana… into it… almost… didn't make it…"

Rin blinked in confusion. Ether was the 5th of the 5 base elements that a magi was normally aligned to, the others being earth, wind, water and fire. The Fifth Imaginary Element according to the teachings of the Mage's Association, it combines itself with any of the other four elements in order to actualize the mysteries of thaumaturgy. Although amorphous and incapable of materializing by its own power, it is what allows shapeless bodies to take a material form. its domains were among the lines of composition, dissolution, modification, separation, unification, spiritual bodies, conceptual weapons and others.

From what Rin saw, she could guess that Shirou's modified and charged arrow simultaneously decomposed and recomposed itself into a massive blast of prana with incredible force due to being shot from a modified bow. It was an honestly brilliant and terrifying maneuver if she were to be honest, more so when she recalled how quick the boy managed to project both the bow and the sword, modified the sword, set it up, and got into position from where he had been lying just moments before.

"Since when the hell could you make something like…" She began to start irritably before shaking her head. "Never mind. We have to make sure that the bitch is actually down for good."

"Don't… drop your guard… for a second…" Shirou panted as he slowly pushed himself up. "I can't… save you again… like this…"

Rin clenched her fists as she silently admitted that she would have been killed multiple times already if it weren't for Shirou's aid and experience. Not only had he been able to hold his own against the woman far more efficiently than she would have, but she herself had nearly been torn to shreds like a rookie magi with her head up her ass twice within the past 5 minutes. "Humph. Who said I needed your help Emiya? I just waited to see what you were capable of doing since I knew you were too much of a bleeding heart to let me get hurt." She brushed her hair to the side and walked away. "If I find you here when I get back, don't expect me to drag your pathetic ass back to your place…"

"You're welcome…" Shirou laughed painfully, holding his chest and ribs as he did so and stumbled till he was leaning heavily against a wall, not even paying attention as Rin walked away to do some damage control. His body was burning, his limbs were heavy as lead before he used the bow so he didn't even know if he even had arms at this point, his heart felt like it was seared, his lungs were always empty, more than a few bones were bruised or at least fractured, he was out of Od, and close to passing out.

All in all… from what he's heard, he managed to do fairly well for his first vampire encounter gone wrong.

o. o. o.

Norway:

Sirius grunted in irritation as he examined the metal in front of him with a sharp eye. He had been working on Louvre's pet project for a few days now and to be honest he was actually getting into it. He didn't like the fact that he was helping out an egotistical man who killed people for the sake of doing so, but he'd be damned if he said that he wasn't somewhat of trying to make something new. His previous ultimate anti magus weapons really were little challenge for him to make since the materials he used did most of the work, but starting from scratch he was interested in seeing how far he could get… he knew what results he would need to make this final weapon, but he didn't know how to get it to happen or if he could…

"It's quite interesting to see you in action…" Louvre mused from the entrance of the study where Sirius was examining his materials. "Many wouldn't believe that one such as yourself was the research type… especially with that name you earned yourself back in your hayday… what was it again?"

"Tey called me ta Divergin' Golem…" Sirius replied without turning away from the material he was examining. "Tough I doubt anyone oter tan ta geezers taday know about tat…"

"Ah was it that long ago?" The vampire chuckled. "I must admit when you are my age time does seem to pass rather quickly at times. Though I am curious to see how you earned that name in the first place." He drank some wine elegantly before continuing his conversation. "The golem… Jewish mythology if I am not mistaken. One of the oldest legends too depending on which story you follow, though the most famous one known currently is roughly my age." He scratched his beard curiously. "I wonder if the original was ever discovered… it would certainly be an immensely powerful artifact should it still exist…" It was a well known fact that the older an object or being of magical nature was, the more potent magic it possessed. The Phantasmal races were a prime example of that, but the oldest ones alive today had ages only spanned to the centuries. If the original golem existed, it would no doubt be at least 2 millennia in age…

"Sirius nodded in agreement, admitting he studied up on the subject himself. "If it was found, you'd bet yer arse tat ta Church has it…"

"No doubt." Louvre nodded. "Those annoying priests always did have a habit of gunning for middle eastern based relics in their spare time…" He walked to the larger man. "So how long will it take for you to finish my order. I am of course well aware of how tedius the creation, testing and stabilizing process can be for codes, yet I do wish to know a rough estimate…"

Sirius glanced at the vampire before chuckling. "Ya know as well as ah do tat tere's no such ting as a true anti magus weapon Louvre. Sure tere are ones tat can put tings in yer favor, but thaumaturgy is so diversified nowadays tat it's impossible to cover every approach tat ya can be attacked by. Tis includes tose special codes ah mentioned earlier…" He put down the metal on the table in front of him and leaned back. "Tat isn't ta say ahm not tryin ta make ya some good stuff, but if ya truly want ta have all yer bases covered, yer gonna have ta settle fer a fairly large set o codes ta save yer skin." He began to list off various branches of magic. "Puppeteers, familiar users, elementalists, alchemists, telekinetics, spiritualists, mentalists, alchemists, standard enforcers, noble phantasms, conceptual weapons, scriptures…" He shook his head. "Too many ways ta get killed these days. Its ta reason ah brushed up on my bounded fields when ah retired. Area effects help out a lot." He smirked. "Although ah guess tat's what yer tryin ta achieve eventually ain't it? Yer own reality marble…"

Louvre frowned, not liking the not so subtle jab the Irishman gave him. "I admit that my request is rather unreasonable to assume that a single weapon will suffice, however you still have yet to answer me. How long before I can start to get results?"

Sirius snorted before reaching into a pocket and tossing the man a ring covered in runes. "Tere. A code tat protects ya from anyone tat tries ta perform any mind or sensory alterin spells on ya and reflects it at tem 10 fold. Automatically uses yer prana when activated tough it barely uses anytin ta begin wit. An when ah mean any spells, ah bloody well mean it. Consider it part 1 of ta McGinty set."

"Hmph…" The vampire grunted as he examined the loop of metal in his hands curiously. "It is a start, though a bit bland for my tastes…"

"Ah'm a weapon smith, not a bloody jeweler. Kidnap an Edelfelt if ya want it ta shine all ta colors of ta rainbow." Sirius grumbled as he got back to his work. "So what did ya come here for? Ah know yer not ta type ta start givin me house calls afta not even a week's past…"

"Hm? Ah, yes how silly of me." Louvre chuckled as he turned to the larger of the two again. "It seems as if my son's efforts turned out to be fruitful after all." The room suddenly became very tense, not that either men physically showed it. "Indeed, I was surprised myself when I heard of how surprisingly simple things were."

"He actually… found it?" Sirius swallowed, his mouth suddenly dry. On one hand, he had a chance to examine a noble phantasm other than Fragarach, something he never expected to happen in his lifetime... well that is until Shirou got through the grail war in 1 piece. On the other… it was in the hands of the guy that kidnapped him. "Well… shit…" He said, summing up his situation rather accurately.

Louvre smirked as he walked away. "I'll tell my son that you are also impressed by his achievements. Continue to impress me and I might even allow you to hold it when he gets here…"

o. o. o.

Emiya Estate:

The first thought that crossed Shirou's mind when he woke up that morning was that he must have sparred with Bazett and lost horrendously before he fell asleep because his body was killing him. His limbs hurt without moving, his lungs burned, his chest screamed with each breath he took, and he had a headache that was bad enough that he didn't even want to think at the moment. It was because of this that it took him a while to remember what exactly happened… or not.

He recalled fighting a vampire using a mystic code, going up against it, being thoroughly tenderized, Rin using her jewel… him getting in that last shot… and then trying to get back home…

And that's where he drew a blank. Shirou couldn't tell for the life of him how he got back home, and he knew for a fact he was home since he was in the middle of the bounded fields that he, Waver, Sirius, and his father had set up. He couldn't mistaken the spells surrounding the Emiya estate for anything else.

"Trace… on…" He muttered as he scanned himself. While he could scan virtually everything else without his aria, he needed the extra push to do a full self body scan since he couldn't see every part of his body naturally. 5 ribs bruised, 1 fractured, 1 arm fractured, 1 tibia bruised, and several half healed cuts. He wasn't going to bother with how many muscles of his were strained to the point of needing to see a doctor if he was a normal human. "Damn… I really overdid it this time…" He chuckled dryly as he slowly and painfully picked himself up and put his good arm to his leg and chanted a quick healing spell that Rin taught him. It was fairly weak, but it would at least get most of his injuries to the halfway point in terms of getting healed. He'd let Avalon take care of the rest and be at full health by the end of the week. He was able to slightly accelerate the noble phantasm's ability to regenerate his body, but it was really only good for light bruises and cuts. Deep injuries like the ones he had now would take too long to get his body to an adequate level of health… well that and he had a tendency to glow like a firefly whenever he used the sheath.

It took almost an entire hour, but Shirou had managed to return himself to a condition that he felt would not prevent him from doing everyday tasks. He definitely would refrain from doing anything strenuous for a few days, especially when it came to his magic crest, but he felt fine for the most part as he picked himself up and began to walk to the door…

… _Everything was moving slower. He could hear his blood as it ran through his ears and mind. He could feel his bones as they grinded against one another in their joints. His breathing could be sectioned off into individual spasms and clumps of air as they filled the tiny sacks that permeated his lungs. Everything looked darker now as he watched himself lose control of his body and slowly…_

Stumble against the wall next to his door, his sense of time returning to normal and his breathing suddenly becoming much deeper than it was just moments before and his chest hurting in ways and places that no doctor could describe of diagnose.

This sensation, despite its alien like qualities, was not something that Shirou was new to. He had overused and overextended himself when it came to his time thaumaturgy again. Despite the fact that what he had adjusted was his projected weapons, he always seemed to suffer some kind of mental feedback whenever he pushed himself too far in this field. Luckily he knew the aftereffects were temporary and would probably go away after a few days. Unfortunately he never pushed himself quite this far before, so he doesn't know how badly he will be affected or how frequent these pseudo seizures will be. The worst ones were when his sense of time slowed down and everything around him seemed to speed up tremendously. He hated it when that happened.

Taking in several deep breaths, Shirou regained control of himself. There was no point in worrying in when his next spasm was. He would deal with it when it came... not that he had any other choice in the matter…

Regaining composure, the teen looked at his clock. It was already 11:30 and… "11:30!" The redhead yelled in surprise and shock as he gave the clock a double take. Even if he was out cold, Sakura or Taiga would have come to wake him up by at least 7. He was so late for school it wasn't even funny.

Within less than 2 minutes the teen had managed to put on a clean set of his school uniform before bolting through his house, grabbing his books, passing by Sakura, Rin, and Taiga in the living room, running out the front door, and out onto the street before screeching to a halt.

"… No…" He muttered to himself in disbelief and fear as his brain caught up to him and he slowly turned back to look at his front door suspiciously. "… It couldn't be…"

Slowly walking back to the entrance of his home, the boy examined everything around him with utmost scrutiny. If someone was playing a joke on him… they were not only well informed, but extremely skilled to pull off such an illusion in hos own home… in addition to being purely sadistic…

He wouldn't be surprised if Sirius showed up for a surprise visit.

Peeking his head into the living room again suspiciously and on guard, Shirou spied on the 3 females in his living room all staring back at him as if they had been expecting him.

"Told you he was dense." Taiga chuckled, although the standard light heartedness that she normally had was surprisingly weak.

"… Should I be scared right now?" The redhead asked warily, still hiding from the other side of the doorway. While Taiga was rather amused, he noticed that Sakura was surprisingly depressed at the moment from the way she was holding herself… or not, and Rin had that look that said that something was bothering her even if she was pretending not to acknowledge it. "And if not, can someone please explain to me why."

"You know… you must be the only teenage boy I know that's scared stiff when you realize that 3 beautiful females such as ourselves appear in your living room." Taiga huffed as if insulted.

"Sempai… I… that is…" Sakura stumbled over her words while periodically glancing at Rin nervously.

Rin on the other hand was more direct. "Don't you remember Emiya-kun? We came across one another last night when that terrorist set off those bombs in town."

"Terrorist?" Shirou blinked as he tried to figure out what Rin was talking about. "Bombs?"

"That freak that's been kidnapping people lately decided to take things up a notch." Taiga grimaced. "He set off a bunch of bombs last night and caused some serious damage. Schools are canceled for now while the police are running around trying to figure out what's going on. Even gramps was asked to help them out…"

"Word is they still haven't caught whoever's responsible for it either…" Rin shot Shirou a meaningful glare that he understood at once. Despite their efforts, the vampiress wasn't killed by his last attack and is still running around.

"I see…" Shirou frowned as he looked at the three again. "… But that doesn't explain why the heck you're in my home Tohsaka…"

Rin pouted. "Humph. Is that the way you thank the person who went out of her way to lug your unconscious body back to your home?"

"Now now Tohsaka-san, you know he doesn't know what happened." Taiga tried to placate Rin. "He doesn't remember since he was knocked out from the blast. You told us that yourself…"

The 1st class magus brushed her hair back. "It was a bit rude of me, but since my guardian is off doing whatever the heck he's doing, I didn't feel comfortable trying to get to home alone after what happened, and since Emiya-kun's home is so big and no one is here, I figured I could steal a room for the night and apologize in the morning…" She opened an eye and looked at Taiga and Sakura. "I didn't expect for company to arrive so early though…"

"We got a call from the school shortly after we got here saying that everything was canceled, which is why Sakura is still in her uniform." Taiga continued with a sigh and leaned back. "Honestly, this thing is getting out of control. When is this guy going to get caught?"

"Soon enough hopefully." Rin frowned.

"I should really get back home…" Sakura mumbled and looked away, as if ashamed to even consider looking at Shirou right now. "The call came after I got here… Grandfather and brother must be worried about me…"

"No." Shirou replied a bit forcefully without even thinking about it and getting odd looks from the females there. He paused before smiling nervously. "I mean… you're already here and safe right? There's no need to rush back home when everyone around the area is still running around. You might accidentally get caught up in something. Plus not to be mean, but I don't think that Shinji is the best person to talk to for comfort."

Rin snorted. "Not unless you're an idiot that lives off of shallow compliments anyways…" She muttered under her breath.

The youngest one there looked at everyone in the room nervously before relenting. "I-I guess I can call up grandfather later and tell him that I'm staying over for the night…"

"Eeee!" Taiga squealed. "Finally some progress!"

"What?" The teens asked the "adult" in the room confused.

"Nothing!" The future teacher looked away with a cat like grin before grabbing a very confused Sakura. "Ok! The ice is getting broken! Sakura! Come with me and we can start planning for your next step! You finally have some momentum going and we are going to ride it for as long as we can! First we're going to make a list of what you need to get from your home and then…"

Rin and Shirou blinked as they listened to Taiga's ranting die down as she went to a farther part of the estate to talk to Sakura privately. "Any idea what the heck that was about?" Rin asked.

"Not in the slightest." Shirou replied before shaking his head and turning back to the girl. "Never mind her, what about the vampire. She isn't…"

"Dead? No." The Tohsaka grimaced. "It didn't take me long to get to where she landed, but when I arrived there was no sign of her body." She crossed her arms and sighed. "That means she's still alive and around. Good news is that I doubt she'll be trying a direct approach again anytime soon…" She glared at the boy suspiciously. "Speaking of the damage we did to her though… when the hell were you going to tell me that you could make an ether element sword?"

Shirou looked away sheepishly. "I didn't think it was important at the time…"

Rin covered her face with a hand and sighed. "Next you're going to tell me that you can make one of the other 4 elements too."

"Pretty much." The faker replied as one by one he produced a sword that was enchanted with each element and laid them down in front of the progressively irritated girl. They were all identical save for their coloring and the runes on the flat of each blade. "They take more time and energy to make compared to the normal swords I make so I don't use them much other than for specialized arrows. Each one gives my shots a different ability with some interesting effects." He pointed to the dull silver sword that possessed the ether element. "This is the one I used last night. It's the most powerful and destructive of the bunch, but it takes up too much prana for me to use that often." He looked up to see Rin glaring at him angrily. "… What did I do this time?"

"You mean to tell me…" She started off slowly. "That so long as it's in the shape of a sword and you have seen the original… you are theoretically capable of recreating ANY mystery to near perfection without using a medium or any additional external sources of prana or information, bypassing the years and years of training, the required element, knowledge, and education that it would normally take for virtually any other mage to even think of producing such an object?"

Shirou gulped as he saw Rin considering blowing his head off right then and there. "Th-theoretically…" He admitted. "B-but these swords here are really basic. I wouldn't be surprised if you could make them yourself… I just reinforced the element to make them stronger…"

Rin' eyebrow began to twitch before she gave up and collapsed onto the couch next to her. "… You are so lucky I need you to fight that vampire or I would dissect you on the spot…" She mumbled under her breath. "… Wait… if it takes you so long to make those things, how the hell did you make the one from last night so fast? You were nearly out when she was about to gut me… unless…" She paused and looked at him dangerously. "You were faking it and using me as bait weren't you?"

The "faker" stepped back nervously. "W-well I was trained not to let down my guard until the enemy was confirmed dead… I just kind of expected you to have the same idea as well, but because you weren't she went after you and ignored me completely until the last moment, so… it all worked out for… the best?" He smiled weakly as the female in front of him glared at him with progressively increasing amounts of rage... before it all went away and a calm and happy smile donned itself on her face.

… He felt safer when she was filled with rage.

"You're absolutely right Emiya-kun." Rin replied with a sweet façade. "Since that's the case, I think that after this mess is settled with, you should train me a bit in these combat tactics that you seem to be so adapt at using…"

_As expected of Tohsaka…_ Shirou shivered. _Without even trying she makes it sound like I'm the one that's going to be trained…_

Rin's grin dropped quickly though. "Your punishment aside though, we have another thing to discuss." She frowned. "Why are you letting Matou stay here? Please don't tell me you actually can't tell that she's…"

"I've known her longer than I've known you." Shirou replied. "We've known about one another for years but we didn't even acknowledge that we were magi until about a week ago when I had to take out a few ghouls in front of her…" He paused before looking away. "Personally though… I just want to keep her away from that grandfather of hers…" He shivered. "He isn't human…"

"You think I don't know there's something weird about him?" Rin raised an eyebrow. "Our families have been aware of one another for generations. Of course I know that the man uses odd magic to keep his body alive…"

"That isn't alive Tohsaka." Shirou shivered. "Advanced structural grasping, remember? His body only looks human. On the inside though… to be honest I have an easier time looking at the undead than I did looking at him…" He swallowed heavily. "The worst part is that whatever makes up his body… there's some in Sakura's too…"

Rin's face momentarily paled before looking away ashamed, apparently showing that she knew more about the subject than she let on, but Shirou's observations confirmed her worst assumptions. "… I know you feel helpless about this… but there's nothing you can do about it now. It's how her family passes down their secrets… no matter how disgusting it may seem." She sighed. "Look… I guess I can let you be around her… but don't make this a habit Emiya-kun. If you let the wrong magus learn too much about you, you'll find yourself being taken advantage of and be forced to do distasteful things... but then again I'm already doing that to you aren't I?" She smiled weakly before regaining her composure. "We can talk about that stuff later. For now we need to focus ourselves on the task at hand. The bitch last night said that she was after you in particular. Are you sure you don't have any idea why?"

The boy shook his head. Rin was right again about Sakura. He didn't like it, but he also knew that it didn't take priority at the moment. He could ask Rin about what she knew about his other magus friend later. "Unless dad pissed her off at some point no… but even then it did sound like she was working for someone else didn't it?"

Rin nodded. "Yeah it did…" She put a hand to her mouth. "Plus it was weird that she was using a mystic code. Most dead apostles don't use weapons and rely on magic… plus hers was a strong code too. It was destroyed in the end, but it managed to prevent the bulk of my jewel's attack from hitting her even though it wasn't built for defense. It really was a high quality weapon…" She glanced at her partner and noted the look of realization on his face. "You remember something?"

"One of my family members from England that I told you about…" He started slowly. "His name is Sirius McGinty. Soon after I got back from vacation I got word that he disappeared but that there was reason to believe he was alive…" He gave Rin a worried look. "He's known as the best mystic code maker in the association bar none…"

Rin connected the dots together immediately. "… So they're trying to use you to get him to do what they want…" She concluded before throwing him a small smirk. "Too bad they didn't do their homework on you, otherwise the bitch would have brought some bigger weapons to deal with the son of the magus killer…"

"Stop comparing me to my dad." Shirou grunted as he took out his cell and began to go through his contacts. "We have completely different goals in life."

"Doesn't look like it to me…" The female muttered under her breath before eyeing the phone. "You actually use one of those things? Who are you calling anyways?"

"One of my other relatives." Shirou answered as he found Waver's number. "He's a lord in the association and is in charge of finding Sirius-jiji…"

"A-A-a LORD?" Rin gaped in shock. "You are related to a LORD?" She paused for a moment. "AND HE ACTUALLY OWNS ONE OF THOSE STUPID THINGS?"

"He's also likes to play Final Fantasy and Dynasty Warriors in his spare time." Shirou replied without thinking as the phone rang by his ears, not paying attention to Rin letting her jaw drop. She didn't play video games really, but even she recognized some of the most popular franchises in the subject. "Come on…" He muttered under his breath as he waited for the man to answer, only to no avail as the answering message played. "Damn." He muttered under his breath as he began to press a sequence of numbers on the phone and channeled prana into his fingers.

"What are you doing now?" Rin asked curiously.

"It's a spell that Sirius-jiji came up with that he put into all our cells." Shirou answered as he put the phone to his head again. "It sends the message that I'm about to record not only to his phone, but to every piece of communications equipment he owns that is connected to this spell as well so he won't miss it…" He cleared his throat. "Waver-nii. It's Shirou. I think we might have a lead to who took the old man. Problem is that I think they're after me too and I just pissed them off with one of my arrows. I don't know how much longer it will take for them to come after me for real again. Get back to me as soon as you can. I don't know how far my luck can take me the next time. Hope to talk to you soon…" He closed the phone and sighed.

"Well a fat load of help that did." Rin muttered. "A lord actually using one of those things…" She shook her head. "I'm going to go back home and get some stuff. Hopefully by the time I'm done I'll be able to actually make sense of all this crap…"

"Stuff?" Shirou blinked. "You mean you're coming back?"

The Tohsaka looked at Shirou as if he was stupid. "Of course you idiot. The bitch is gunning for you, so as long as I'm near the bait I can be sure to encounter again sooner or later, and that's when we'll finish her off for good…" She turned around. "Let's see, other than clothes and books, I'll need my gems and…" She began to make a list that grew in proportion to how scared Shriou felt.

By the time she left the house Shirou was in a state of dire straits. It was because of this that he immediately did the only thing he could do in order to calm himself down…

He made himself a very elaborate brunch.

o. o. o.

Elsewhere in the city:

Her body was wracked with pain. Every breath, every twitch, every thought, every second, every moment was filled with the throbbing caused by a heart that no longer beat. Her beautiful skin was marred, her beloved clothes were torn, her lustrous hair was frayed, her flawless skin was bruised and cut…

She would make them pay. She would make them break. She would drink their blood…. Blood… blood… oh was she thirsty. Her servants in the city were few and would not bring her the needed amount of energy for a while… but she would eventually recover an she would eventually have her revenge…

She laid in her bed in the private hotel room she had ordered for herself when she arrived, enjoying the luxuries that her father had provided her to the best of her current suffering ability. The curtains, the sheets the phone the door, the chair, the lamp, the shower, the tv, the dresser the fan…

She wanted to destroy all of it so badly right now, pretend that all the splinters were blood and soak herself in the remains as if it was a nice refreshing bath…

Slowly she reached for a small jewel on her dresser and picked it up. It weighed no more than any other trinket, but in her current state it may as well have weighed a good 50 lbs to get it to her face. Breathing heavily, the woman channeled some of her energy into the small piece of thaumaturgy and watched it glow a bright purple.

"Daddy…" She muttered weakly, ashamed that she had been reduced to this state and lost her favorite weapon. "I need your help…"

o. o. o.

A/N.

… SKYYYYYYRRRRRRIIIIIIIMMMMMM!

CREEEEEEEEEEEDDDDDD!

WWOOOOOOOOOORRRRRRKKKKK!

I NEED SLEEEEEEEEEEEEP!

Ok. Is it just me, or does about a third of the people in Skyrim talk like Sean Connery?

So… I got nothing. Nothing worthwhile to talk about right now. Current arc should last another 3-5 chapters. I'm not doing another filler arc, so be glad.

Oh… and Gabriel Blessing is finally getting in the groove again with IF and updated. Woot.

So Review! Worship the log! Speak with an incredibly attractive accent as if you are from the move Highlander! And Review again!


	13. Chapter 13

Chapter 13: Field work

I do not own Fate/Stay Night and stuffs:

o. o. o.

Norway:

Waver sat in his apartment room lying on his bed and staring at his cell phone irritably.

It had been a couple of days since he had managed to get the 100 man army ready to take down Louvre and move everyone to the nearest city to where the vampire's supposed castle was. The air was cold. The food was mediocre at best, the board was small so many of those under his command had to share rooms which obviously didn't settle well for some of the "old bloods", and like the fool that he was, he let his guard down and assumed that things were going well for once…

And then he checked his cell for messages.

"… I knew things weren't going to be easy…" He muttered. "… But there should have been a limit to how bad this all can progress in such a short amount of time…" He sighed. "I doubt even Kiritsugu had to deal with targets on opposite ends of the planet at once before…" A knock at the door broke him out of his musings. None of the bounded fields he set up in the area were triggered so it was probably the person he sent for. "It's open." He spoke loud enough for the person on the other side to hear.

The door opened to let in Bazett who looked at him curiously. "You wanted to see me Lord El-Melloi?"

"Forget the formal crap Baz." The lord sighed. "I'm not in the mood to deal with formalities right now…"

The Fraga frowned and pouted. She had been getting over Sirius' kidnapping for a while, but she still didn't fare well with additional stress at the moment. "Fine then Waver, what do you want? I hope you aren't going to try and flirt with me the few days before we storm the castle because it won't work."

The man snorted. "You'd break me in half anyways…" He sighed, knowing that he was likely going to get punched across town if he didn't deliver his news right. "… Besides… you're not joining us in raiding Louvre's castle…"

The room was dead quiet for several seconds. "Care to say that again my lord?" The enforcer asked in a dangerously calm tone.

Waver sat up and looked at the girl apologetically. "I've just made the call. You're getting on a flight at 8 tomorrow morning heading to Japan. Once there you're to take the valet that's waiting for you and go to your main assignment."

"And what… dare I ask, is in Japan that is related to our current objective?" The purple haired woman continued to speak in a borderline murderous tone.

The lord shook his head and took out his cell phone, pressed the button that would make it go on speaker, and then played the message so that the girl could hear.

"_Waver-nii. It's Shirou. I think we might have a lead to who took the old man. Problem is that I think they're after me too and I just pissed them off with one of my arrows. I don't know how much longer it will take for them to come after me for real again. Get back to me as soon as you can. I don't know how far my luck can take me the next time. Hope to talk to you soon…"_

"You see our problem now?" Waver asked with a dark tone.

Bazett grit her teeth. "You can't… I mean… why not someone…"

"Else?" The elder finished her sentence. "Come on. You know why I can't trust anyone else to help him out. Not after they learn who his father is…"

"But that's no reason for you to just dump me on him when we're so close to the castle!" She argued. "I'm one of the strongest fighters here! I know we both like him, but we can't sacrifice our odds just for some kid!"

"I have 99 other men to pick up the slack." Waver countered as he sat up and leaned towards her darkly. "Unfortunately Shirou isn't just some boy, and there is another reason why I am sending you." He looked at her dead in the eyes. "How do you think the magus killer managed to take out so many of his targets so efficiently? Surely you don't think he could have dealt with all of those magi relying on just guns, explosives, poison and experience do you? Other than his mind, he must have had something else… something special…"

Bazett frowned for several seconds before the answer formed in her mind. "… A mystic code…" She whispered in realization.

Waver nodded. "And one of the most dangerous ones that Sirius has ever made. The only people who know how it works and its true potential are the boy, me and Sirius, bus should Louvre manage to get inside the old man's head he'll find out about it and go straight for it. Shirou knows where it is but he will never use it. It's not his kind of weapon… however if Louvre were to ever find out about its existence the consequences would be catastrophic." Waver looked down with a tired expression on his face. "In addition to that particular tool, there is another weapon in the Emiya home that must be kept away from Louvre at all times as well that you need to be responsible for."

Bazett stood still as she repeatedly went over the information she had learned in her head. The code of the magus killer… if such a weapon existed and was as dangerous as Waver claimed… then it was no wonder he was trusting her with this job. And yet… there was another weapon that needed to be guarded with equal scrutiny as well? "… Go on." She said in a calm and controlled tone.

The lord sighed. "Kiritsugu designed a set of weapons when he died for Shirou to have which the old man made. Sirius and I gave them to him along with some other things in a box that wasn't to open for another year thanks to a spell of my design, however with the current situation I don't think we will have that time." He looked at the woman with cold eyes. "Should you arrive and see that the situation has regressed to a point where it is getting unlikely that you will be able to manage yourselves, I want you to get Shirou to show you where he hid the box and open it. Once Shirou has managed to show that he can trace all of them perfectly, destroy them such that not even the dust can be used."

The enforcer blinked in surprise. "Are they that dangerous? I mean if we can just hide them…"

"We can't risk it." Waver interrupted. "Absolutely out of the question. I'd rather fight the white princess herself by myself than leave those tools somewhere where an idiot can grab hold of them."

Bazett swallowed heavily as she began to understand how truly severe the situation really was. "What… what does Shirou need them for? I mean… he's just the kid of a guy you knew isn't he? He's a bit different and special, but…"

The lord remained quiet for a while. "That… is on a need to know basis." He replied with a hint of fear. "But rest assured when I say it is not against the interests of the association in the slightest." He put his head in his hands. "I need you to trust me on this Baz. You're the only one I can trust with this. You and your noble phantasm…"

The young woman looked down on her friend and boss with a stern expression. "… If this is all for nothing… I'm not going to let you live this down… you know this right?"

Waver chuckled dryly. "If he isn't in either location, the Queen will kill me… so unfortunately you're just going to have to settle for my corpse if I'm wrong." He shook his head. "Ah… such is the life of a magus. Death at every turn…" It really was a pathetic excuse for his current actions, however nothing else seemed to fit his current situation more perfectly at the moment. Reaching into his dark red coat, he took out a piece of paper and handed it to the girl. "Written here are the addresses for where you need to go, where you will be staying, and above all else, the verbal password to unlock the box. Don't forget any of them."

Bazett nodded and took the paper before turning to leave the room. "You owe me for this one Waver." She honestly didn't know what to think of the situation. On the one hand she was being left out of a dead apostle ancestor hunt, which would have done wonders for her resume for future battles. On the other hand, if Waver's intuition was right, then not only was she going to fight the vampire anyways, but she would be doing so with only Shirou at her back against the monster with the assumption that whatever Sirius made for him would be enough to hopefully turn the tables.

Groaning to herself the woman walked to her room to pack her things, ignoring the other enforcers that she passed on the way there and began to memorize the paper. "Huh? What kind of password is this?"

o. o. o.

Japan:

"I really don't see why I can't cook…" Shirou muttered as he sat in his living room sulking and glancing at the opening to the kitchen every few seconds.

"Your body is still recovering from the attack Sempai." Sakura apologized as she looked at the boy covered in random patches and bandages.

When Shirou made the "soothing" breakfast for himself the morning after the vampire fight, he had accidentally overstrained his previously pushed to the limit muscles despite the brief healing he had given himself minutes prior. This resulted in a cramp that possessed his entire person when he sat down to eat. It was apparently so bad he couldn't even finish a third of his meal before admitting that he needed help.

Because of that, Sakura and Rin had been alternating cooking duties. Both had initially attempted to claim monopoly over all the meals in the home while they were there, but Shirou and Taiga managed to get them to settle for alternating meals. Much to the surprise of Shirou, Taiga, and Sakura… Rin happened to be a very good chef.

"Lunch will be out soon!" Rin called from the kitchen in a happy tone.

"Can I at least clean the dishes this time?" Shirou asked while sulking like a child. Cleaning and cooking a meal were very soothing for him… and with the current situation he was in he really needed something to calm his mind down before he'd lose it.

"No means no Sempai." Sakura frowned, crossing her arms and scolding him despite the fact that she was younger than he was. "We don't want you to hurt yourself again."

The male looked at his friend surprised before chuckling in defeat. "Heh. Fine. You win." He winced as his ribs moved, still not fully healed. "At least you're back to normal…"

The girl tilted her head to the side confused. "Back to normal? What do you mean Sempai?"

Shirou leaned back and let out a breath of air slowly in response to his aching muscles. "I mean you seemed a bit jitterish lately… I mean with the vampires and everything. And I kinda did force you to sleep over here… then when Tohsaka suddenly stayed over…" He laughed dryly. "I'd be just as jumpy as you I guess if I didn't feel so tired…"

Sakura looked away momentarily before responding. "Yeah… I really don't know how to handle knowing that vampires are around now… plus my abilities are pretty much useless for combat… unlike you and Tohsaka-sempai…"

Something in her voice hinted that she was really thinking about something else, but Shirou didn't push things. Things were tense enough that he didn't want to make things worse right now. "Hey don't worry yourself." He smiled gently. "I focused most of my training in combat based magic, and Tohsaka…" He paused. "Well…"

"Lunch is ready!" Rin announced happily as she came out of the kitchen with various dishes that she produced from the boy's stock. As expected, it all looked and smelled delicious.

"She's just good at things." The boy concluded reluctantly.

Rin's smile was tinged with a small blush as she put everything down. "I think I know why you like to cook for others so much Emiya-kun. It's nice to be appreciated for doing things well…" A small scowl donned her face. "The only other person I've ever cooked for is that damned priest, and I don't want anything to do with what goes in or out of his mouth…"

"I figured…" Shirou winced as he attempted to serve himself. The pain was so great that appeared to slow down dramatically at some point…

"Sempai, let me help you with that…" Sakura stepped forward to help out the boy and took the plate from his hands and began to fill his plate with moderate amounts of the dish, pretending to ignore the slightly irritated look Rin was giving her with her puffed out cheeks and narrowed eyes… until she noticed Shirou was still partially stretched over the table and moving slowly. "Sempai? Are you ok?"

Rin noticed what Sakura was concerned about and looked about the boy curiously… and then analytically as she saw his movements. He was slowly retracting his body, but his face was scrunched up in concentration. "Emiya-kun?" She spoke up and leaned forward. "Is something the matter?"

"Something's wrong…" Sakura put down the plate and grabbed his shoulders to inspect his person. "His body is tensed up and there's something slowing down his body from the inside… an innate bounded field? No one's in here but us…"

Rin watched Shirou with scrutiny as he slowly made a face that a person normally made when they were caught doing something and began to swear slowly. "Apparently this isn't the first time this has happened…" She sighed and leaned back looking at the boy analytically. "The best thing we can do right now is wait for it to wear off…" She began to serve herself some of the food and began to eat slowly as she stared at him with sharp eyes. "… If I were to take an educated guess, I think it has to do with our fight with the vampire…"

Sakura's eyes widened. "Did she do something to Sempai?"

Rin shook her head. "No. He has a tiny crest on his chest from his dad. He mentioned that it has something to do with time manipulation… he showed as much when he pushed back the bitch. I guess he must have done too much and is suffering from some kind of aftereffect…" She took a few more bites before continuing. "The weird thing was that he was applying it to his projections, so if there were any aftereffects, then they should have only been on his weapons not on himself." She put her hand to her mouth, a habit she did when she was thinking or contemplating something. "I think it's something we'd have to look more into when all this is over… but if it doesn't go away before we're attacked again it may prove to be a lethal handicap." She looked at Sakura. "Do you happen to know anything about this?"

The youngest there looked away guilty. "I… only know he's good at projection and reinforcement, and that's only from watching him take down those undead. Sempai and I knew that the other was a magus, but we pretended that wasn't the case since we didn't want to change the way things were between us…" She paused for a moment before her eyes widened. "W-wait… he has a crest from his father? But he's…"

"Adopted. I know." Rin grunted tiredly. "Don't remind me about how many things could have and should have gone wrong with that. Somehow it worked with him. Don't ask me how."

_He's like me…_ The purple haired girl thought as she looked at Shirou, who was slowly alternating between the two as they talked, obviously looking like he was following the conversation. "Sempai. Can you understand what we're saying?"

Shirou looked at Sakura curiously before tilting his head to the side confused, pretty much answering the question.

"Well that makes things easier for us." Rin mused as she ate another bite of food without much manners, elbows on the table and a bored look in her eyes. "Hey Shirou, Sakura likes you."

The younger girl's face blushed deep red before looking at the redheaded boy nervously. "W-What?" She shouted in a high pitched tone. "Why would you do something like…"

"He can't understand us." Rin grinned mischievously. "It's actually kinda fun." She turned to Shirou again. "Hey 2nd rate, I forgot to clean your dishes the last meal I cleaned before putting them away."

Sakura gasped, acting as if what Rin just said was just as bad as her revelation of her feelings for the Emiya. "Y-you didn't! Did you?"

"Does it matter?" Rin raised an eyebrow. "Go on. Try it."

"Em…" Sakura mumbled, not sure what to say. "I… Sometimes I take some of the good ingredients from your fridge when you're not looking to make dinner…"

The Tohsaka rolled her eyes. "Come on Sakura, that was lame. Hey Shirou, I accidentally came across that pathetic excuse for a porn collection of yours when I was scouting your home for any mystical artifacts. Your taste stinks." She looked at Sakura who was gaping at her. "What? You look like you never knew that boys had those things at our age before."

"I… that is…" She looked around frantically before dropping her head. "Well… I've seen them too…"

Rin blinked before snickering. "Really? Honestly he has some weird tastes right? I mean those things were old and…"

"They were my brother's…" She mumbled ashamed, causing Rin to laugh even harder. "He forced them onto sempai a year ago as a joke and bragged about it to me…" She looked at the boy there with a resolute expression. If Rin was going to humiliate her, she would just return the favor. "… I saw Tohsaka-sempai staring at you like you were a piece of meat when you were changing yesterday…"

Rin coughed as her mirth turned to shock. "Wh-what?" She stammered with a faint blush on her face. "Th-that's not true! Where were… how did… it's a lie!"

"It was when he was meditating and came back from the dojo." Sakura stared at her sister with seemingly all knowing eyes. "He took off his top when he was going to his room and I saw you practically undressing the rest of him with your eyes Sempai…"

"I… that is…" Rin faltered before blushing and turning away. "Well what do you expect? I mean he's an idiot but he is good looking…" She paused. "Wait, how would you know that I was looking unless…" A small grin made its way on her face. "You were watching too…"

"So what if I was?" Sakura crossed her arms, surprising Rin with her blunt response. "I've seen Sempai without his shirt occasionally since he sleeps in sometimes and I have to wake him up. I already knew what he looked like. I've never practically undressed him with my eyes like you did though."

The elder female flinched. "Tch… damn…" She muttered, assuming that she could steer the conversation away from herself. In frustration she threw her hands into the air. "Ok! I admit it! He's kinda cute! Sometimes I consider asking… or forcing him out with me… but then he says something stupid and then I get pissed off! Happy?" She breathed heavily before looking at Sakura and realizing what she just claimed. "… Oh… right…" She groaned. Sakura liked him too… and so once more the two girls were stuck in a situation where only one would be happy while the other would be left alone…

"It's ok…" Sakura mumbled as she looked down and to the side. "I'm used to it…"

A massive lance of guilt pierced through Rin's chest and for good reason. Sakura… her sister in blood… was practically sold off to the Matou family when they were kids. She never knew what exactly Zouken did to her for her "training"… but she knew enough to occasionally thank and curse the root that she was the elder of the two and thus not chosen instead. However Rin would not let it show… much anyways. She was a Tohsaka and she would carry herself as one. "Humph… well that's no fun. I expected you to actually put up a fight for once since you have a better chance to win than I do…"

"That's not true." The younger argued. "My body is tainted and impure! If he ever found out…"

"He already does." Rin interrupted before the girl could continue and glanced at the still slowed down Emiya. "He's a hack when it comes to most spells, but his structural grasping ability is on a level that books can only theorize if they've even gotten that far. Even if it was by accident, he already knows that your grandfather's familiars are inside your body… although he doesn't know exactly what they are yet. Structural grasping the undead we've been fighting makes him sick… but he claims looking at Zouken makes him want to throw up unconditionally… not that I blame him when I remember the conversations I've had with that old demon." She sighed and began to eat again as if nothing was wrong. "Still despite that, he wants to spend time with you and keep you away from the Matou household. It's stupid and bound to cause problems eventually for everyone, but he's still doing it… I'm almost jealous."

"N… Sempai…" Sakura stumbled over her words as she stared at Rin disbelievingly… but then was distracted as a gasp for air distracted the two girls instantly so they could focus on Shirou again. "Sempai!" She squeaked in surprise as Shirou almost collapsed onto the table breathing heavily.

"About time you got back to normal." Rin snorted, pretending as if the past 10 minutes didn't happen. "Care to explain what happened? It had something to do with your crest didn't it?"

Shriou didn't respond immediately as his gasps for air continued for a few more seconds. "When I overuse it or push too far…" He breathed out. "… My perception of time occasionally speeds up or slows down for a while. It goes on for a few days after I use the magic." He cringed as his body's physical pains compounded on itself as his mind caught up to its current condition. "My body doesn't change though… so it's like I'm trapped in it without being able to control what it does completely…"

Rin looked at him analytically for a few seconds before sighing and walking to the other side of the table so that she was next to him and forced him to sit up straight, causing him to yell in pain.

"Sempai? What are you doing?" Sakura yelped in surprise and worry as she held Shirou's body to prevent him from being moved suddenly again.

Rin responded by picking up some food with her chopsticks and holding it up in front of the boy's surprised face. "You're in such crappy shape right now that you obviously can't feed yourself." She puffed out her cheeks. "Like it or not, you're the strongest one here. If you're in bad shape, all of us are in trouble and I don't want to call on the priest for help. Don't get the wrong idea or anything Emiya-kun…"

"Now wait a momuphmupha" Shirou opened his mouth to protest but was interrupted as Rin took the initiative and stuffed the dumpling into his mouth.

"Stop complaining. If we left eating to you the meal would be rotting by the time you finished." The brunette stated in a matter of fact tone. "You wasted enough time with that stupid feedback of yours… no pun intended. If you want me to actually get to healing your wounds today let me… feed you…" She looked away with a slight blush before beginning to feed herself on instinct, seemingly unaware that she was using the same chopsticks that she had used to feed Shirou much to the other two's shock.

"D-did she just…?" Shirou blinked in disbelief.

"I… she…" Sakura was at a greater loss of words than Shirou was.

"Huh?" Rin blinked as she noticed the two staring at her bewildered. "What? What did I do?"

"The… chopsticks…" Sakura pointed out slowly. "You fed Sempai… and then…"

"And then…" Rin looked down at the cheap sticks in her hand, then at Shirou… then back to her hand… then at her food… and then apparently managed to put 2 and 2 together as her face rather quickly turned beet red and turned back to the two staring at her. Eating from the same pair of chopsticks or drinking from the same cup or can of soda was a very intimate thing to do between 2 people, especially in Eastern cultures. It was a bit less meaningful in the western cultures, but even there it still held some significance. "I… that… I didn't mean to…" She spoke in half sentences as her brain was overloaded by embarrassment before pointing at Shirou accusingly. "I didn't do it on purpose you idiots! You two should know better than that by now!"

"Ok! Ok! I get it!" Shirou retreated from the girl sitting next to him and back into Sakura. "It was an accident! No need to kill me!"

"… I think it's better if I feed you Sempai…" Sakura spoke up with a not so subtle blush on her cheeks. "I mean… Tohsaka-sempai is too rough when it comes to this kind of thing. She might accidentally choke you or embarrass herself again and take it out on you…"

"What do you mean by again?" Rin shouted in defiance, her state of embarrassment still not gone. "I am not clumsy!"

"Um… You kind of are." Shirou pointed out. "More than half the times I was injured were because you forgot to do something at the last moment when you were testing something out." He looked up and began to search his memories for such examples. "Let's see… there was the time you began to make mechanical familiars… and then there was the time you attempted to mimic tracing… and there were the few weeks you were trying to fine tune your element manifestation control and tried to show off… I still have some nice marks from when…"

"That's unfair!" Rin pointed at the boy, all self control lost as she panicked like a small child. "You make it sound like I was responsible for everything bad in your life! I didn't… I didn't..." She frantically tried to think of an example that didn't put her in a bad light before looking at the boy's left arm. "I… didn't cut off your arm! Hah!" She claimed in success.

"So it was cut off!" Sakura stated accusingly as she glared at Shirou.

"What did you expect me to say?" Shirou exclaimed. "Fuji-nee was around at the time and we didn't want to admit that the other was a magus!"

"Let me guess." Rin smirked, glad that the attention had shifted from her to Shirou. "You were sword fighting some other idiot and he cut off your arm."

The boy frowned and puffed out his chest. "For your information I was making a new spell and it acted in a way that I didn't expect, and so my arm was cut off."

"Cutting your own arm off isn't something to be proud of Sempai…" Sakura mumbled somewhat embarrassed and causing Shirou to deflate instantly.

Rin blinked. "You were actually making a new spell? That's new. Normally you just focus on reinforcement, projection, and alteration."

"It's a variation of my projection and alteration." The boy relented. "Unfortunately I didn't take some things into account when I first tried it and I ended up losing my arm." He lifted it up and moved around slowly. "It got healed since I was supervised at the time, but I'm not going to try it again until I've done more research…" Slowly he reached for his cup and drank some of the water in it. "Unless either one of you know how to keep an object fixated in terms of the G.E.O. coordinate system regardless of planetary motion in the universe such that until removed it will remain as a physical constant in said system, I'm going to ask you two to not to not ask what it is…"

"Keeping an object isolated in terms of G.E.O.… you mean longitude, latitude and altitude, right?" Rin blinked. "Why the heck do you need to…" She was interrupted as a loud gurgling sound distracted everyone, causing them to look at Sakura's stomach.

"I… had a small lunch…" She mumbled, embarrassed.

The room was quiet for a few moments before Rin sighed and began to eat again. "Screw it. We can talk about magic and mess with the other's heads after we eat while healing Shirou."

"I think that's a good idea…" Sakura agreed as she picked up Shirou's food with his chopsticks and carefully put it near his mouth. "Eat up Sempai. You know how much healing magic exhausts the person getting healed…"

"Uh…" Shirou nervously looked between Sakura, the food she was holding, and the seemingly indifferent Rin multiple times before letting his own hunger get the better of him. "R-right… thanks Sakura…" He smiled sheepishly before leaning forward and eating the food in front of him. He wouldn't admit it, but he doubted he would be able to eat a full meal in his current condition without stopping because of how much moving hurt his upper body at the moment.

The meal was quiet and peaceful, however Shirou couldn't help but feel an underlying tension during the entire thing… especially when Sakura fed him for some reason…

o. o. o.

Several hours later Shirou was sitting on his porch with a cup of tea while Rin and Sakura stood in his back yard looking at him curiously. Rin had managed to heal his body to the point where he would be almost completely normal by the following evening, but at the moment he was fairly tired and still wouldn't be of much help in a fight.

"So since we're finally done, can you please finally explain some things for me?" Rin crossed her arms. "I know your projection ability is miles ahead of anyone else's but what you did last night was putting things to a whole new level."

Sakura looked at Rin curiously. "What did sempai do that was so special? It's just projection…"

Rin's eyes narrowed. "He recreated a sword that was a mystic code, one that was made to amplify the ether element. He shot it off like an arrow while simultaneously pumping full of mana and blasted the vampire away as if it was nothing. Neither his origin nor his element are ether, so there's no way he should have made such a powerful mystery so easily…"

Shirou sighed. "It's not that hard to understand Tohsaka. Because of my origin I can not only project weapons physically with unnatural accuracy, but their abilities too. I just never bothered to tell you… for example…" He closed his mind and delved deep into his library of weapons to search for the best example he could think of. To his minor disappointment, it would be of significantly lower quality than he expected due to the fact that it didn't have any aspect that could be considered "sword", but it would serve its purpose. "Trace… on…" He mumbled before a large thick whip materialized on his lap… one that Rin recognized instantly.

"That… that's…" She gaped as she saw the weapon that nearly killed her 2 nights prior.

"It's the weapon the vampire was using against us. Yes." Shirou nodded as he grabbed the handle with his free hand and allowed the memories of the tool to enter him. Once more the quality of the download was not up to his standard, but it would suffice as he casually flicked out his arm while channeling some prana into the tool, making it crack at the ground to his side and making a small crater in his yard much to Sakura's surprise. "Power and all… though not quite on the same level as the original…"

"Amazing…" Sakura said to herself in awe. "Sempai is so talented…"

"It's the only thing I can do well to be honest…" The boy shrugged. "I'm at best average at most standard thaumaturgy."

"So does this mean that in theory you could copy something like a noble phantasm?" Rin asked Shirou with a sharp eye.

The faker looked back at her casually and yawned. "Who knows? I've never had a chance to copy a weapon on that level before. It's not like they display those things in museums." Oh how he was glad he practiced twisting words around with Waver in England. It was one of the most annoying and beautiful things about speaking in English. There were just so many ways to say the same thing in that language while circumventing facts. He used his experience in the other language to help twist his native one. Avalon was not a weapon, but a shield and a holster for a weapon… as such he had technically spoken the truth.

"Come on!" Rin yelled out frustrated, clearly not happy with the boy's statement. "There has to be some kind of special weapon that you have in that dense skull of yours! You have those basic element swords, but are you really saying that you don't have anything stronger? Something that you can practice with to push yourself?"

Shirou glared at the girl. "And if I did? Why would I show it to you? I do want to keep some secrets to myself you know." He shook his head. "Regardless… I don't have anything monumental or significant to use against that ancestor. In terms of pure firepower you still have me beat. The best I can do is catch her off guard from a distance and hit her with my bow."

Rin rolled her eyes. "Right. Your bow. Let me guess, you can pick her off from a mile away with a flaming sword."

The more experienced of the two frowned. "No. At best I could hit her from 3/4ths of a mile away with a flaming sword, but even then I'd chose to use a wind element one for precision and piercing power so that she wouldn't see it as easily."

Both girls stared at him for a moment before looking at one another owlishly. "… You know what? I'm just going to assume you have all long ranged stuff covered." The elder of the 2 shook her head frustrated. "Since she hasn't attacked us yet, it means she's still recovering. If she's still recovering, she probably isn't that strong. If she isn't that strong, then a pierced chest or blown off head can most likely kill her unlike some of the stronger apostles out there."

"We still have to worry about the undead." Shirou pointed out. "They're normally what apostles use to gather energy for themselves. If she's badly wounded, odds are she's going to go on a feeding spree in order to recover…"

Rin smirked. "Oh I wouldn't worry about that. If she wanted to do that, she'd have to do that in the city for the most efficiency, and that's the priest's territory. He may be an ass, but he'll at least do his job and keep their numbers down and stall her recovery." She crossed her arms. "In the mean time, I think it's best if we prepare for a worst case scenario."

"Which is?" Sakura asked, unsure if she wanted to hear of what could happen.

Rin held out her fingers and began to tick off her cases one by one. "The bitch gets backup from her boss. She recovers faster than expected. She has a weapon that is more dangerous than what she had used on us before. And worst of all she goes on a blood sucking rampage and risks exposing our world to the rest of the world."

"It would be good if none of those happened…" Shirou admitted as he drank more tea. "But odds aren't likely. Best we can do for tonight is set up precautions for the undead familiars… that would at least delay 2 of those things from happening."

"Easier said than done." Rin sighed. "Setting something up that targets familiars only without harming normal people without their notice isn't exactly easy you know…"

"Um…" Sakura spoke up. "I think I can help with that… sort of…"

Shirou looked at the girl curiously. "You can?" He repeated curiously. "How?"

The girl looked away, as if ashamed of the way she would participate. "The Matou magic… is the binding of others onto oneself, similar to the concept of absorption. It's rather effective against magical constructs and objects that are fueled by mana."

"Of course… why didn't I think of that before?" Rin verbally berated herself. "If we can set up bounded fields around town that use your magic to drain the zombies as traps…"

"We can effectively kill off the vampire's forces without getting our hands dirty or wasting energy over a wider area." Shirou nodded in approval. "The zombies would just drop dead in the middle of the street." He looked at the youngest one there and smiled. "That's a really interesting and convenient power you have Sakura. I'm really impressed."

"I'll need help though…" Sakura nervously stated. "I'm not very good at making bounded fields and producing long lasting thaumaturgy… in the end by the time we finish thinking of a solid field it might be too late."

"I'll be the final judge on that." The Tohsaka declared as she walked forward and grabbed Sakura's wrist. "If I can teach swords for brains over there how to fine tune his magic, I can teach you how to adapt your magic to fit a bounded field. Besides, Shirou's useless right now…"

"I'm right here you know." The Faker sulked.

"… So you'll have to work with me regardless." Rin continued as if Shirou wasn't there as she dragged the confused girl away. "Come on. We'll start off in the middle of the area and hit the ground running. Establishing a conceptual effect on someone else's field is pretty easy if the field maker is working with you. Also we have to determine where the energy taken will go. Odds are we'll just route the energies into one of the nearby leylines in the area which will…"

Shirou watched somewhat amused as the 2 girls disappeared around his home, no doubt to experiment on the roads. He was a bit relieved to see them getting along with one another finally. When the 2 girls were near one another he always felt some underlying tension between them for some reason. He assumed that it was because they were both magi… but he couldn't shake the feeling that there was something else to it.

Shaking his head in resignation, he decided to put away that thought for now. There wasn't any benefit to mulling over it at the moment anyways. Reaching to scratch an itch on his chest, he realized that he was still holding the projected whip.

Analyzing the weapon again, the boy realized just how valuable and lethal the weapon in his possession was. Even downgraded it was still of extremely high quality, much higher than most of the objects he had stored in his memory. The fibers were constructed out of the hairs of a powerful subterranean phantasmal beast, which explains why there was a strong earth based mass manipulation spell engraved in it. It was seemingly simple in concept, but very complicated in execution due to the nature of how a whip was used, ensuring that it was strong yet unnaturally flexible at the same time… in fact… the spell was so simple in execution that it resembled the earth element enhanced sword he normally used as arrows… but stronger… In fact…

Without even looking, Shirou lifted his free hand and projected the dull brown weapon into his hands. "Trace, on. Hypothesizing and theorizing manufacturing processes. Comparing… Contrasting… Confirming similar traits and making. Editing blueprints to increase efficiency… Refining concepts…"

o. o. o.

Matou Residence:

"Damn it!" Shinji yelled as he stomped around the house bored, irritated, and hungry. "Where the hell is Sakura? I'm starving! That lazy good for nothing idiot is never around when you need her!"

"I believe you let the world know several times already Shinji." The raspy voice of Zouken stated in a tired tone from a hallway behind the boy, making him jump in surprise. "Unless you are trying to do something with all that yelling though, I would have to ask you to stop. Those uncouth loud noises are not making my ears any sharper."

"G-grandfather!" Shinji squeaked in shock and fear. The boy may not have been a magus and fully aware of how dangerous the man may be, but he knew enough to watch his tongue around him regardless. Everyone in the family feared Zouken Matou and the smart ones didn't never went out of their way to out why. "I-I was just wondering where Sakura was. That's all. She hasn't been here in a couple of days and we're running out of food…"

"So get some yourself you foolish boy." Zouken sighed and shook his head. "Sakura has been at one of her classmate's home for a few days, and she'll be a few more before she returns." He turned to walk down to his basement again. "Honestly. Has the Matou fallen so far as to become incapable of even feeding themselves without someone to hold their hand? It is a miracle I got my hands on the girl when I did…"

Shinji stood there in silent shock and rage as he listened to the old man's silent footsteps echo down the stairs. How? How was it that he, the old man's descendent by blood, was looked over for some weak minded slut? Sister? Hah! Don't make him laugh! He knew the truth! She was merely thrown away and his family was generous enough to pick her up like the trash she was! So what if he didn't have any magic circuits and she did? He was a Matou while she was just some tool to ensure that the family still had power!

"You withered old geezer…" Shinji hissed under his breath as he went to grab his coat. "Can't feed myself? Honestly. Who the hell does he think he is?" He walked to the front door and opened it. He had completely forgotten, or rather completely ignored the fact that there were many disappearances occurring around the city lately. He had brushed off the fact that it was currently close to dark…

And he had absolutely missed the small smirk his grandfather had on his face as he turned away to walk down the stairs before he left…

o. o. o.

Norway:

Waver panted heavily as he ran from the castle as quickly as he could. The sun was setting over the mountains giving the sky a dull red appearance… a fitting scene for his current situation. Despite the fact that he was not a magi that focused on the application of magic like enforcers, he still managed to keep up with the remnants of his forces as they bolted past the trees in the forest at inhuman rates. Still… if their opponent was truly after them it would not take long to reduce their already miniscule number even further…

Impossible. Out of a force of 100 magi including himself, only a fraction remained alive and a fraction of that managed to escape without getting captured. From what he saw, only around a dozen or so fighters were running with him…

And to think that Louvre was supposed to be the weakest of the current dead apostle ancestors…

"What the hell was that thing?" Shouted one of the enforcers as they passed by Waver. "I've never seen or heard of a code like that in my life!"

"It wasn't a code!" Waver shouted, repeating the same thing he screamed at the top of his lungs before sounding a retreat. "That was a root be damned noble phantasm!"

"A noble phantasm?" The man shouted in disbelief. Waver got a good look at him. His right arm looked like it had been shattered in multiple places and he was holding his right side in a way that indicated several broken ribs as well… yet there was not a scratch or a drop of blood on him. "No one mentioned that he had something like that!"

"I noticed!" Waver snapped. "He must have gotten it recently! That's the only reason why I wouldn't have read it in the files I got before starting the damned operation." His mind flashed back to not even an hour ago when he watched his forces get butchered by a single vampire wielding that terrifying mace.

"What was that thing doing to us my lord?" Asked a woman armed with a broken code that looked like a gun but with no mechanical parts. "It destroyed everything it hit without discrimination without harming the outside! Not even our magic could slow it down!"

Waver bit his lip and frowned. He could only partially answer this question at the moment due to the fact that he had studied Shirou's structural grasping technique a fair amount when he first learned of it. His studious habits enabled him to become far more adapt at the skill than a vast majority of magi in the association, but it was still nowhere near the level that Sirius and Shirou could naturally reach. As such he had managed to grasp only a few key aspects of the tool before he ran like hell. "Its damage is dealt similar to a conceptual weapons', focusing on internal damage and bypassing outer machinations completely… though what truly is frightening is not the power each blow has… it's that it deals internal damage to all things… magic included…"

The enforcers listening to him shivered as they slowly realized what their leader was saying. "Conceptual damage to the internal workings of anything… that means…"

"Yes." Waver nodded. "It can destroy the structure and foundation of any magic it physically comes across once activated. In short there is nothing that can be used to defend against it short of a massive steel wall…"

"And a weapon like that is in the hands of a dead apostle ancestor…" Another male enforcer lamented. "This doesn't bode well for anyone. Combining his inhuman speed and strength with such a power… he is near unstoppable…"

"Not exactly." Waver commented, gaining the attention of his followers. "There are conditions that need to be met to use that noble phantasm's power…" He grit his teeth. "Unfortunately I'm not capable enough in that branch of structural grasping to determine what they were… only the fact that there were 2 of them…"

"Structural grasping? Could something as useless as that truly give you that information?" The female enforcer from before asked curiously.

Waver nodded. "Yes… however it is a very unique variation that requires a magus naturally in tune with magic that focuses in that branch of thaumaturgy in the first place. To my knowledge… only 2 magi are proficient enough in it to get all of the secrets out of that weapon… and one of them is McGinty…"

"Shit!" Swore one of the enforcers behind Waver, pretty much voicing what everyone else was thinking. "Who's the other guy?"

The lord swore under his breath in irritation, knowing he had to give some sort of response. Perhaps it was the frustration that made him utter his next few words, perhaps it was something he truly believed… but regardless the following 4 words that came out of his mouth would be echoed for years to come...

o. o. o.

Japan

Shirou sneezed.

"Are you ok Sempai?" Sakura asked curiously. "You've been doing that a lot lately. Are you sure you aren't sick?"

"That's a surprise." Rin chuckled. "I thought fools couldn't catch colds."

"Very funny." Shirou grunted as he wiped his nose. "It's true that I've never gotten sick before, but not because of something stupid like that…" He sniffed before looking around at the intersection in front of him. It was 2 days after Rin and Sakura had begun experimenting with their new bounded fields and he would be the first to admit that the 2 girls worked fast. Lying on the streets in front of him were roughly a dozen corpses completely drained of mana and as threatening as a blade of grass. He could tell that the invisible field covered the entirety of the intersection… hell he could practically outline it from where the bodies dropped on the edge. On one hand, he was extremely pleased that the field worked so well, on the other…

"You noticed it too…" Rin stated in a grim tone as she noticed Shirou's calm face.

"Noticed what?" Sakura asked curiously. "What's wrong? The field is working perfectly."

"Yeah it is…" Shirou nodded. "But look at how many undead we have here after only half a night. This is a major intersection but we have almost 25 undead here…"

"The vampire is getting reckless, sending so many of its familiars through such a populated area without care of trying to hide them." Rin continued through grit teeth. "If this keeps up we're all going to be in deep crap if not with the undead than with the association. What the hell is that stupid priest doing?"

"Beats me. I'm not his babysitter." The redhead shrugged. "Are there any other fields nearby that you guys set up?"

Sakura nodded. "Yeah. We set up another one by the park near the river. It seemed like a good place to put it."

"Let's go check it out." Rin grunted, clearly not in the best of moods at the moment. "Hopefully there'll be more of those bastards drained at that field. Then we know at least that we can limit her recovery and intake of mana… damn it… the one time I wished that this place WASN'T one of the most naturally rich places of mana on the planet…"

"Yeah…" Shirou nodded. "I know what you mean. Even if the vampire didn't have any familiars, she'd still recover from most wounds pretty quickly here…"

"Should we be out then?" Sakura looked around nervously. "If she's recovered, I might be holding you back…"

Rin smirked and flipped her hair. "Don't worry. I have several jewels with me this time and the bitch lost her favorite weapon. After what we've seen before, I'm fairly confident that Shirou and I can take her on without much issue."

"Why do I have a feeling you just signed my death warrant?" The boy asked while experiencing a massive shiver down his spine.

"Oh stop being such a coward." The Tohsaka brushed away his concern for his health like it didn't matter and walked down the street to the park. "Come on already and keep your senses up. I don't need to tell you that we're screwed if the bitch gets the jump on us."

"Yes mistress." Shirou sighed sarcastically as he followed the girl reluctantly with his hands in his pockets.

Sakura remained quiet for a few moments before turning to Shirou. "Um sempai… I have a question…" She spoke quietly.

The boy looked at his friend confused before shrugging. "Go ahead and ask me anything Sakura. What do you want to know?"

The girl looked down a bit before glancing at her sister a bit of a ways ahead of them. "What… what do you think of Tohsaka-sempai?"

"Huh?" Shirou blinked. "What do I think of Tohsaka? Why do you want to know that?"

"I… I'm just curious." She feebly explained. "I haven't talked to her much but it looks like all she does is boss you around. Why do you spend so much time with her if she's so mean?"

_Other than the fact that she's blackmailing me with my life?_ The boy sarcastically thought, but didn't say on the chance that said blackmailer was secretly listening in on their conversation. "Well…" He started slowly. "She's not ALL bad… I mean she fakes her outer personality during school when she's really an impatient slacker that screws things up a lot when the time counts. She's egotistical, rude, and has no reservations at making comments that really shouldn't be said…" He was so busy listing off Rin's bad points that he didn't notice her hands balled up into fists and shaking not too subtly. "… And she is responsible for more of my injuries than my teachers combined… I think…" He concluded.

"Then… why do you still spend time with her?" Sakura asked, though she had a small smile on her face as her crush listed off all of the bad points her supposed genius sister had that she never knew about.

The boy shrugged. "Well… I can tell deep down she isn't a bad person. If something is wrong is in front of her eyes she isn't able to just leave it alone, kind of like how I can't leave a broken electronic be without trying to fix it." He crossed his arms and looked up to the sky in thought. "And even though she tries to deny it, she has helped me out with my magic in the past without me asking for it. If you ask her about it she'll just claim that she didn't want the magus under her to be so pathetic, but I think she really does care about my progress and well being…" He smiled lightly. "Or at least that's what Sirius-jiji and Waver-nii are telling me. Plus it's nice to have someone my age to talk about magic with every now and then."

"I see…" Sakura smiled weakly and she turned away. "Since you had Tohsaka-sempai around, you didn't need to talk to me about thaumaturgy at all I guess…"

The boy blinked and looked at the girl. "Tohsaka had nothing to do with me not talking to you about thaumaturgy Sakura. It's just things were so calm, happy, and simple the way they were that I didn't want to bring something like that into our lives. Since you didn't bring it up either, I just assumed you agreed with me and wanted to keep things nice and easy. If you wanted to talk about magic, I wouldn't have minded at all really…" His mind flashed to seeing those living things inside Zouken and how there were traces of those same THINGS inside Sakura. "If you need to talk to me about anything, just ask Sakura. My doors are always open for you…"

The girl blushed and looked away shyly. "Thanks Sempai… I feel a lot better knowing that." She smiled happily. "Sometimes it's almost like you're a superhero, especially now when I know you can use swords…"

Shirou flinched. Despite his efforts to follow Kiritsugu's advice, deep down he still wanted to be a champion of justice. Smiling sadly he looked up at the sky. "… I can't be a superhero Sakura… dad showed me that the world isn't that simple… and that I'm too distorted to be one anyways…"

"Distorted?" The girl blinked in confusion. "How are you…" Her question was cut short as Shirou's arm suddenly shot up in front of her causing her to stop. "Sempai?"

"Tohsaka…" Shirou grunted in a serious tone.

"She's back?" Rin asked briefly as her eyes darted around and she tried to feel out where their opponent was.

"I can't tell." The male frowned. He could tell where the vampire was, but something was different this time. "She's definitely waiting for us in the park… but for some reason her signature is stronger than the last time…"

"Goodie." Rin grumbled without turning around. "Sakura. Go back to Shirou's place. You'll be safer there. Root knows what Zouken would do to Shirou if you died under his watch."

"But…" The girl stammered, now scared at how things were changing so quickly.

"Go Sakura…" Shirou stated in an unnaturally even tone. "Please… I don't think I can protect you from her…"

Sakura shivered. She had seen many sides of Shirou before, angry, sad, happy, excited… but he was never calm like this before. The way he carried himself now was akin to when he was on the archery range, his entire being on the verge of setting off yet unnaturally at ease at the same time. "R-right. Please be careful Sempai…" She reluctantly agreed before turning around and running back to Shirou's place.

Rin and Shirou remained quiet until the youngest member of their group disappeared from sight. "… You seem to have a pretty big fan Emiya." Rin commented almost casually, though there was an underlying tinge of jealously as well.

"She's just worried about me." The boy sighed. "She's a nice person. She cares about everyone like that. It's who she is… I don't see how I'm special to her."

The Tohsaka looked at her partner skeptically before shaking her head. She was beginning to think that there really was something wrong with her friend, but she put it away for later. They had a vampire to deal with. "Whatever. Come on." She spoke plainly before turning around and ran with the aid of reinforcement to where Shirou said the vampire was…

Less than a minute later the 2 stopped in the park by the edge of the river, a little over a dozen meters away from their opponent from several days prior. At first glance she seemed to be exactly the same as she was before, both in attire and in confidence, however both Shirou and Rin could feel that she was somewhat stronger than she was before for some reason…

"Well well…" The woman purred as if talking to 2 old friends. "That certainly was fast. You 2 certainly are pretty quick on the uptake. I thought that it would take a few more days before you found me…" She crossed her arms and looked around at the park. "I must admit though, I'm impressed with this field. I've never heard of an effect that can drain familiars of their mana before…" Her red eyes zoomed in on Rin hungrily. "I'm impressed at your work girl…"

Rin took things in stride and flipped her hair confidently. "Humph. You must not be that experienced if something as basic as THAT impressed you."

"Confident. I like that. The confident ones always have a good zest to their blood." The predator licked her lips hungrily before turning to Shirou. "But unfortunately my business isn't with you girl… it's with the apprentice of the code crafter…"

"So you are the ones that kidnapped the old man." Shirou frowned. "How did you do it?"

The woman blinked before looking at him confused. "Whatever do you mean boy? I simply knocked him out in a fight. Simple as that."

"Don't lie!" He snapped, getting raised eyebrows from the females. "There's no way someone on your level could have beaten him alone without some sort of trick. You're nowhere near as strong as he is."

The vampiress frowned. The boy had hit the nail on the head. By herself, even when armed with her favorite weapon she had stood no chance even against a heavily intoxicated Sirius McGinty. The large man's reinforcement abilities were so ridiculous she wouldn't be surprised if he was capable of performing "absolute" reinforcement, the supposed highest limit that spell could be taken to. She was halfway beaten to death before her brother had stepped in and they managed to take the old man down, but even then they had some issue dealing with him…

The problem was… she had a feeling that had he been sober, things would have turned out far more differently…

"Does it matter?" She grunted irritably. "The fact remains that the old drunk is my father's prisoner, and we need YOU in order to keep him in line."

"Funny…" Rin snorted. "It seems like you're having enough trouble keeping this idiot in line by himself. Is he really worth all that trouble?"

"Tohsaka! Don't make things worse!" Shirou hissed.

The woman inspected her elegant hand and nails lazily. "Personally…" Her blood red eyes shot to them with pure bloodlust and her hand mutated into a sadistic claw. "I would prefer to gut you 2 right now and bathe in your organs… then I'd kill the old perverted drunk when I get back home." Her voice was low and guttural and her face malevolent. "However I've been ordered to take you back home alive and not turned…" A sadistic grin slowly etched on her mouth. "However he said nothing about what to do with that girl though…"

Shirou's and Rin's eyes widened in realization as to what the demonic female had just stated before the enemy bolted at inhuman speeds towards Rin with her claws ready to gut her.

"Shit!" Shirou yelled as he instantly jumped in front of Rin who in turn jumped back to retreat, swords already in hands, od flooding his body, and his arms already swinging to counter the woman's strike.

Clang! Smash! Crunch!

Shirou's weapons collided with the woman's unnaturally strong hands constantly in order to prevent them from tearing his body apart as easily as they were scratching his tools. _1. 2. 3. Bang! 1. 2. 3. Bang!_ Shirou's mind was preoccupied with the counting of how many times his tools could take a hit from the woman's claws before they broke, and then firing off the gun in his mind in order to project another tool to replace the one lost without hesitation…

In a way he counted himself lucky right now… most of his hands on experience in fighting was with bazett, who fought primarily with her fists. Because of that, even though he could tell that his current opponent was clearly faster and stronger than he was, she was vastly less refined in pure close combat than his teacher. As such he had little trouble reading his attacker's telegraphed swipes before they got anywhere near him and could both counter and draw her into his projected openings which she unconsciously aimed for like a wild animal. Despite the fact that his opponent was seemingly stronger than she was before, she was nowhere near as well armed as well, giving him and advantage as he managed to score some very glancing slashes on the progressively angry vampiress.

"Damn it…" Rin grunted as she watched Shirou go toe to toe with the vampire once more without hesitation or thought about his well being. She was getting tired of him always trying to protect her as if she was some fragile doll. Running to the side, the girl stuck her finger out at the woman and focused her od to form her favorite offensive spell, the finnish curse Gandr. "Stop looking down on me you bastards…"

Black orbs shot out of her finger like it was a machinegun muzzle at the woman, forcing the 2 melee combatants to separate lest they get hit with the attack. Unfortunately, the vampire was the first to get her bearings and instantly bolted to Rin, merely slowing down to avoid getting hit by the attacks.

"Shit!" Shirou swore as he instinctively knew what was going to happen if he didn't act soon and instantly came up with an answer. Dispelling the swords in his hands and projecting his black bow, the boy drew back the string and went through his library at a record pace. A steel blue sword appeared notched in his hands before it contorted on itself into a drill. "Concept, identified. Target. Confirmed. Function. Installed." He quickly muttered as he put in the finishing touches on his missile just as the vampire was just about to close in on the girl. "JUMP!" The boy bellowed as his sword began to glow intensely.

Rin didn't know what the hell Shirou was up to, but she sure as hell didn't have a lot of options to go by and gladly followed Shirou's command, pouring more of her energy into her legs and retreating as far back as she could. In contrast her opponent whipped around to turn at the source of the command and paled as she saw the boy holding something that she was very familiar with and not at all eager to see again.

"Shit!" She swore and ran in an attempt to get away from what she assumed was another massive blast of energy.

"Dodge this." The boy muttered as he took final aim. "Shatter, helix blade!"

The second he unleashed the weapon, the magic of gradient parallel he instilled in the weapon actualized, causing not one but at least 50 replicas of his arrow to fire off at once. Not stopping there, the blue lights flew not in a straight path, but in spiral uneven, but non intersecting paths all aimed at the shocked blood drinker who moved even faster to get out of the way of the far faster projectiles, and for a few moments she had done just that...

That was when she discovered the 2nd trait of this particular arrow that Shirou had used… they homed in on their target.

"What the fuck?" The woman shouted in surprise as the remaining lights corrected their paths in the air between Shirou and herself and began to land multiple glancing blows before each one plowed deeply into the ground as easily as they would have their original target.

_A water element blade this time..._ Rin mused as she watched the remaining blades gradually deal deeper and deeper wounds on their opponent, though none enough to claim the fight. _He used the flow and cycle characteristics of water to create untraceable paths for all of the copies of the sword made from Gradient Parallel and then caused them to converge at the woman… there's no way that this is all simply reproduction of weapons to the highest degree, the level of control needed to perform the manipulation of a mystery like this is beyond mere physical and mystery based copying… it's like he can naturally use any weapon he makes naturally as if it's his own, functions and all… What are you Shirou Emiya? _Her musings however were interrupted as a burst of red and gold nearly blinded her.

"Rho Aias!" The woman shouted while pulling back the sleeve on her right arm to uncover an oddly shaped armband and was subsequently shielded by a 7 pedaled wall that blocked the remaining arrows without any problems whatsoever, stunning both teens.

"Fuck…" He muttered, pretty much summing up his thoughts quite nicely as his eyes rested on the beautiful 7 sectioned bounded field as his mind was flooded with information. _A conceptual weapon made for defense. 7 layers… each with the defensive capability of a fortress wall. If its damaged it will reflect the condition of the user… but I don't think even Rin's jewels are strong enough to break one of those things… and the strongest thing I can do is… is… actually… _

"Why yes… you are." The non human smirked confidently. "Do you like my new toy from daddy? I figured it would be quite useful against those annoying attacks of yours, and it's almost as beautiful as I am…" She stared at the bounded fields dreamily before cutting off her magic to make the shield go away. "Now where were we?" She grinned as she sauntered in Shirou's direction again before pausing as he drew back his bow again and aimed straight at her. "Humph…" She frowned as she stopped dead in her tracks and deployed her shield again. "It seems that you can't take a hint boy… this barrier of mine is too strong for the likes of you. You can't break through something like this."

Shirou smirked as he took aim and a dark iron colored sword appeared in his notch before it spiraled to become more aerodynamic. "Funny thing about your shield. It's strong yeah… but it has that interesting side affect of reflecting the health of its user…" The pale woman's confident stance faltered and she stared at him in disbelief. "Since that's the case… I wonder what would happen if I manage to break through even one of those barriers…"

"… How the hell do you…?" The non human looked at him as if seeing someone who was truly a threat for the first time.

_This sword should be strong enough now to break through and resist Gaia's interference long enough to work… hopefully…_ The boy mentally prayed as his chest began to glow.

"Drive puncturing blade… triple accel!"

He actualized his mystery and released his projectile, which collided with the red and gold barrier before the aria he used even reached the ears of the females, appearing as a dark streak in the air that seemed to rend the night sky itself by means of pure speed before it met with the first thing that stood in its way.

The loud collision between a relentlessly strong and fast projectile and the equally absurdly sturdy shield echoed through the area as if a bomb had just been set off, and as such there was a strong enough shockwave that a large cloud of dust prevented both Shirou and Rin from seeing the results.

Shirou however took no chances however and instantly retraced his standard swords back into his hands and dashed to where Rin was still staring at where the 2 powerful mysteries collided. "Rin! Focus! There's no way that that was enough to beat her!"

The boy's demanding command seemed to snap Rin out of her delirium just in time as the enraged form of their opponent shot out of the cloud of dust right at her, claws ready to swipe her head off. Screaming in surprise the girl jumped back just before she was decapitated, and once more glad for Shirou's aid as the boy once more interrupted the woman from coming after her, engaging the bestial individual in melee combat yet again.

"How?" She roared as their weapons collided and causing sparks to fly. Unlike before though, Shriou noticed that it took a few more hits for his weapons to break under the relentless assault. "How could some nameless child like you break through 2 of my fields? How did you know about Rho Aias' mystery so quickly? What are you?"

Despite his opponent's relentless questions, Shirou not once responded as he fought her with unwavering eyes and deep breaths. If he had time to talk, he was better off using his energy to keep up with this bitch. Why answer questions that would only make things harder for himself if he did? He was not an egotistical magus from the association or some priest from the church. He was a sword, and even the ones that were possessed or were enchanted to have minds of their own weren't dumb enough to talk in the middle of a fight. He dealt with this situation like a professional, not a scientist. This was what Bazett trained him for. This was what Waver and Sirius trained him for…

This was what his Kiritsugu Emiya… no… the Magus Killer trained him for…

This woman attempted to harm the people he cared about to get to him, and as such he would react in the most appropriate manner he knew… by tearing the bitch apart.

Crash. Clang. Splurt. Crunch. Snap. Thud. Splash.

The sound of metal tearing through flesh was slowly meshing with the standard sound of metal breaking and warping that had been standard in the bout so far as Shirou's style and experience surpassed his opponent's speed, strength, and stamina despite the fact that his limbs and body were beginning to feel as heavy as the weapons he was constantly projecting. Blood that was not his own fell to the ground in small bursts as the woman's clothes were slowly cut and dyed red to mix with the fashionable black and white gothic look she was dressed in.

_This brat!_ The daughter of Louvre hissed as she realized that despite her power up she was still being overwhelmed. _He isn't like a normal magus! He's too good!_ Desperately trying to deflect another one of the boy's counters that she somehow perfectly fell for, she noticed that the girl that had been with him in the fight was a bit closer than either one of the two realized.

Moving on instinct, the blood drinker thrusted her palm straight forward at Shirou's chest, deviating from her standard hack and slash strategy, surprising him enough to sloppily defend in response and launch him back several dozen feet.

"Emiya-Kun!" Rin shouted in alarm at the sudden turn of events as she made the mistake of watching the boy instead of the vampire. While the Tohsaka may have been trained in martial arts and magic, she was still woefully inexperienced in real world brawls, and she just made one of the biggest mistakes: never take your eyes off of the target. Before Rin could even turn her attention back to the woman, the distance between the 2 had been crossed and a clawed hand had slashed diagonally across her chest.

The world froze for Shirou as he saw the stunned look on Rin's face as she looked down at her torn clothes quickly dye themselves red with her blood and her legs give out from the shock. "Tohsaka!" Shirou roared with desperate rage as he quickly attempted to get back up and get to her… only to be woefully slow as the assaulter hoisted the near unconscious girl up from behind with a claw at her neck.

"Now now little boy. I think you've done enough fooling around for one day don't you think?" the woman spoke with a mix between a purr and a growl, irritated that she had to resort to such methods to take care of a single boy. "You wouldn't want to do something stupid and make things worse now would you?"

"Shi… rou… run…" Rin gasped out through shallow breaths. No doubt the pain she was going through was among the worst she had ever experienced in her life.

Shirou grit his teeth so hard that he wouldn't be surprised if he began to bleed soon. "Let her go…" He growled menacingly, swords still in hand. "You came here for me."

"Do I look like a fool boy?" The woman glared at him menacingly with murderous blood red eyes.

"To be honest… you do do stupid things on occasion dear sister…" A deep male voice chuckled from the streets, grabbing everyone's attention. "And to be honest you look the part as well. How could you have so much trouble with 2 children and even get injured even after father gave you that lovely new toy?"

The woman growled as Shirou attempted to find the newcomer to no avail. "This boy is more troublesome than you know brother. He was aware of Rho Aias' mysteries just from looking at it and used it against me with some spell that broke through 2 petals to weaken me. He is not your standard weak minded magus…"

An amused laugh was heard as the owner walked out from a couple of buildings, revealing a man who appeared to be the same age as his supposed sister, in a zipped up fashionable leather jacket, blue jeans, black boots and blood red eyes. He was well over 6 feet tall and rather handsome with long black hair, but the sadistic look in his face was all that Shirou needed to tell that he wasn't going to help him any time soon. "Is that so? Well then it's no wonder why that old drunk was interested in the boy then is it?" He looked at the halfway conscious Tohsaka in his sister's clutches. "Ah it looks like my efforts were in vain after all… a shame… and after I went through all that effort to secure some reassurance too…"

"Reassurance?" Shirou echoed feeling his stomach drop and his mouth dry, clearly not liking what the man was insinuating.

The man nodded and snapped his fingers almost lazily. The world froze for the Faker as slowly 2 undead dragged the shivering and heavily sobbing Sakura Matou from the same alleyway their master had dragged them out of. "I would bring her closer, but that rather interesting and annoying field in the park would make things rather bothersome, now wouldn't it?" The man grinned. "Plus I am too much of a gentleman to handle women so uncouthly…"

Shirou didn't say anything as he looked at Sakura with wide and disbelieving eyes. It was bad enough that both girls were taken hostage and that one of them would bleed to death if something wasn't done soon but… but this… this was just so outlandish and cruel that it had to be a bad dream. There was just no way… it couldn't be possible... his eyes had to have been playing tricks on him…

No. Despite everything he wished… the image wouldn't change… because holding Sakura in place on her right side…

… Was the undead, lifeless but still moving carcass of Shinji Matou staring at him with a gaping mouth and droll running down his jaw.

"You…" Shirou's fists shook uncontrollably. "I'll… kill you… both of you… over and over…"

"That's nice… but even if you do manage to do that boy, it would most likely be after my dear sister guts your cute friend and I feed your other one to my ghouls here." The man smirked sadistically, showing his sharp teeth. "In fact… I think we should have a little fun for all the trouble you caused my dear sister and I." He stepped forward. "You have to choose which one of us dear siblings you have to surrender to, and subsequently which one of our pretty little hostages will go free. The other will… well I'm fairly certain you can piece together the rest."

"Ooh! How delightfully sadistic of you brother." The sister happily chuckled as she saw Shirou's face pale even more than it already did moments before. "Yes boy! Choose, but do it quickly! This girl here isn't going to last long if you wait!"

"Shi… rou…" Rin gasped, her consciousness fading. "Forget… me…"

Sakura on the other hand couldn't say anything as she was still in a mild state of shock from being exposed to Shinji's current state.

The brother laughed as he saw the boy begin to panic. "Now sister, don't rush the boy! He's going to come with us to father no matter what he does. Let things play their course so we can enjoy ourselves." He paused as the boy's eyes slowly developed a light to them. "Oh? You've come to a decision already? That was rather fast. I thought you would take more time to…" He paused and frowned as one of the boy's swords dispelled from his hands and he grabbed the other with both… pointing the edge to his neck. "… Ah…" He frowned. "So it's like that…"

"Let them go… or I'll take my head off." The boy stated in a no nonsense tone. "Now."

"You're bluffing." The sister snorted, ignoring the shocked looks the sisters were giving the boy. "You wouldn't dare kill yourself…" She stalled as Shirou pushed the weapon to his neck, drawing blood.

"Maybe a normal person wouldn't…" The boy smirked. "But unfortunately for you… my personality is a bit broken when compared to the norm. You see I'm the kind of guy that would sacrifice himself to make sure the people he's close to are ok without hesitation or even needing to think about it… or to be more accurate it's more like I'm almost unable to as a base function… and since you clearly need me alive for your old man, I'd say you'd be in pretty trouble if something happened, wouldn't it?"

The area was dead quiet as the three glared at one another temptingly… before Shirou decided to make another push with his blade and cause more of his blood to flow down his neck…

"Fine." The brother barked, clearly not amused anymore. "We will let the humans go so long as you come with us and do not resist. You have my and my sister's word as the children of Louvre that no more harm will come to them. We will even drop them off at the local hospital to make sure you behave." He glared at his sister as if to tell her not to argue with his decision before looking at the boy again. "Now lower your blade boy."

"Swear on a Gaes." Shirou growled, shocking the siblings as he lifted one hand and began to trace several runes into the air, a makeshift contract that Sirius had taught him when Shirou had learned of some of the methods his father had used as a mercenary. It wasn't as strong or potent as a normal written contract, but the backlash was still something that all magic users would attempt to avoid if possible. "I, Shirou Emiya, swear to not attempt to escape the children of Louvre in return for Rin Tohsaka's and Sakura Matou's save delivery, alive and not crippled physically or mentally, to medical aid in Fuyuki and all blood that bear the title of Louvre refrain from attacking any and all uninvolved individuals within the grounds of Fuyuki." He swiped some of his blood off of his neck and wrote his name in the air, sealing his end of the contract.

Rin's and Sakura's eyes widened in surprise as they slowly realized what the boy had just done and attempted to feebly try to stop the contract from finishing.

The siblings looked at one another warily before the sister brushed a finger against one of her wounds and repeated the signature process, followed by her brother who bit one of his fingers to draw his blood. "There." The brother frowned as he felt the magic take place in his circuits. "It's done. We'll take the girls to the hospital and you'll be coming with us to our father without any resistance."

The boy nodded as he finally took the sword away from his neck and dispelled it, glaring at the woman holding Rin. "It's not good to hold the injured like that. If she dies… you're going to suffer too…"

The sister clicked her teeth as she dropped Rin roughly onto the ground, causing her to cry out in pain as she landed. "Tch. Fine brat. I'll stop hurting the girl…" She started off slowly before once more grinning sadistically at him. "But there are no rules about hurting you!" Faster than Shirou could react, the woman shot forward and clawed him across his chest. The wounds were nowhere near as severe as Rin's but that did not stop them from hurting or bleeding. Then the scratches were followed up with more as the woman tore into the teen without hesitation. "This is for breaking my Mountain Lion! This is for shooting me with that accursed bow! This is for making me look like a fool in front of father! And this is for just pissing me off!" She roared as the boy was injured over and over again.

Pain. It was indescribable and blinding that blocked out all coherent thoughts that could have belonged to Shirou. His chest was on fire from the outside and he felt his blood leak out, making him feel like he was being drained on the inside. No amount of training could prepare him for this magnitude of discomfort as he felt his consciousness wane…

But he didn't black out. He still knew far greater pain than this, where his entire body burned from both outside and within, torturing a weak and frail shell of a boy with no magic, no hope, no energy. What he was experiencing now was a far weaker in comparison to now, with his stronger body and will keeping him alive and an opponent that would eventually stop, unlike that relentless fire that only knew of destruction.

As his body fell to the ground, he saw Rin and Sakura looking at him both with tears in their eyes. At least those two would be alive and safe. The vampires were only here for him. After they took him away the city and the girls wouldn't be threatened by the vampires anymore. At least he could ensure that much…

Shirou Emiya apologized to his father and his teachers. On multiple occasions they had berated him for his selfless tendencies nearly killing him, whether it was in training or when he did something by accident… but he simply couldn't fix that part of himself. It was simply a main aspect of who Shirou Emiya was… Oh well… at least he had managed to turn one of his greatest issues into something useful for once. Maybe Rin and Sakura would one day forgive him for this reckless action… but if he could save their lives by giving his up, he would gladly do it. For a while he would hesitate if he was asked if he would give his life for another person's, but for some reason he felt he could do that for Rin and Sakura. For some reason he felt as if those two truly mattered more than his life did. For some reason for those two…

He would move from his spot on that hill of blades… he could be drawn…

His semi delusional thoughts were interrupted as he felt his body being picked up again by the woman who had until moments before been kicking and maiming it, holding him by the neck.

"Hmm…" He heard her muse hungrily. "Now that I have a good look at you boy… you aren't that bad of a specimen…" She licked her lips hungrily. "I might as well have a taste of the little shit that's been causing so much trouble… you can't be any worse than those other fools in this town… don't worry though, I'm not going to turn you… just make sure you don't cause any trouble on the way back…"

The boy didn't know what came over him or why the words came to mind… but at that point in time… he felt that if he was going to be captured, he might as well make them realize what they had with them. "My… body… is…" He grunted in pain as the woman's mouth approached his bleeding neck.

"Is mine now boy…" She grinned as her mouth closed in on Shirou's neck and began to drink…

The brother on the other hand frowned as he felt something unnatural happening with Shirou. "Sister! Stop!"

"… Made… of blades…" The boy finished the mantra that he knew described his entire being without any question with a raspy voice that caught everyone's attention.

The woman's eyes widened as images flooded her mind in rapid succession. A barren hill littered with weapons. A grey blue sky laced with clouds. A golden scabbard that possessed unmatched holy qualities. A burning field with a black sun. A man in his 30's that looked like he could kill anything and everything without batting an eyelash. The girl she had just moments before held hostage. The girl her brother held hostage. Swords. Swords. …

A shriek of pain and anguish pierced the air as the woman threw Shirou away so hard that he was knocked unconscious upon landing while the assaulter herself began to cough relentlessly from her bleeding and torn mouth with her hands around her throat, spewing out blood from her mouth as she gasped for air… blood and shards of blood red metal as sharp as razors.

'Sister!" The brother yelled as he ran to his sibling worriedly before stopping and seeing the shards of metal that were coming out of her. Something was wrong. Something was extremely dangerous about the boy and his sibling had just apparently been assaulted by the full brunt of it. "What in the world?"

"Impossible!" The woman hacked and wheezed. "He's human… but… but…"

"But what?" The brother yelled frantically. "What happened?"

"He… has… Reality… Marble!" She yelled in rage, causing all that could hear her to freeze in shock and disbelief. Before anyone could ask the woman anymore about what she had discovered, she had bolted to the unconscious boy with her hands drawn. "I'll kill him! This little shit has embarrassed me and father for the last time! I will not allow a mere human have something that even father has yet to achieve!"

Time ran still for everyone conscious and watching. The brother attempted to stop his sibling from going against father's orders. Rin and Sakura shouted Shirou's name in a vain attempt to wake the boy and get him to move.

But none of the 3 could do anything in time as the enraged woman struck down on Shirou with everything she had in order to end him…

"… Fragarach."

o. o. o.

A/N:

…Yep. I did just leave it there. And YES, I did kill off Shinji before the war… but that will have a very strong effect on how things turn out later.

Ok. For those of you who are irritated by my interpretation of Rin, let me just say this: I am NOT good at writing sappy, moe, dere, or otherwise progressively emotionally stories. It's simply not my strong point. If you notice in YAWALEH, any relationship in it develops or progresses either off screen or in a random psychotic way that is akin to the rest of the story. If Rin seems like a bit of a bitch to you guys… well that's simply because if you ignore her being a Tsundere and look at her character and personality at times… SHE IS ONE. I'm not Knocking any fan's of her's or saying that she's a bad person through and through, but face it guys… she doesn't exactly rank high when it comes to morality points when Shirou or Sakura aren't involved.

So anyways. This chapter is dedicated to my neighbor Fred who passed away suddenly in front of his house last week. He was THE definition of a bat shit insane old man neighbor that looked like Elton John's twin on welfare, but damn it, he was mine, and he was one of the nicest guys you would ever meet period. I'll miss you Fred.

… I think I'll start up on YAWALEH again next seeing as I doubt that I'll see much more of Han's powers… though I think I can make some good things up considering that he's pretty much a god damned steam punk… honestly how the hell could I have missed that…

So regardless guys… REVIEW! WORSHIP THE LOG! RESPECT YOU CRAZY OLD NEIGHBORS! AND REVIEW AGAIN!


	14. Chapter 14

Chapter 14: Defragmenting

I do not own Fate/Stay Night and stuffs:

o. o. o.

England:

Waver sighed as he sat in the small waiting room, leaning back in his chair with his hands behind his head, one of them in a cast, and smoked his cigar. He expected something like this to happen but it didn't really help the fact that he had been stuck there for hours on end.

Lazily watching the smoke exit his mouth, the man once more went over his failed attempt at hunting down the dead apostle and rescuing Sirius. It had started off almost perfectly. His small army had split up into 2 main groups, the rescuing group that contained sensory and anti bounded field specializing magi in his group aimed to get to Sirius, and the combat specialists needed to kill Louvre, with a few mixed into the other group in order to be safe and balanced. They all managed to find, infiltrate, and even map out a huge part of the place without much trouble other than a few traps that had to be worked around…

That was his first damn clue that something wasn't right. A person doesn't get through a dead apostle ancestor's bloody castle without some kind of major issue or get caught… and an army absolutely can't go in without losing a good number of men before getting to the point that he did…

Of course that already had sent warning lights into many people's minds including his own, but instead of being more careful, everyone decided to push forward with haste in hopes that their speed would interrupt any kind of trap that the vampire had set up for them.

20 minutes into the operation and inside the castle, Waver had been sweating bullets, but he had without a doubt found Sirius' location just behind a rather strong fortified magic gated area of the castle…

"_Sirius! Answer me you old drunk! Let's go before things start breaking here!_

"_Waver? Shit lad yer ta one tat actually found out tis place an came ta get me?"_

"_Of course I did! Now hurry up and…"_

"_Tere's no time lad! Get ta hell outta here! An warn ta association! Ah can't leave cause of a gaes an ta blood sucker got one ex wife of a knee breaker of ah weapon tis time!"_

"_Wait what? You signed a Geis! Why the…" BOOOOOM! "What the hell was that?"_

"_Ah'll make it short. HE HAS A NOBLE PHANTASM LAD!"_

"_A… A… WHAT?"_

"_Listen ta me! Ya can't beat him up front even wit ta strongest magic now! Ya have ta get around his tool's powers! Tere are conditions he needs ta meet ta use it! He needs ta…"_

_CRACK! CRACK! CRUMBLE! BOOM!_

Waver's memory was a bit foggy after that point, but he did recall lying on the ground and looking up roughly 20 meters from the bottom of a ballroom at the hole he most likely had fallen through and soon after that the middle aged figure of Louvre wielding a gold and blood red mace standing in the middle of what once was his assault force. He remembered countless bodies lying on the ground, most contorted and warped in ways that he would have thought impossible had he not made the mistake of looking at Caster's lair in the 4th war…

But not a drop of blood had been spilt…

Regardless, the instant he had laid eyes on the vampire and his weapon, he knew for a fact that things had gone south instantly, and the vampire's very helpful decimation of another dozen or so of his forces had nailed the idea down for everyone else as well.

Every attack, every mystery, every attempt was shattered relentlessly by that damned mace, and whatever managed to get through was so superficial in terms of damage that the vampire had simply recovered from it moments later. The one time they managed to slip in a seemingly fatal blow, the apostle had simply repaired his body a few moments later by reversing time… which was unsurprisingly when he decided he had spent enough time fooling around and focused on eliminating everyone else there.

He had wisely, albeit a bit frantically, called the retreat at that point, followed by turning around and jumping out of the fairly elaborate stained glass window. For some odd reason it wasn't enchanted to become more sturdy, but it could have just been protected from all outside harm and Louvre forgot to do the inside enchantments. Still, it didn't take long for the man to get followed by all of the survivors that could still follow him. Luckily for them the bounded fields around the castle had not been replaced or regenerated, enabling them to get away without much issue, however Waver wouldn't have been surprised if Louvre had let them escape in order to spread word of how he had ran away with his tail between his legs…

The buzzing of his cell phone interrupted his lamenting. Once more he had to thank Sirius for his ingenuity with crossing modern technology and thaumaturgy, otherwise there would have been no way that he would have been able to get a signal this deep inside the Clocktower.

A quick glance at the screen told him that it was Bazett. Hopefully she would give him some good news that he could put his heart at ease before being sentenced to whatever torture the association would give him. "So how was your trip?" He asked in a somewhat casual tone, trying to play off the fact that he would probably die soon. "Uhuh… Yes I know that the plane ride is long… How could you get lost in…" He paused as the woman continued talking and frowned. "So I was right? Both of them?" He closed his eyes. "No wonder we didn't see them in the castle… I was right to send you…"

He was so focused on the conversation that he never noticed the Queen walk into the room, staring at him with a cold ire for not noticing her.

"And the daughter… You have got to be…" Waver moaned as he rubbed his forehead, feeling a massive headache coming before freezing completely. "… I'm sorry, but that's something I can't talk about. Trust me when I say I was only helping him… no… I don't think he knows about it though he has shown occasional signs of using it subconsciously." He paused and looked up, noticing Lorelei's cold glare on him, making him begin to sweat and pale a bit. "… Can you please just go over the rest very quickly? I'm fairly certain that I will die if this isn't quick… no I'm absolutely serious, the Queen is less than 3 feet in front of me… I know… yes that bad… ok… yes… well at least you killed one of… you TOOK HIM TO WHO?"

"I do hope you finish soon." The woman in front of him stated calmly. "I have other tasks that need to be dealt with today."

Waver grit his teeth. "Listen, I have to go. Don't tell ANYONE what you found out and keep an eye on that man at all times. Don't you dare trust him and… you actually know… how on earth… never mind. Just don't do anything Shirou would do. Please. Hopefully I'll live long enough to talk to you later. Stay on your guard. Bye…" He turned off his phone, put it in his pockets, and rested his head in his good hand, looking at the Queen with the eye that wasn't covered. "So I know it isn't worth much… but I've just received word that the daughter of Louvre is dead…"

The woman in front of him didn't change her expression in the slightest. "Funny, I assumed you were supposed to be hunting the father, not his weak children."

Waver wasn't surprised by the lessoning of pressure. A dead vampire was always good in the Queen's books. "An unidentified noble phantasm tends to do that to plans my lady."

"So I've heard." Lorelei somewhat admitted though her tone didn't seem to convey the same message. "Though to be frank, I am having a difficult time believing that a single tool would enable a vampire such as the one you hunted to take down a force of your size so easily. When I initially heard of what happened, I came to the conclusion that you were simply an incompetent leader…" She looked at Waver's outfit, a standard suit underneath a rusted red trench coat and a dull gold scarf draped over his shoulders. "Perhaps you were emulating some arcane and impulsive fool too much…"

Waver frowned. He was used to people insulting him, but things were different when someone insulted the person he respected the most in life. "If you had read the reports carefully my lady, you would have known that said weapon was capable of disrupting and nullifying any thaumaturgy with ease. When I first laid eyes on what he did to my assault force, he was still merely testing out the full effects of its power and not truly taking any of my men seriously, meaning he acquired it recently. Projectile based, field based, contact based, spiritual based. Nothing could stand against a mere tap of that thing. Combined with his enhanced body and his greater than recorded regenerative abilities there was little hope of us defeating him in the first place. To be blunt and perfectly honest my lady, I doubt you would be able to overcome this issue yourself."

The Barthomelloi's eyebrow twitched, showing Waver her first new facial expression since meeting him. "I do hope you have reason to assume this Lord El-Melloi, otherwise the Archibalds will soon have to look for a third of your title."

Waver didn't break eye contact. "I was a master of the 4th grail war. I know what real monsters in human skin look like and what powers beyond management should feel like. You are indeed a terrifyingly powerful and strong person yes… but unlike other magi you are not off my scale of measurement… because I was once standing even closer to a man who dwarfed even you in terms of power and sheer presence. One who would have killed me on a mere whim had circumstances not been exactly what they were at the time." He closed his eyes and sighed. "By yourself… you are indeed more than enough to take down Louvre, even when his children are around. I'd even hazard to guess that you would be able to do so during a full moon. I am not flattering you. That is merely my observation…"

"Go on." The brown haired woman stated. "I am eager to hear your excuse."

"However…" He continued. "This noble phantasm he has changes the rules of engagement drastically. I have heard of your unparalleled proficiency with wind thaumaturgy, taking basic theories and spells to their utmost limits with devastating results, and I admire that as I too am a practitioner of basic theory to maximize results." He shook his head. "Unfortunately such an approach is inapplicable against him now. Mere power is not enough to get past this tool and even if we got a lucky shot in his own powers have advanced enough that he can recreate his body fast enough that we would not get to his body to seal it away in time. Our magic in itself is a workaround aimed to altering the natural law. That mace can assault the internal workings of its target, and when aimed at magic, it bypasses the effects and deals damage to the cause, which in turn causes the spell to collapse on itself."

"Then what would you suggest we do then?" The woman asked as if humoring Waver. "You have already determined that I am of no use to fight him, and mere numbers is not enough." She took out a folder of reports and looked at one of the pages that were highlighted in certain spots. "Given that you have claimed that there are weaknesses to this weapon, I am assuming that you would go get this person who is apparently so gifted in structural grasping that he would be able to determine what its conditions are and nullify the power? This man who you claim…" She raised an eyebrow skeptically. "Is the next Magus Killer? I wonder what the Archibalds and Einzberns would say if they found out you were associating yourself with a person related to the one who killed your predecessor."

Waver sighed. It had been a slip of the tongue at the time due to the stress but apparently word got out quickly that a potential master magus assassin was in the works. "He's still a kid, very nice, always tries to make everyone around him happy and putting them before himself… but right now there's no point in trying to get him to help out hunting Louvre even if we could get to him in time…"

"Oh? And why is that?" Lorelei asked curiously, seeing Waver's eyes narrow.

"Because he lives in Japan. Because he's a secret student that Sirius and I were teaching. Because Louvre was trying to use him in order to get Sirius to cooperate. Because he was partially responsible for killing Louvre's daughter in full view of his son… so right now there is no point in trying to get Shirou to Norway to fight Louvre… because Louvre is going to Japan to get revenge on Shirou."

o. o. o.

Japan:

He was constantly slipping in and out of consciousness if he could even call it that. At one instance he seemed to be fully unaware of anything, another he would once more be on the hill of blades that frequented his dreams, before the next moment where he could barely feel his chest and neck were on fire and people yelling around him before returning back to the mind numbing emptiness again.

Right now he was on the hill again looking down at the wide expanse of weapons again while standing, or crouching in his usual spot. He could see his collection more clearly now, though the weapons he had never seen were just as indeterminable as ever. He noticed that the shield that the vampire had been using, Rho Aias, was lying almost peacefully on the ground a fair ways to the right… In fact he discovered that he could look around the place easier in general…

But the most notable thing he noticed was that the sky had been slowly going dark until it was borderline night now. That didn't mean that he couldn't see anything, on the contrary he could see just fine as if it was day out with the unusually large pure white full moon shining overhead illuminating the shadows that the blood red sun in the distance made in conjunction with the swords in the ground, but it was something he wasn't used to regardless. Still it gave the world around him a new beauty that he couldn't help but accept and bask in. The different hues of red light reflecting off of the blades here made the endless fields appear to be on fire, just like on that night, but unlike then this was a rather comforting flame. There was no malevolent feeling of death. There was no smoke to clog his lungs. There was no black sun that threatened his entire sanity…

Black sun? Was there such a thing back then? … Yes, there must have been… there was nothing else that could mimic that black mark in the sky… unless it was a hole… but then if it was, then the other side must have been hell. It had to have been because what came out of that thing caused hell on his side…

_Blood Thirst Death Smoke Hunger Starvation Decay Screams Failure…_

Yes he had been reborn in hell. Whoever he was before becoming Shirou Emiya was long gone. That person was dead and would never come back…

… And this place was what had been forged from that inhuman blaze. This endless armory that had survived and remained standing in tribute for those that didn't make it. There were orphans yes, but those children had either escaped the blaze before it had reached them and took their parents instead, or they simply were not at home during the incident. He alone was the sole survivor from the core of the event, so it was seemingly fitting that his spot was on the hill, the only true landmark there.

He was a blade among blades, but truly the only unique one there. As such could call upon them all if needed… all he needed to do was recognize them in order to bring them out… just like all he needed to be drawn was to be needed by those who were not blades…

He didn't know how long it had been before he regained the slightest form of coherency, nor how long after that before he was conscious enough to realize that he was awake, inside a body that felt heavy and in a bed that he didn't recognize.

"Ugh…" He moaned and reached for his head in an effort to wake up more and deal with the slow throbbing in his skull. It took him a few seconds for him to realize however that something was off and notice that there was a piece of cloth wrapped around the lower portion of his head and his neck. It wasn't so tight that he couldn't speak, but it was a new sensation and he would be lying if he said that it didn't itch a bit. "What the heck?" He mumbled as he moved to take the red cloth off…

"I wouldn't do that if I were you…" A deep voice stated in an almost casual tone from the side of the room, causing Shirou to jump. "Well… that is unless you want to become a vampire… but if that's the case I'm obligated to kill you where you stand…"

Shirou turned as quickly as he could in his half asleep and injured body to the source, ignoring its protests for the moment as he took in the vision of the man at the doorway. He was a priest from the way he dressed and the cross hanging over his neck. A man not young, but not in his middle ages either, with medium length brown hair and a face that was nothing worth mentioning other than the fact that it seemed to be rather empty. "Vampire? What do you mean by that? Who are you? Where am I?" The boy wasn't fully awake yet, but he could already tell that the man in front of him was dangerous… and that there was something about him that he simply did not like…

The priest snorted though not a single look of amusement or humor appeared on his face. "Well now. If you are able to ask so many questions, then your recovery must be farther along than I anticipated… Though that may be in part to underestimating my healing abilities again..." He mused before looking at the boy again. "When you somehow broke free of the vampire attacking you while she was feeding, you somehow caused some damage to her mouth. As a result some of her blood managed to get inside your bloodstream, though nowhere near enough to convert you into one of the undead absolutely, if at all once proper procedures were applied by yours truly. Unfortunately there is still some taint left in your system at the moment that could not be purged. That shroud around your neck and mouth is a conceptual cloth that belonged to a priest. It will suppress the vampire's blood inside of you until a point that your own natural system can erode and erase the remains. I am estimating that it will take roughly a week for the process to complete itself with the minute amount of invasive blood you in took… however I am unsure if there are any permanent effects that it may have had on you already. I myself have never heard of a case where a person has ingested a sparse amount of apostle blood and had said apostle perish not even a minute afterwards." He looked at the boy with an amused glint in his eyes. "Well boy, tell me do you have any thirst for blood?"

Shirou shivered and swallowed heavily. "I… don't know. I'm just thirsty right now." His muffled voice replied from the cowl…

"Of course he's not a vampire." Grunted an irritated female voice from behind Kirei. This grabbed the two male's attentions and caused them to turn the focus of the conversation to a tired looking Bazett. "You said it yourself when you were done working on him Kirei. Biggest difference he'll have is that he'll feel tired during the day and more energetic during the night."

"B-Bazett-nee?" Shirou stuttered, clearly too surprised to form complete sentences at the moment. "When? …How? …Why?"

"To be short. I saved you and your girlfriend's asses. Killed the vampire that nearly made a meal of you. Had a small standoff with the brother. Delivered the girls to a hospital, and then got you to Kirei here before you bled to death or apparently turned into a vampire." The woman crossed her arms. "Look. I know you're a selfless idiot, but next time can you stop and think before you put a sword to your jugular?"

"You should have killed him." The boy frowned, remembering what had happened to Shinji. No doubt Sakura is still either in shock or in hysterics from the event. "Why are you even here in the first place?"

"Because apparently Waver thought it was better for me to protect you than hunt down the vampire's father, Louvre."

"Louvre…" The priest mused. "I remember that name. A fairly recently assigned apostle ancestor if I am correct…"

"And more dangerous than expected if what Waver hinted was right." The enforcer sighed. "Since it sounds like he couldn't beat the guy and I killed his daughter, I wouldn't be surprised if he comes here soon…"

"Wait. Slow down…" Shirou grabbed his head. "I can't keep up." He breathed heavily and exhaled slowly. "Ok. I did something to the vampire that was maiming me. I got knocked out and got some of her blood in me. Bazett-nee killed her. The brother got away. Tohsaka and Sakura are safe and healed, and you took me… wherever here is to get healed by this… priest named… Kirei…" The boy slowly began to sweat as he looked at the man with a newfound fear. "We're in the church in the city, aren't we?"

Bazett didn't seem to notice the boy's sudden change of mindset and nodded. "Yeah. I actually know Kirei from a few hunts that we had together in the past. Imagine my surprise when I found out that his base of operations was here of all places. Small world isn't it?"

"Your father has told you about me." Kirei stated. It was not a question but a mere observation deduced from Shirou's reaction. "No doubt his description of me had been rather… less than glorifying. …Though I can hardly blame him for doing so. Our relationship was not exactly something that one could proudly brag about…"

Bazett looked at Kirei surprised. "Wait… you knew the magus killer?"

"In passing. I only ever saw and talked to him once to be honest… at that point we were trying to kill one another." Kirei admitted. "Such was the result of being masters in the grail war here."

"You actually fought THE Kiritugu Emiya and lived?" Bazett asked in awe. "You must be the only person who's ever done that!"

"He survived by some freak accident." Shirou grunted, never once taking his eyes off of the priest. "Dad said that he put a bullet through your heart point blank at the end of the war… and I saw the gun he used to do it. Even if he somehow missed, you should be dead right now."

Before the seemingly amused priest could respond, Bazett walked up and slapped Shirou upside the head. "So should you but the guy you're giving the death glare saved your life AND your humanity I might add! If he was as bad as you assumed than he wouldn't have gone out of his way to help you!"

"No… the boy is perfectly entitled to his opinion of me." Kirei corrected Bazett. "I am an executor and as such I have used some rather distasteful methods in the war in a few of my almost encounters with Kiritsugu…" He looked at Shirou. "Although if you truly know your father boy, you should know that he employed methods that were just as bad if not worse than what I used…"

Shirou didn't say anything as he couldn't argue against Kirei's statement. His father was a monster to most of the world that knew his name, and the ones that thought otherwise were almost all dead or didn't even know of his other life. At first the boy assumed that he, Sirius and Waver were the only ones that knew of the true drive and motives behind Kiritsugu Emiya… but… he wouldn't be surprised if this distasteful priest was aware of them as well. In fact… "You hated him." He said simply, getting a raised eyebrow from both adults. Much like Kirei's previous statements, it was worded like a question, but said in a way that it was heard as a fact.

The executor blinked before letting out a small chuckle of amusement. "I still do." He replied simply before turning to Bazett. "He is good to leave now. Just make sure he doesn't take the shroud. Think of it as a thank you gift for keeping my charge alive through this incident." Before walking out of the room he turned to Shirou one last time. "You are a very interesting person Shirou Emiya." He stopped just outside the doorway and looked at the redhead. "Putting a blade to your neck to save as many of your loved ones as possible… it that the action of a man who wants to become a hero… or the actions of one who is being selfish and only thinking of those close to him? Yes… you are clearly a more interesting person than your father…"

The room was silent for a few moments before the boy turned to his 2nd sister figure. "Can we please leave now Bazett-nee? I feel like I'm going to die if I say any longer."

The woman pouted, though secretly agreeing with the boy after mulling over Kirei's last comment. She knew the man was a bit sketchy at times, but this one took the cake. "Fine fine. Let's go back to your place. I have stuff I need to talk to you about anyways."

"Thanks." Shirou nodded before picking himself up and stretching to loosen his body. "What happened to Tohsaka and Sakura by the way? Are they still in the hospital?"

Bazett shook her head as she grabbed a few bags that were full of things that were apparently theirs. "No. The geis that you put the vampire under forced him to take them to the hospital and not injure them, after that I took both the girls to Kirei for a quick checkup. The younger girl went back to her place and the one with the attitude is waiting for us back at yours… which reminds me…" She slapped the boy upside the head. "THAT'S for using a geis of all damned things on the vampires when your life was on the line, idiot."

"What do you expect?" The boy argued. "I didn't expect anyone to come in and be a big damned hero! I was just trying to make sure that Sakura and Tohsaka would live without any double crosses! If you didn't notice, they were sibling vampires! I could take one of them on, but not both at once!"

"There were other ways you could have made the contract you idiot!" Bazett frowned. "Because of that thing, you can't fight the brother anymore unless you want your circuits to burn from the inside out. That means that those 2 girls and I are going to have to do all the heavy work from now on! The blood sucking idiot threatened to butcher the sisters if we didn't at least allow him to bring them to the hospital! He'd lose his circuits but we would have lost the girls." She shook her head. "Damn it Shirou, think about how other people would think of your actions before you do them. This is just like that wild puppet incident all over again…"

"For the last time, how was I supposed to know that thing absorbed metal and converted the material and prana it ate into more body parts? No one knew that! Not even the guy that made the damn thing!" The boy pouted, clearly indicating that this was not the first time he was being berated for this particular incident.

"Look… all I'm saying is: be more careful before you do something that might remotely kill you in the process. I know that we do isn't exactly safe, but you have a habit of pushing things so far that you'd win a gold metal if they turned thoughtless suicidal actions into a sport." She shook her head. The pair was outside and in the middle of the city now. Contrary to popular belief, it was ok to talk about thaumaturgy in public since no one usually bothers to listen in on other's conversations, especially if they have no idea what the speakers are talking about… double that if what they're talking about sounds like something from a dungeons and dragons campaign. "Did you even know what you were doing before you passed out? I could only see that you were saying some aria when the vampire bit you before she threw you away like a rag doll and her mouth was bleeding more than the rest of her body combined."

The boy paused and began to think about the question. Truth be told, he couldn't recall much other than being in a fair amount of pain at the time, but he did remember brief flashes of that place in his dreams and the aria that he had that, to his knowledge, didn't really do anything. However now that he thought about it… he could actually picture the hill fairly clearly in his mind now, as if he was more connected to it for some reason. "… I… don't know…" He said slowly, not sure himself. "I think I know what it could be linked to… but I don't really know what I did in the first place to be honest…" He looked at his hands as if seeing something that he forgot was there all along.

The elder of the two looked at the boy skeptically before sighing and rubbing her temples. "Honestly… you really are more trouble than you're worth sometimes Shirou… now hurry up. There's something we have to do when we get to your place…"

o. o. o.

Back at the church:

"You let them go…" Gilgamesh commented as he lay on the couch that adorned the church's waiting room while drinking some wine. "Do you think that is wise? The boy obviously knows that you are someone not to be trusted…" He chuckled. "Well, more than most people do at least."

"He interests me." The priest responded casually as he poured himself a drink from the ornate bottle that no doubt came from the servant's library. "A boy who is a somewhat capable combat oriented magus in a deep relationship with all 3 families that started this game in the first place… I am curious as to what he will do when the war comes…"

"Ah yes… you did say that due to Saber's master destroying the grail the next round would be starting rather shortly." The King of Heroes mused. "Though you make it sound like he will be a master. That girl you care for, Tohkiomi's daughter is supposed to be a master too due to her being the only member of her family left to participate, yet her command seals have yet to show themselves." He drank some more. "How are you so certain that he will be chosen? Is it because he was adopted by Saber's master?"

The priest looked emptily at his cup and saw his reflection staring back at him with lifeless eyes. "… Somewhat…" He responded aversively before drinking slowly. "… Regardless, should he live this current incident, I believe the boy will prove to be the center and drive of a rather curious show in the near future…"

"Is that so?" The golden king raised an eyebrow. "Well then I guess I won't kill him after all just yet…"

The statement had caught the priest's attention. "You have something against the boy? Do tell."

The royal man snorted and swirled his drink. "The boy is a faker. An imitation. Everything he produces and everything he is, is a mere shadow of the original. Should he gaze upon my collection, no doubt that he would at some point do it the disrespect of trying to make disgusting copies of its contents as well at some point. To let him live is an insult to one such as myself who owns all the treasures of the world. I as king should never permit another to claim to have a collection that exists only to mimic what I have. It is an insult that I will not permit."

Kirei looked at the servant with a body curiously before nodding. "I have no grievance with you carrying out your law King of Heroes, however at least wait for a time before doing so in order to let the boy grant us some entertainment first."

Gilgamesh nodded briefly. "I will permit it. The Faker will live for now… but I do expect the promised show Kotomine. To allow such a blight so close to me speaks wonders of my expectations of you. Be honored."

The priest bowed. "Rest assured, I will not fail those expectations."

o. o. o.

Matou Residence:

She didn't know how long she was down there. She didn't know how long her body had been defiled. She didn't know how long it had been since she had let go of her sanity in that hell filled with worms, crawling in and out of her system like it was water…

The only thought that pervaded her mind was that she had inadvertently killed her brother. Zouken had told her before she had started another inhumane session that Shinji had disappeared while getting food, irate and irrational due to her prolonged disappearance. Had she merely come home even temporarily, had she bothered to check up on the home even a little, such an event would not have happened… but it was too late. Her brother was dead, and the bloodline of the Matou was gone save for some distant cousins and the old man himself.

Why? How could have been that being happy with Sempai bring about something so horrible?

_It was because you attempted to be happy…_

No. That couldn't be it. Shinji was always a bit impulsive. There was no reason to assume he wouldn't go out had she stayed instead of going to Shirou's…

_He left because you were selfish. You were not there to stop him… so it was your fault… you didn't tell him about the vampire…_

But Zouken didn't tell Shinji either. If she had to bear responsibility then her grandfather must have been equally responsible…

_But the odds of him surviving would have increased had you not been selfish… Say and believe what you want, yet the result will never be known now due to your carelessness…_

Her mind slowly began to regain comprehension of the world around her as the worms slowly parted for the old man walking to her. The stagnant air was thick with decay and sex from the ritual that was commonly held reverberated with silence as the old man and the girl stared at one another for a time before the elder spoke. "It was not your fault." He spoke plainly, causing the girl's eyes to widen.

"Wh-what?" Sakura's hoarse voice asked in surprise.

"You cannot be held responsible for Shinji's death." Zouken stated. "The boy was impulsive and stupid. Even if he was as proud as can be of his lineage, the inability to do anything about it meant that he was not only a failure, but a fool as well." He walked around the girl slowly, his cane tapping against the ground at a slow rhythm. "No… if there was anyone one would have to blame in this situation… it would be that Emiya boy…"

"N-no…" Sakura feebly protested. She could handle the torture, the guilt, the punishment that came with Shinji's death… but she could not bear to think of what could happen to Shirou if he was brought to her hell.

Zouken paid her no mind. "I know that those distasteful vampires are here for the boy, and he is the one that tempted you into leaving the house for so long… though that did bring some unexpected progress with your advancement in bounded fields…" He sighed wearily. "Once this whole mess had been dealt with I will have to speak with him about taking responsibility for his actions…" He looked at the girl who was looking at him pleadingly, a look that he had not seen in her eyes for several years.

It seemed as if he was making progress already…

"Do not worry Sakura." The old demon assured the girl. "I will not harm or corrupt the boy. He has proven himself to be quite an interesting specimen… I am merely going to enlist him to provide some… services for us…"

o. o. o.

Emiya Residence:

A Reality Marble.

Generally, it is used to refer to the alien common sense of demons in that it is how demons perceive reality and how Reality Marbles themselves are the natural abilities of demons and elementals. It is theoretically possible for humans to achieve this as an innate bounded field, though generally only in the cases of powerful beings like The Twenty-seven Dead Apostle Ancestors and the greatest, and thus most likely twisted, of magi who have spent years upon years researching. In fact, in recorded history there have been at most 7 pure blooded humans who have managed to achieve it. This ability is a sub-category of Marble Phantasm, but rather than reshaping the natural world at the user's will, Reality Marbles allows only for the creation of a set world that defines the practitioner, applying rules that are not of Gaia's making. It can be said that they can surpass Marble Phantasms, as they are capable of affecting things not of nature. It is a magecraft that comes close to being real magic, and is a category that was banned by the Association for the sole reason that most magi attempting to study it go insane…

Rin Tohsaka frowned as she once more went over the more in depth definition of the forbidden magic, constantly going over the one part that left her with a hollow feeling in her stomach.

…_it is used to refer to the __alien common sense of demons__ in that it is how demons perceive reality…_

The more she read that line, the more memories of Shirou's odd behavior surfaced. His declaration that he was a broken human while holding a sword to his neck… His constant trait of getting between her and the vampire without even hesitating and pushing her out of the way of harm… His habit of brushing off compliments to himself while going out of his way to help others, frequently without asking anything in return…

His inability to tell that a girl (or two) actually liked him more than just as a friend…

And yet… so long as everyone else was fine he would go throughout his life with a smile on his face as if he was there was nothing abnormal or troublesome with what he was doing…

"What happened to you that made you like this Shirou?" Rin whispered to herself worriedly. "Are you suicidal… or are you really just ignorant of the value of your own life?"

"_My body is… made of blades…"_

If what the vampire said was true… what sort of twisted world truly dwelled inside her friend?

The sound of the front door opening interrupted the Tohsaka from her musings and prompted her to hastily put away the book she was reading among the pile of things she had brought from her house after being quickly treated by the priest. It was still somewhat difficult to move on occasion, but the stiff feeling would pass soon. Kirei was a hack at many things, but his healing capabilities were first rate.

"We're back!" Bazett shouted as she walked into the living room with Shirou right behind her, the rust red shroud still wrapped around his neck, mouth and nose with the ends going down his back making him look like some sort of ninja impersonator.

The brunette in the room stared at the redhead for a moment before snorting and putting a hand to her mouth. If she was perfectly honest, she was stuck between amused and somewhat awed. It was actually a pretty good look for him if she would ever admit it. "Pfft. Nice look Emiya-kun. Are you planning on doing nightly patrols as the "crimson blade" to thwart the forces of evil?"

"Haha. Very funny." The boy glanced at Rin unamused. "It was either this or risk becoming a vampire. I would ask how you are doing, but if you're well enough that you're making fun of me at first glance than you must be fine."

Rin stopped laughing at Shirou's reply and pouted, crossing her arms and looking away. "I was only complimenting you. If that is how you feel then I'll just not say anything when I think of something nice to tell you…"

"For some reason… I doubt that will change our conversations much…" The boy stated more to himself than anyone else.

The two were snapped out of their glaring contest by Bazett's laughing. "Heheh… oh man you two are acting like an elderly couple…"

"No we are not!" The teens replied at once, not bothering to recognize the fact that they did so in perfect synchrony nor that it only made the woman laugh even harder.

"Sure you aren't haha…" The Enforcer chuckled.

"Why you…" Rin growled, calling upon some mana to cast a small spell to quiet the woman. It was simply going to be a small joke of a spell that would cause Bazett to be mute for a minute or two tops but she never got the chance to cast it. The moment she began to chant… she froze as in an instant her target had closed the distance between the two and jabbed a fist that went right past her face. "F-fast…" She managed to breathe out as she stared into the sharp and deadly eyes of the Fraga.

"Stupid idea." Shirou shook his head, unsurprised by the woman's sudden speed and reaction time. "Nee-san is one of the best enforcers the association has. I don't even compare to her in close combat. Without her teaching I wouldn't have done nearly as well against the vampire as I did."

"There's a reason why the brother vampire didn't try to go against me after I killed the sister girl." The eldest one there smiled confidently as she slowly pulled back her arm. "I don't need my noble phantasm in order to beat most of my targets.

"Point… taken." The girl swallowed heavily, noticing several glowing runes on the woman's shoes and gloves. She had assumed that once she was done with her training with Kirei she could have at least kept up to magi who specialized in this field, but as recent events had proven to her, she not only was physically and mentally behind in such areas, but she also lacked the raw experience as well.

"Since we're on the subject of firepower… I think now might as well be as good a time as any to give Shirou a needed boost for oncoming events." The eldest one there stated, mirth gone and replaced by a no nonsense woman who belonged in the suit she wore.

Both of the teens blinked before Shirou spoke up. "Huh? Wait, didn't you say that I couldn't fight anymore because of my geis?"

"You can't fight the brother anymore." The purple haired woman corrected. "However I wouldn't be surprised if the father would come here soon to get revenge, and he is unfortunately a dead apostle ancestor, albeit a recently made one."

Rin blinked a few times before raising her hand. "I'm sorry, I must have misheard you. I could have sworn you just said that a dead apostle ancestor was coming to kill us all soon."

"That's exactly what I just said. And worse is that the Association just attempted to kill him and failed miserably, so the odds of getting backup to deal with him soon are close to none." The enforcer frowned. "That being the case, I've decided that we're going to take drastic measures." She glanced at Shirou with a look of pity and finality. "Very drastic measures."

"How?" The teen asked with a stiff tone. "We probably have at most a week before things get bad. Training won't help either one of us now."

"I know." Bazett relented. "So we're going to have to get some weapons to boost our power."

"Weapons?" Rin asked. "You brought weapons with you?"

The woman shook her head in denial. "No. We are simply using ones that have merely been forgotten or hidden here…"

"Weapons that are already here?" Shirou repeated. "You can't possibly mean dad's…"

"No." Bazett interrupted Shirou. "I'm talking about weapons that were made for you and you alone Shirou. I'm talking about weapons that your father left for you in that box that you got when he died."

The boy blinked in confusion before he remembered what the enforcer was talking about. "The box? That thing? I haven't thought about that in years… it wouldn't open or budge or anything."

"Bring it out. Waver told me how to open it." The woman ordered calmly.

Shirou didn't know why, but for some reason he felt a small feeling of uncertainty as he followed Bazett's orders. Maybe it was because he was receiving something that he never knew he had… maybe it was because his father had left him weapons… maybe it was because he knew that deep down whatever he received, it would not be from Kiritsugu Emiya, but the Magus Killer… but regardless of what he felt, he didn't act on it as he walked casually to his workshop, the small shed that he performed most of his high level miracles that he didn't want anyone to see until the time was right…

In one of the back corners laid the box. Long, wooden, and otherwise easy to overlook and covered in dust. It wasn't heavy, but it wasn't light either. Picking it up, the boy took it outside to get it opened. _Dad… did you really make me weapons? _ The boy thought worriedly. _After all the effort you made to try and make me live a peaceful life… what did you know that I didn't? What had you so scared?_

Before Shirou knew it, he was already back in his home and had rested the box in front of the two females there. "Ah…" He stumbled over his words as he realized he was back. "Yeah… here it is."

"There's some strong magic holding this shut." Rin mused as she looked and poked the box experimentally. "Whoever did it knew what he was doing…"

"Yeah. Waver's not really a combat type, but he's well versed in a bunch of odd branches of magic." Bazett nodded as she had a look at the box skeptically. "Well… just to warn you guys, I don't know what's in here either, but whatever it is, Waver made it clear that it's dangerous." She chuckled dryly. "He even claimed that he'd rather fight the white princess alone than let what's in here get into the wrong hands…"

"The white princess?" Rin shivered. "You mean the last remaining true ancestor herself?"

"The very same." Bazett nodded before putting on a casual smile. "… Though if the rumors about her are true, she's actually a pretty fun person to kill time with." She turned to the box again and took out a piece of paper and read it. "Ok then, enough clowning around. Let's see what's inside this thing." She took in a slow breath and cleared her throat.

"Unlimited Blade Works."

Shirou shivered as the words resonated deep in his body for some reason, so much so that he didn't pay attention to the small flash of prana that indicated that the spell locking the container had dispelled.

"Well so far so good…" Rin muttered. "Nothing's trying to eat us or blow us up yet…"

"Speaking from experience I take it?" Bazett asked almost humorously.

"Almost got absorbed by one of my father's spell books when I was a kid." She replied without shame. "When I was finally strong enough to use it, first thing I did with it was open it up and close it with half the pages folded." She smirked. "Stupid thing never pushed its luck again."

"Let it be known that Rin Tohsaka is not above installing fear and misery on inanimate objects…" Shirou sighed as he opened the container to see the contents… and froze as all the information about what was inside flooded his mind.

Inside the box laid 3 swords and a small pile of letters tied together in a corner, all laid carefully and elegantly in a satin material that lined the inside of the container.

The first 2 weapons were Chinese style short swords, falchions, with heavy blades of the same shape, leather grips and no guards, designed almost perfectly for Shirou's current combat style. The first was a dark steel blue color with splashes of blood red inlaid on the edge of the blade, adding to the illusion that its razor sharp edge was even keener than a normal person could surmise.

The second was a dull grey bordering on the darker shades. Its sides were littered with a light brown, almost yellow vein like pattern that pervaded the entirety of the tool, making it look alive.

The third however was different from the other two however. It was a longsword, but unlike any Shirou had seen before. It was made of pure black metal, but the middle was cored out until it was near the end of the blade. It long gap was outlined with the same red design that the first sword possessed, but it also had the vein like patterns of the second as well that pervaded the rest of the metal…

All 3 blades were masterfully crafted. All 3 blades were beautiful in their own way…

All 3 blades were cursed… cursed by a source that could only be deemed as all the evil in the world. Cursed with agony, death, and countless other misfortunes… and all of them geared on humanity alone. As such all of them were exceptionally potent against living beings and those that were recognized as living things at some point in their existence. As some weapons are classified as anti-unit, anti-army and anti-monster types, these could be accurately classified as anti-life.

And for some reason he knew for a fact that this was not the first time he had come into contact with something of this nature…

"Shirou?" Bazett worriedly as she noticed that the boy wasn't breathing and was sweating profusely. "Shirou what's wrong?"

"D-Dad…" The boy's hoarse voice barely made it out from the shroud around his mouth. "Dad… why did you…" He stumbled back from the box, but still unable to turn away from the tools that he could say without a doubt he would know better than any other weapons in his life. His vision was blurring, his stomach was turning, his body was growing weak again… but the images of those blades would not leave his mind.

He couldn't help himself. Barely managing to move the shroud away from his mouth in time, the teen turned over and threw up relentlessly.

"Emiya-kun!" Rin gasped in shock before running to him and supporting him up. "What's wrong? Why are you reacting like this to those swords?"

"Th-they're made… from Dad's bones." He stammered before throwing up again. "All 3 of them… and S-Sirius-jiji was the one… who made them…" He shivered as realization crossed his mind. "Th-that's why his funeral was delayed and his body was sent to Europe when he died… and… and they're cursed…" His breathing deepened. "It's the same curse that killed him in the first place… I knew he died from it but… my god… I didn't think that it was something so malicious… all that time…"

_The mage killer was killed by a curse? I didn't know that…_ Bazett frowned as she turned to the swords again, cautiously inspecting all 3 of the weapons. Now that she focused her senses, she could feel the dark magic residing in all of them. Knowing Sirius he made the weapons such that they would not affect the user and deal more damage to the target, probably inscribed some runes into the grips in order to prevent the magic from travelling down to the grip, but regardless… the weapons made her uneasy. _No wonder Waver was so determined to keep these out of the wrong hands… I don't know what they do yet but I can still feel how dangerous they are…_

"Emiya-kun…" Rin started to speak, but quickly realized that she didn't know what to say. Instead she did the only thing that could come to mind and tried to hold him up from the side, supporting him as much as she could. "Please calm down…" She whispered behind him sadly. To be frank she couldn't imagine what Shirou was going through at the moment. True it was not uncommon for some magi to sacrifice themselves in order to produce an item or magic that would enhance their future generation's potential, however she had never heard of a cursed man converting his remains into a weapon that somehow managed to retain the same aspects…

It was even worse when she factored in Shirou's ability to delve into nearly all the secrets histories and components that a bladed tool had… the sight of the weapons had given the boy the true measure of how much his father had suffered before his demise and the nature of his suffering as well. In short he had a full record and understanding on how his idol died over the course of years. In a way it was akin to having your family being tortured to death without even knowing it, and then being tied down and forced to watch a video of the entire process years later.

After a few minutes, which seemed like hours for the three people there, Shirou managed to regain control over his breathing, albeit he was still shaking a fair amount.

"You back with us Shirou?" Bazett looked at him concerned. "Have you settled down?"

The teen swallowed, ignoring the acidic taste of bile in his mouth and nodded shallowly. "I'll… I'll manage." He rasped out tiredly, though his tone indicated that he was still very shaken up from the rush of disturbing information.

Rin gave him a pitying look and finally let him go. Not wanting to look weak however, the girl got up and sighed frustrated, glaring at the puddle of vomit that was lying on the ground. "I'll clean that up. It's not like you're in any condition to do anything right now…"

"Thanks…" Shirou replied, still breathing heavily with glossy eyes…

One hour and some cleaning later, the 3 magic users were back in the living room and staring at the contents of the box. Shirou was still more than uncomfortable looking at the tools, but after he got over his initial shock he had managed to regain enough control over himself to not freak out anymore.

"So now that we're nice and calm again, can you please tell me what these things do?" Bazett asked firmly. "They're cursed yeah, but that alone doesn't make them strong or dangerous enough to turn the battle in our favor. There must have been some other reason why your dad told the old drunk to use his bones to make these things."

Shirou didn't respond at first before sighing and looking at the girls. "Dad had a dual origin. "Severing" and "Binding". To be blunt, the first is akin to cutting something through completely while the second is similar to tying things together. Used at once, you could say that the instant effect is like cutting a string and then tying the ends that were just cut to one another. It's still a single piece of "string", but there's a bulge where the knot is, an irregular and irreversible corrosion." He scratched his head frustrated. "If applied to a living being, the dual effect would cause something like necrosis on the afflicted area. There's no puncture wound or physical damage, but the cells, veins, and nerves in that area would be dead and no magic in the world would be able to heal the area because the afflicted area was in fact healed, just in the worst way possible… though I think time reversal may be able to counter it, even dad wasn't sure about that."

Bazett whistled. "Instant necrosis of an afflicted area that doesn't require any magic to fester outside of the initial conversion? And with only 2 concepts too… that's pretty scary Shirou…"

"It is something to be wary of…" Rin nodded as she put a hand to her mouth. "But that can't be everything. I mean there are scores of magic out there that can do just as damaging things if not more just as easily. If these are supposed to be your secret weapons, then there has to be more to them than that…"

Shirou remained quiet as he stared at the longsword in the box for a few seconds before turning to the girls again. "… The necrosis effect I just told you about was merely what happened when the dual origin was actualized to organic matter. The way my dad used it was how he became a legend." He closed his eyes. "Removing the top ribs on his left and right side… grinding them into a powder… using the powder to make 66 conceptual weapon bullets, origin bullets, that were fired off by his mystic code. Roughly 40 of those bullets were used in dad's work including the war. There are roughly 9 of these bullets in the house, the rest were either lost or destroyed by Sirius-jiji years ago. …Save for 2 people, both of them oddities, each target shot by only 1 of these bullets has died due to their effects. Each and every one of them was a magic user…"

Rin swallowed heavily. Obviously there was something special about magi that drastically increased the lethality of these origin bullets. "What makes magi users special Emiya-kun? If they don't attack the flesh when they actualize in battle, then what would…" Her eyes widened considerably as she thought of the only other thing they could affect. The thing that separated magi from normal humans. "… Unless… but then…"

Magic circuits.

Shirou frowned bitterly. "When they come into contact with an opposing mage's thaumaturgy, the origins are applied to that mage's circuits. Severing all the ones that are active at the time and then binding them all together just as quickly. You can think of the effect as something similar to pouring some water over a real circuit board when electricity is running through it. Once the effects are finalized, the opponent's prana would run wild in their body and tear them apart from the inside out. Damaging muscles, organs, nerves, whatever is linked to their circuits is now tied in to the destruction. Even if the target does survive by some kind of miracle, they would never be able to use magic again, let alone regain full control over their body."

Bazett shivered. "Holy… no wonder he managed to take down all his targets. Most magi are old fashioned and depend completely on magic to deal with their problems. If he could even take out half of his target's circuits…"

"No…" Shirou shook his head. "Dad was efficient and pragmatic. When he used one of those bullets, he made sure that they were using as much prana as possible at the time."

"H-how did he do that?" Rin asked, almost too scared to know at this point.

The boy rubbed the bridge of his nose. "The gun dad used to fire off those things was designed to fire massive powerful bullets. In terms of raw firepower they are even stronger than magnums. It's originally designed for hunting big game, not combat, but the way dad used it, that fact didn't matter. His normal strategy with it was to first shoot at his target with a normal bullet. Even one of those was normally strong enough to penetrate most magic defenses with the amount of power behind it. After that he'd determine if he needed the origin bullet from the way his target dealt with the original attack, what he surmised they could do… and if they were still alive at that point. Then after a while and he brings out the gun again…"

"They would think that he's shooting them with a strong but normal bullet and react by most likely putting all their energy into a spell that would block or at least deflect the oncoming attack, inadvertently setting themselves up to get fried completely from the inside." Bazett concluded with wide eyes. "No wonder he always killed his target. The stronger they were, the more likely they would get killed by their own circuits…"

"And he just gave Shirou swords made from his bones…" Rin stated as she turned to the box again with wide eyes. "Unlike his dad, Shirou isn't limited by how many bullets he has… Shirou… right now you're an even bigger threat to any magus than you dad…"

Shirou snorted and shook his head. "I doubt it. Dad wasn't a one trick pony. He only used his code if he decided that there was no other efficient option. Even if I have more firepower than he does as a magus, in terms of sheer experience I'd probably be dead 10 times before I even knew he was near me." He closed his eyes and recalled several of the stories his old man had told him after he finally came clean about his past. "Some of the things he's done… no, I wouldn't stand a chance in hell against him if he actually wanted to kill me now and was still alive…"

"But your potential as of right now says you could be greater…" Bazett frowned as she thought about Shirou's threat level should he truly master his magic. "You better not make any mistakes kid, because the moment you even hint that you're going down the wrong path I'll kill you myself. I'm not even going to try to risk my chances with something like THAT under your belt…"

"I don't blame you in the slightest Nee-san." Shirou laughed bitterly. "I'd do the same thing if our positions were reversed. To be honest I doubt I have the nerve to use them…"

"Wait." Rin interrupted. "If that one conjoined dual origin ability is so special, why are there 3 swords there?"

"Because they all do different things." Shirou pointed out almost off handedly and glanced at the box again. "Only the longsword has both of my dad's origins in it. The Chinese blades somehow only have one each." He shook his head. "Honestly, I don't know how Sirius-jiji managed to separate an origin from a dual origin compound, but I guess that's what we can expect from the best mystic code crafter alive…"

"Unfortunately, that fact has landed us in our current situation." Bazett frowned and leaned back. "How long do you think it will take for you to project those things perfectly? We need you at your best as soon as possible…"

Shirou didn't say anything before closing his eyes and calmly focusing his prana. A moment later 3 identical copies of the tools in the box appeared on the floor in front of him. "Already done." He said in a depressed tone. "… I think that because I had such a strong relationship with dad… its actually easier for me to make these than most of my other weapons…" He absently picked up the blue Chinese blade and inspected it, though it was clear that he was thinking about something else completely.

"Emiya-kun… what's bothering you?" Rin asked worriedly. "Your dad's given you something really useful for this kind of situation… you don't look like you're thinking about his remains or the curse that killed him."

The boy turned the blade on its side so he could see his reflection looking back at him. "Tohsaka… for a long time before he died… dad tried his hardest to try to get me to stop picking fights with the local bullies and other kids that started trouble. I often just jumped right in even when it was normally 3 on 1 against me. He wanted me to try and live for myself and have a family instead of throwing myself into trouble whenever I saw something was wrong." He looked up and attempted to picture his father. "I dreamed of trying to be a hero like him… but he tried his best to try and stop that before I ended up breaking… like he did… so why?" He looked at the tools in front of him as if they would answer him. "Why would he give me these things? Why would he give me tools that could make me into a bigger threat to the magic community than he was? He despised fighting and killing!" His fist tightened so much he drew blood. "His adopted mom… his partner… his wife… he lost everything because of all that fighting to try and make the world a better place. It was only at the end that he managed to lose his own life and even then it was a long and painful process. If he didn't find me he would have probably died alone somewhere alone, broken, and cursed. He warned me about this to me so many times that I'll never forget a word of it for as long as I live. He tried so hard so that I wouldn't end up like him, and he knew that even after all that there's a good chance I could still end up like that… so why the hell did he make it so that I could be even worse than he was!" He swung the blade down in rage and frustration. An instant later, all the floor mats in front of where the blade swung down split all along a single line from the edge of the blade perfectly, stopping only when the mats reached the wall on the other side of the room. He slumped forward, not noticing the shocked looks the girls were giving him. "It doesn't make any sense dad…" He muttered in a confused and defeated and confused tone. "Why are you doing this to me? I thought that the weapons and combat training was just a convenient way to make sure I could take care of myself in case I came across an enemy magus by accident while getting a better feel for my own spells… but now… I don't know anymore…"

His lamenting and grieving was stalled as Rin came from behind and hugged him gently. "I can't say that I know what your dad was thinking when he did this Emiya-kun… my father wasn't exactly the perfect role model either… in fact there are some things that he's done that make me want to set off one of my jewels in his mouth…" She began slowly, resting her head on his back so that she could hear his heart beating. "But I've listened to you gush over your old man so many times that I can't help but think that he wouldn't to something like this to you without a good reason. Even if it isn't by blood, you are his son. Your crest shows how much faith in you and those swords only prove it more." She paused again, resting her body on his. "If he really is the legendary magus killer… then he must have had an absolute reason for doing this. He must have thought this through before telling those other guys to turn his body into those things. People like him don't do drastic things like this on mere impulses."

"Tohsaka…" Shirou said in surprise.

"Your dad was right you know… you are a selfless idiot." She continued. Had Shirou been able to look, he would have seen the girl shedding a few tears of pity for him. "So much so that if you were left alone you'd probably get yourself killed at an early age rescuing a chipmunk or something like that. A selfless, noble, sacrificing, idiot…" She sighed and hugged him tighter. "You keep on saying you're a sword right? So at least let someone be in charge of actually swinging you. Even swords need proper care or else they fall apart eventually… you aren't one of your projections Shirou. If you break, you can't simply make another copy of yourself… please let us take care of you for once…"

Shirou lost control of his voice. The wording was slightly different, but Tohsaka's message was almost exactly what Kiritsugu had told him those years ago. Even the greatest of swords need to be taken care of properly… "R-Rin…"

"Hey lovebirds, before you two finish brushing off Kiritugu's intentions with those swords…" Bazett spoke up from the box and took out a small stack of letters that seemingly was jammed into the side of the container. It wasn't that she wasn't feeling the mood, it was just that she didn't feel like wasting time while a Dead Apostle Ancestor was gradually getting closer to kill them all. Highschool romance can come AFTER the impending death situation has been averted. "I found these as well." She untied the bundle and looked at the fronts curiously. "Weird, only one of them has Shirou's name on them. The rest's addresses and names are blurred with some kind of magic. Does that mean that your old man was expecting other people to be around after this thing was opened?"

"Um…" Shirou stalled as he tried to mentally shift gears. "I… guess." He replied intelligently.

"… Wait." Rin's suddenly calm and normally irritated voice came from behind Shirou, causing him to freeze up. "… You mean to tell me that we could have just prevented Shirou from having a panic attack and worrying us all if we had just bothered to look at the box more and read a piece of paper?"

Shirou instantly knew that Rin's moment of compassion was instantly over. "…Maybe…" Crunch. Rin's arms around the boy, which had just moments before been in an embracing hug, were now crushing the poor magus in a tight squeeze. "Gah! Stop! I haven't fully healed yet!"

"Good. It might give me something to feel sorry for you about." The Tohsaka growled in irritation as she strengthened her hold on the struggling boy.

After much screaming, struggling, pleading, and some magically enhanced strength on Bazett's part, the room had calmed down again. "Ok. So we have the letters, and one is addressed to Shirou. There's magic on the others so obviously they're intended for specific people or times." The enforcer summarized and crossed her arms in a thoughtful way. "So for now I guess for now only Shirou's should be opened…" She looked at the indicated paper lying on the ground in front of them before sighing in a defeated tone and looking at Rin. "Come on. I have a feeling that it's not something that we're supposed to read over his shoulder." She turned to Shirou. "If whatever's in that letter causes you another panic attack, I swear I will beat you till you have other things to worry about Shirou. Whatever the heck your old man planned for you, just remember that we'll be here to back you up. You don't have to do everything alone."

"Yeah…" The faker looked down at the letter in front of him. "Thanks for reminding me about that. "… Hey Tohsaka?"

"Hm?" Rin blinked as she walked to the exit of the room. "What is it?"

Shirou stared at her for a few seconds before chuckling and shaking his head. "I really was being an idiot. Thanks for helping me out." He smiled widely, though all Rin could see at that moment was his eyes closed and upturned due to the shroud around his face.

The girl blushed for a moment before turning away, pretending to be cross. "Don't let that get to your head Emiya-kun. If you do something stupid again I'll have to use more drastic measures to bring you back to reality." She smirked as the boy's smile dropped instantly. "Yes, I think having you serve as a test subject for some of my spells would be a suitable punishment…"

Her musings were cut off as Bazett grabbed her ear and dragged her out of the room. "Come on. You can plan ways to torture your "not" boyfriend later."

"He's not my boyfriend!" Rin's voice shouted as she disappeared into the hallway.

Sighing to himself Shirou decided to pretend that Rin's recent behavior didn't exist… at least for the moment. He really appreciated her offer to help him out so much right now, more than even he guessed he did, but at the moment he needed to focus on the letter in his hands.

The contents of the message were both shocking and confusing. There were so many things that his father had told him in his post mortem message, yet there was clearly so much more that was not put on. Warnings. Pleads. Apologies. All that and more littered the letter in the boy's grasp.

…_I do not know if you can ever bring yourself to forgive me. I still have yet to forgive myself for placing this burden on you after all my warnings to not attempt to do something like this… however I do not have a choice. For the sake of the world… you must be a hero. I only hope that I have done enough to prevent you from turning into me. Regardless of your decision on what you do though, I will understand completely. Just make sure that you don't regret your decisions in the future._

_I pray for your safety and that you manage to succeed where I failed so many times. I love you son._

Shirou sniffed and wiped the tears coming from his eyes. His father truly was an unsung hero, possibly one of the greatest there ever was. Despite the cruel things he did in the past, he was still an idol for the teen. Even long after he died he was still trying his hardest to save as many people as possible. Shirou understood his father's plight, his pain, and the reasons behind it all. He understood, yet he still decided to go with the hardest route in front of him, because it was simply the only thing he could see himself doing that would make everyone happy. He would become the thing that Kiritsugu failed to be.

A hero, and a human.

He put the letter inside its envelope and put the remaining messages inside the box. Much of the information he had gotten was useless now. It was for another time… another war. Instead he began to analyze and perfect the blueprints of the 3 swords that his father had offered his corpse in order to make for the oncoming battles.

The steel blue and red blade's name was Natalia. Named after the woman the magus killer considered his mother figure and shot down by his hands in an unfortunate mission.

The blade of Severing…

The grey and yellow blade's name was Maiya. Named after the woman that the magus killer helped raise and worked with for many years at his side, despite his offers to let her go.

The blade of Binding…

And the last blade's name was Kiritsugu, after the magus killer himself, the blade that severs and binds at once…

The ultimate anti magus tool…

The weapon that turned him into the second Magus Killer…

o. o. o.

A/N:

If you have any complaints… I was very sick writing the second half of this chapter (and only just getting better right now), so I really couldn't care much at this point. I know it's very dull compared to the last chapter, but I'm just filling in the gap with info so that we can get to the good stuff sooner.

As for giving him the shroud early… I just felt like it and thought that the vampire blood bit was a good excuse to do so. I'll probably make something up that relates to that later.

As for Rin's Dere moment. There. I tried and that's what I came up with. Don't expect it to be constant. It took me forever to get it to look like that.

So now you see Shirou's new toys. Fun they will be, but broken Shirou will not. He's good (ok… downright terrifying) against magi, but against heroic spirits (except for caster for obvious reasons) he'd still get maimed. Also, if he fired off Kiritsugu at a big blast heading right for him, it would be a dual kill. The enemy's circuits would still get fried, but the magic fired off beforehand would still continue and kill Shirou because it wasn't disrupted. Same goes with massive fireballs, wind blades, and he still can't hit Bazett before she would punch his face in because she's that much faster and stronger than he is.

Oh yeah. I probably should bring this up:

http:/ /third-fang. deviantart. com/

My sister made a deviantart club for fans of me and to gather fanart. So far it's nothing but YAWALEH picts and models, some good, others not so much, and the rest are so awesome you will squee, (and a smexy hand drawn animeesque picture of yours truly that I got from comiccon NY 2011), but after this chapter I'm at least hoping that people will try to draw my version of Shirou and his new weapons.

So as for what story I'm going to work on now… I honestly don't know or care. I'll update as soon as I can and stuff, but life can be life at times. I'm tired of making a plot or chapter decision and then going back on it a day later because I don't feel like sticking with it anymore.

So anyways. REVIEW! WORSHIP THE LOG! ENJOY IMAGINING HOW SHIROU'S GONNA SCREW WITH THE PLOT WITH HIS NEW WEAPONS! AND REVIEW AGAIN!


	15. Chapter 15

Chapter 15: Productivity

I do not own Fate/Stay Night and stuffs:

o. o. o.

Norway:

Sirius looked at his captor with dull eyes as he attempted to regain consciousness through the torture that Louvre was putting him through. He knew that things would get worse for him before anything got better if it ever did. The world wasn't some kind of shounen manga, however the fact that Louvre was trying to get him to talk about Shirou's reality marble did not make him feel any warmer and fuzzier…

"Ah told ya already…" The old man sighed tiredly, trying to keep his head on straight while dozens of mental probing and alteration spells attempted to withdraw information from him or try to make him slip up. A normal human or magus probably would have succumbed to even one of these tortures, but in addition to enhancing his longevity Sirius' self applied runes also enforced his mental defenses to near sorcery based levels. "Ah only knew tat ta lad had a marble a small time ago. It has sometin ta do wit recordin swords and projectin tem damn near perfectly… but tat's all ah really know about it."

"Don't play games with me!" The dead apostle ancestor roared in anger. "Even if you only managed to discover it a month before I captured you, you would have no doubt dissected that child in order to figure out the entirety of his mystery for yourself! A weapon based reality marble would have been too great of a treasure for you to simply pass up!" He grabbed Sirius by the throat. "My daughter is dead because I gave you far too much benefit of the doubt blacksmith. I will not make that mistake again."

Sirius smirked despite the fact that oxygen to his head was slowly being cut off. "Yer getting ahead o yerself Louvre. Ah knew ta lad had a reality marble, but it's still underdeveloped. Even yer standard magi know tat in order fer one ta truly manifest, ta user had ta be truly convicted to his distortion an get ta needed trainin done. Its ta same as pickin a fruit tat wasn't ripe yet. Ya gotta nurture it first and ten cut it open fer ta best results. Strike ta metal when it's nice an hot as it were… no sooner… no later… and ta lad is possibly ta greatest forgin tool ah've ever come across, even if he is barely gettin warm right now…" His shit eating grin grew as he looked at the vampire dead in the eyes. "Makes ya wonder what kind a piss poor material yer little girl was made of…"

His comments were cut short as the irate father backhanded him hard enough that the larger man flew out of his chair and crashed into a nearby wall. "Don't you DARE speak of my daughter in such a fashion you pathetic worm!" Louvre roared in nearly uncontrollable rage. His power flooded the room in killing intent and magic and his eyes glowed red with unspeakable anger. "She was murdered by that harlot of a Fraga at the last moment, not by that pathetic child who does not even know how much of an abomination he truly is!"

"Yer just jealous cause yer not as twisted as a 16 year old boy." Sirius grunted before coughing up some blood and looked at the small spray of red fluid almost amused. "Well at least ah know if ah die now it's not gonna be from mah insides gettin scrambled…"

"You…" Louvre growled as he walked forward, emitting a large pulse of prana at every step…

"Father please stop, remember the geis you made with him." The vampire's son halted his father with a hand on his shoulder from behind. "You cannot do any permanent harm to him else your circuits will destroy themselves…" He grit his teeth and looked away. "And… unfortunately… we cannot do the same to the boy else we incur the same results. That is the reason why this… filth… has been to compliant in making you your codes…" He walked away as his father calmed down. "It was our mistake in assuming that the child would not be a threat to us in any way, and we have paid for it dearly with sister's life." He licked is dry lips as a nervous habit before attempting to continue to reason with his father. "However there is a hint of good news. The boy made a geis with me before he was rescued that prevents him from running away or escaping from me for the safe return of those girls and to no longer feed on those in the city. It is only active between only him and I now, so should you show up with me he will have no choice but to surrender…"

Louvre didn't turn his murderously red eyes from Sirius, however the intensity of energy pulsing off of his body receded a small amount. "Take him back to his quarters... I will figure out a fitting punishment later…" He growled darkly, commanding two vampires that were under his control to step out from the side of the room and drag the halfway conscious blacksmith out of the room.

The area between father and son remained quiet for several long seconds before the latter spoke up. "Your thoughts?" He asked politely, but submissively.

"What of the Fraga?" The elder growled. "Even with one of us here, you are aware that with her noble phantasm she could even kill me when I have the mace. Its passive effect is what makes it so dangerous, and any swing I make with it would be enough to enable her to use that blasted Fragarach to its full power. It's one of the few weapons that I am certain that can defeat me with the mace. Since we are attacking outside of the fortress we will not have the advantage our bounded fields provide…"

"We will figure something out father." The son spoke in a calm tone. "The Mace of Odo is not the only weapon in your collection that is a threat in and of itself…"

Louvre's eyes narrowed. "You know that I cannot wield the mace should I have another code on me in battle… and it is too valuable of a tool to not have on my person at all times. Most of the supplementary codes I possess are designed for thaumaturgy that I am not proficient in or am not capable of using in combat, and the ones that are weapons will…"

"Then fight the boy." The younger vampire argued, knowing very well what his elder was indicating. "You still possess the original noble phantasm. Even if he should manage to divulge its secrets and possibly even copy it, it will do him no good since that despicable man just said that the boy's power will only allow him to copy the tool up to a certain level. In the mean time I will take care of the Fraga, wielding so many codes and conceptual weapons that neither I nor she will be able to tell what my most powerful technique is. So long as we are near one another I should be strong enough to defeat her without too much issue, and if she is stronger than anticipated I will simply stall long enough for you to defeat the child and then come to aid me."

Louvre grunted as he pondered the plan of attack. Despite the reasoning and the fact that it was very logical, he disliked the issue that his opponent could be capable of creating copies of his prized possession…

He shook his head in disgust, He was an Ancestor. One of the 27 strongest vampires on the planet, yet here he was hesitating on deciding to fight a human child of all things. Granted the child was in possession of a branch of thaumaturgy that only a handful of humans in recorded history if that have ever possessed, and fairly rare for his own kind as well… but a human child none the less. If he could handle a small army of enforcers by himself, he could surly manage this single inexperienced annoyance with his son around. Allowing his shoulders to sag, the man chuckled bitterly. "How unbecoming, I have let the situation get the better of me and displayed behavior that has shamed me in front of not only you but the prisoner as well…"

The younger man smiled weakly. "It is not your fault father. Sister's death was an event that you could not have anticipated, and my report on the child's power simply made the wound all the more deeper. I should have waited till you had regained yourself before informing you of that second piece of information…"

"No… you were right to get it out of the way." Louvre brushed off his son's excuse for his actions. " Had you waited it would only have wasted time that we could have been using preparing for our retaliation." He began to walk out of the room to a section of his abode that possessed mystic codes that served as forms of transportation. "We will leave within the week. Prepare what you think you will need for the upcoming battle. My entire collection will be open for you to choose from, but be quick about it…"

The son swallowed heavily and nodded his head. He and his sister often had access to portions of his father's collection of mystical artifacts and weapons, but never had they gained full access to its contents before. "Thank you father. I will not disappoint you…" He bowed deeply before a thought crossed his mind. "And what of the blacksmith?"

The elder paused for half a moment before continuing to walk down the hallway. "Bring him. If anything he will at least learn from this event as to what happens to those who try to fool me…"

o. o. o.

Sirius grunted as he was thrown back into his chambers roughly by his jail guards before watching them close the door behind him and walking away. "Bloody hell… ah might not be as old as yer masta ya bastards but ah'm still clearly not sometin tat ya can just throw around wheneva ya feel like…" He grumbled before picking himself up and stretching his muscles slowly to make sure that everything was where it was supposed to be. He winced however as he suddenly experienced the sensation of a spike going through his head. "Damn it… these tings are easier ta deal wit when you were drunk ta night before…" He rubbed his forehead before slowly walking to his bed and sitting on it and hunching over to reduce the throbbing.

Today was just full of good and bad news. On the good side, Louvre's daughter was dead. On the bad, Louvre knew that Shirou had a reality marble. On the good side, Bazett was backing Shirou up. On the bad, Louvre knew this and from how he was raging knew how Fragarach worked, meaning that her mystery was almost useless now unless she wanted to waste them to do D ranked attacks.

Of course the ultimate bad news was that Louvre was probably going to go after Shirou personally now, noble phantasm and all…

On the ultimate good news side... if Waver was still alive like Louvre claimed and escaped and Bazett was staying with Shirou… then the odds of the boy laying eyes on his inheritance early were very good…

He frowned, even with those three cursed blades… ones that he personally admitted were among the most dangerous tools he had ever made for more than one reason, Shirou would still be in a bad spot against Louvre. The Mace of Odo's mystery was passive while all three of Shirou's cursed weapons were actualized on contact. Even if the difference is only by a fraction of an instant, the mace still had priority on the blades and would destroy them before the origins could be put into effect…

That did not mean that he didn't have faith in the boy. Shirou was a quick learner when it came to combat, and even more so when it came to coming up with strategies to counter the abilities of weapons he encountered for the first time. The moment the boy see's the mace he would no doubt keep his distance and attempt to exploit one of the two conditions needed to cancel the mace's powers.

The old man sighed in frustration though. Shirou could most likely trace the mace as well as his other tools by this point. Hell there was barely anything he couldn't trace so long as it was a weapon that could be held in two hands, but that mace was not something that Shirou would be able to use to its full potential. He couldn't be absolutely certain… but the boy's dual origin affinity relationship, while enabling him to trace objects in the first place… prevented him from using Louvre's own mystery against him…

They were in a bad spot. Louvre knew better than to fight Bazett by himself while the possibility of her having Fragarach was still there. Shirou's aces while almost game breaking against any other magus, were near useless unless they could get around the man's mace, and if what he heard was correct Shirou was now unable to willingly escape from Louvre's son due to a geis he made. This entire debacle would be settled with one last big free for all fight and the enemy had the advantage…

Sirius sighed as he took his head out of his hands and looked at them, recalling the geis he himself had made to Louvre earlier.

_Sirius McGinty will forge mystic codes to the best of his ability for the Dead Apostle Ancestor Louvre until the second party is satisfied with the products. He will not use thaumaturgy for any purposes other than crafting and enhancing mystic codes, of which he will not use to escape, contact the outside world, or any of the codes he has made during this time to undermine, alter, or deter the second party's goals._

_In payment, Dead Apostle Ancestor Louvre will supply Sirius McGinty with any and all supplies he will require to make his mystic codes, adequate food, room, internet access, cable _(Sirius really had to push for those two), _and will not suffer from any permanent injuries of any kind nor will he be turned into a vampire by the Apostle or those under his influence during and after the codes have been made. One Shirou Emiya will also be protected from being turned or permanently harmed under this contract in the same time line as well…_

The internet bit wouldn't help him one bit since the only other magus he knew that used it was Kiritsugu. He just liked browsing on Wikipedia and downloading music for free from time to time, besides he wasn't allowed to contact the outside world in the first place.

Sirius had to chuckle at some of the arguments that he and Louvre had during the making of the Geis. He had tried to get daily professional massages into the contract as well on his end, but unfortunately that little debate didn't last long.

He did however manage to get the vampire to slip up and allow a small loophole in the agreement for him to work from. Should Louvre actually bring him along to witness the fight between the vampires and the magi in Japan… that would be his best chance to pull his ace out and turn things around.

The old man was fairly good at most standard thaumaturgy, but nothing he knew could help him escape the castle without breaking the contract. He knew a lot about rune magic, but it would not enable him to warp the agreement in the slightest… at least so long as it was hidden away from him. No, the real loophole was the fact that the contract said that he wasn't allowed to use any codes that he had made HERE to try and pull a fast one. While it was true that Louvre and his underlings had stripped him of any and all codes they had found on his person when they first took him to the castle, they had foolishly and conveniently overlooked the one code that he could proudly claim was his true code. His pride and joy…

He chuckled again, amused and curious… after all how long had it been since he had used his personal code for combat purposes?

The Lebor na nUidre…

o. o. o.

Japan:

Shirou relaxed his shoulders as he stopped going through his standard stances and forms with his new blades in the afternoon light.

"This is harder than it used to be…" He frowned as he looked at his weapons. "Is it because I'm still recovering? It can't be because of the swords. They feel and weigh different but if anything they work better for me than what I normally use…" He looked at the sky warily and flinched as the sun caught his gaze. "Or maybe it's because…"

"Oi Shirou!" Rin called out as she walked outside. "You done working out yet?"

The boy lowered his blades and turned to his classmate with a light smile, not that she could tell with the shroud still around the lower half of his face. "Yeah, I guess I just finished. How were things on your end? Did you and Bazett-nee manage to deal with the council of the city?"

The Tohsaka flipped her hair flamboyantly and smirked. "Of course, who do you think you are talking to? Until we can deal with the situation a curfew is being set up and school will be canceled. All thanks to…"

"Kirei." Bazett interrupted, causing Rin to twitch in embarrassment. "The priest has a lot of contacts and subordinates in the local government so it was pretty easy for him to set it all up for us."

Shirou snorted in amusement. On one hand he was still very much on edge whenever the priest was involved with anything he did, on the other he enjoyed Rin getting caught red handed in over inflating her ego. "I can only imagine how that conversation went. "

"Oh be quiet." Rin pouted and looked away as if to deny she did anything wrong. "Besides it wasn't as if we had to try hard. The vampire's familiars are forbidden from feasting anymore so they're dropping all over both sides of the river randomly for the past few days. It didn't take much to convince people that there was some unknown disease spreading around and force people to stay inside."

Shirou frowned. "Still couldn't he help out more with the fighting?"

Bazett shook her head. "No. Apparently when it comes to Apostle Ancestors the members of the church have a strict protocol regarding how to deal with the situation. He's been ordered to stick to damage control until further commands are given."

"Humph. I doubt he would have been of much help anyways. He's a detestable man like that." Rin grumbled before looking at Shirou. "What about you? Did you get a better idea of how your weapons work?"

Shirou nodded as he walked to several bamboo shoots that grew on the side of the house that he occasionally used for reinforcement training. Dispelling his copy of Maiya, the gray sword of binding, from his left hand, he grabbed one of the plants. "I did." He stated as he tapped Natalia, the steel blue sword of severing, against the plant lightly. The girls watched in curiosity as the plant was instantly cut where the blade touched it despite the bare minimum contact they had. "Natalia's power is the actualization of severing, or cutting something completely into two separate parts. So long as what I'm cutting has a low enough resistance to magic, it will instantly bisect along the line of the blade the moment it makes contact regardless of whether or not I finish swinging." He showed the girls the end of the bamboo shoot he had just made and noted how clean the separation was. "In theory, I can actualize the effect in objects bigger than this sword with enough practice… however it will take time. I also estimated that should I encounter an object that has a high enough magic resistance to prevent the sword from instantly severing it… or something that is just simply way too big, the sword would still provide me with an edge that is sharper than anything else that modern technology can provide."

Bazett whistled, impressed. "Not bad, It's either an instant cut through if the defense isn't good enough or a ridiculously sharper blade if it is. It pretty much guarantees that you won't be stuck with your weapon stuck in someone's bone or that you will be wasting energy cutting through a target's insides. What about the curse? What does that do to it?"

The boy looked at his teacher warily before sighing. "Like I said before, the curse is focused on corrupting and destroying life and humanity. When applied to this sword, it gives it a higher effectiveness against living things. In short it means that if it cuts a person, the person would need at least a full rank higher in terms of magical resistance to prevent the origin of severing to be actualized on any part of his or her body."

"At LEAST a full rank?" Rin raised an eyebrow. "That's a pretty big claim Emiya-kun… but what rank of defense would an object normally need to resist that thing anyway?"

The boy looked at his sword skeptically before relenting. "Under normal circumstances… I think it can actualize on any object that doesn't have a resistance of at least a C- rank, maybe C if I get more familiar with it… C+ if I pump it with enough prana. I was researching the theory behind broken phantasms a few months ago to try and see if I can find a middle ground, the basic foundation behind the approach was pretty straightforward but the application was a bit harder than I would have guessed…plus I didn't really spend much time on it to be honest."

"So it could possibly let you cut through an organic based defense with ease up to around a B+ rank…" Bazett nodded in understanding. "That's not bad at all… there are definitely stronger weapons and spells out there, but there aren't many with a passive ability that potent that don't come with any negative side effects to the user."

Rin pouted and looked away in denial. "So what? The strongest of my jewels have an A rank attack power, who cares if I can only use them once… I only need to use them once to take an enemy down." She glared back at Shirou as if daring him to argue her statement. "So what about that other sword? The one that binds?"

The boy laughed nervously. "Um yeah… Maiya…" He dispelled the blue and red sword and replaced it with the gray and brown sister blade a moment later. "Maiya's a bit more difficult to use compared to Natalia and Kiritsugu. It's origin power is "binding", so it's really supposed to be used more as a tool more than a front line weapon…"

"That makes sense." Bazett nodded with her arms crossed before remaining quiet for a few seconds and opening an eye. "So… how can you use it?"

"Humph." Rin snorted. "You're an enforcer and yet you can't figure out a way to use such a unique tool? No wonder you focus on fighting and not on the theory."

The eldest one there twitched an eyebrow. "Really? Then tell me little girl, how would you use such a weapon on the front lines to its greatest ability?"

Rin rolled her eyes. "Easy. I'd…" She paused and frowned in thought. "I'd… bind things first off and…"

The purple haired woman laughed. "Not so easy is it girl?"

"Be quiet! I'll come up with something!" The Tohsaka snapped irritably.

Shirou sighed. "Maiya unlike Natalia, can be used in more than one way. The first thing that you should know about it is that it actualizes at the end of the swing instead of at the beginning. That means that if I used it in a straight up fight, anyplace it would cut would instead…"

"Leave only improperly healed, and decaying tissue… just like what the dual origin does only it doesn't have a chance to target the magic circuit." Rin's eyes widened in realization.

The boy nodded. "That's right, but that's only if I use this blade like any other sword… and personally I'd prefer to have my opponent with no limbs than one that can still work but is only slightly less dangerous which is why I'd rather use Natalia in a straight up fight. It's when I start throwing in other factors that Maiya's true potential can get realized."

"True potential?" Bazett raised an eyebrow. "What do you mean?"

The boy looked down at the blade with seemingly unimaginative and mundane colors. "The hidden ability of Maiya is that it can be used in conjunction with other magic or solutions to produce interesting and significant effects on the opponent. For example, if I happen to lace it with poison…"

"Anything it cuts would not only get poisoned, but make it so that it would be nearly impossible to take it out since the concept of "binding" would practically fuse it to the afflicted area and cells." Rin's eyes opened in realization.

"Exactly." Shirou nodded. "Not only that, but if I happen to cut my opponent with Miya without anything in conjunction and I force the origin of binding into the entirety of the target INSTEAD of just in the wounds I make, it would actualize in a way so that the target would not be able to shed any physical or spiritual portion of his body from internal sources for a long period of time unless they manage to either unravel that particular mystery. If they try to overpower it and succeed however they will end up doing unspeakable damage to the separated parts at the part where they connected."

"Um… that sounds useful Shirou…" Bazett tilted her head to the side confused. "But I'm having a hard time seeing how that can help you out."

"I see…" Rin pondered the blade's power curiously. "That is interesting…" She looked at Bazett. "There are some magi and phantasmal beasts out there that can separate their body into multiple parts, and others that can temporarily send their souls into familiars or puppets in order to enhance their abilities. The problem is that regardless of how powerful they are, they need to return to their original condition at some point lest they do too much damage to their souls or their bodies, but if they are cut by that sword in their new or original bodies…"

"Then either they would be unable to actualize their thaumaturgy without doing incredible damage to themselves, or become unable to return to their original condition and suffer the consequences of being in an unnatural state for too long. Possibly causing Gaia to finish them off for you in order to correct the irregularity." Bazett concluded in realization. "If you managed to attack a familiar with that weapon while even a portion of the master's soul is in it... you'd be able to do some serious harm to him even if it's not the main body."

Shirou nodded. "Dad's and Sirius-jiji's notes say that Maiya's power specifically is "to bind together two or more existences that complement one another and are slashed by the same stroke", while the nature of "binding" can be defined as "to actualize an intertwined but incomplete and imperfect reaction and or fusion". The more compatible the two objects are, the stronger the binding naturally is. For example, broken skin bound together would appear to be completely unharmed other than the necrosis, but binding a spirit to a poorly chosen stone would only last temporarily so long as the spirit was strong enough. "Binding" by definition is not a perfect fusion so it can be undone if sloppily executed. I would have to do more experimenting to see what I could do with this thing, but I have a few ideas that I can test out later. My best guess is that the better I understand it's mysteries, the stronger the binding effects will be when I actualize it…"

Rin let out a slow breath before closing her eyes and leaning back. "… That really is a unique tool you have Emiya-kun… you were right in claiming that its main purpose isn't as a weapon… but then again its capabilities as one are pretty significant… I might just ask you to help me out with it on a few experiments later on after we deal with our current situation." She slowly put a hand to her mouth and began to think. " An intertwined yet incomplete fusion… if it could be applied to spirits and my gemstones and technically no one said that the nature of the binding couldn't be altered post actualization to become a complete fusion."

Bazett simply sighed and scratched her head. "Honestly Shirou. That sword is more confusing after you explained it's uses than you did when you gave me the short version. I'll just assume you know how to use it and keep it at that." Her eyes steeled as she glanced at the boy warily. " What about Kiritsugu though? Is there any alternate affects that it has that you haven't already told us?"

Shirou stared back at his mentor's gaze before relenting and shaking his head. "Kiritsugu retains the same purpose and abilities that my father's origin bullets had. Instant necrosis on any non magical organic target, and instantly severs and binds the magic circuits of the user of any magic it comes into contact with…"

" What about the curse though?" Rin asked curiously. "That must have changed the effects in some way."

Shirou glanced at the girl before relenting, looking down to avoid any eye contact with the females. "Well… while Maiya and Natalia could be considered C- to C ranked weapons, Kiritsugu has the power of around a B ranked when not using the curse, so it has a bit more firepower behind it when used against non magical objects."

"Shirou…" Bazett frowned. "What are you holding back?"

The boy sighed reluctantly. "... I tested it out against a minor familiar I made a couple of days ago just to see if its affects were as efficient as dad told me… it was nothing big, just a small bird was capable of some minor wind thaumaturgy and at most 2 circuits."

"But…" Rin pushed, not liking the way Shirou was sounding at the moment, and wondering how the hell could a weapon originally designed to assault and destroy a person's magic circuits could get any worse.

The boy rubbed his forehead in frustration. "It didn't just destroy the familiar's circuits…" He muttered darkly. "The feedback traveled deeper than that… much… much deeper."

Bazett blinked. "The damage went deeper? How could it go… any…" She paled as she realized that there was something that could qualify as "deeper" for a weapon that assaulted magic circuits specifically, something that if damaged was more impossible to fix than damaged magic circuits. "No way…"

"You… destroyed its soul?" Rin blinked in shock and disbelief. There were only a handful of weapons that could directly harm a soul of any kind since they were eternal and indestructible in the physical world.

"I could hardly believe it myself." The red head shook his head, his eyes defeated and tired. "To be able to harm a being through their second element to that extent…" He grit his teeth, not liking the fact that he was at the moment capable of dealing even more unspeakable harm to others than he originally thought.

"Shirou… you do realize what this means don't you?" Rin said slowly and sweating profusely. "Damaging the soul… even if you use that sword on a minor spell done by your opponents… it will not only cripple their circuits… but their memories as well." It was a well known fact among magi that a person's memories were not in fact stored in their brains but their souls. The reason why normal humans believed it was the brain was because the organ was what anchored the soul to the body. Harming the brain altered the connection it had to the soul, which interfered with the transference of memories to the body. "Even by countering a minor spell… you could interfere with your opponent's ability to remember spells or fighting tactics… it could even cause them to…"

"I get it!" The boy snapped irritably, causing Rin to jump back. "I've pretty much become the ultimate bogyman for magi everywhere if I use this damn thing! No possible reincarnation! No transferring the soul into a safe container in case the body fails in order to extract memories for the future generations to learn from! Nothing! I know already!" He placed his head into his hands. "I know already…" He repeated in a tired and defeated tone, as if he was an old man. "… Which is why I'm not going to use that thing unless I don't have any other choice." He stared at his hands as if he was seeing something else. "I know that a lot of people are going to come after me because of what dad did when he was an assassin. I know that I'm going to have to fight them at some point and that I am eventually going to have to kill a few of them in order to keep on living… I can already see their blood on my hands…"

"Shirou…" Bazett looked at the boy in pity, knowing that despite the fact that he was quite skilled in fighting, he was at his very core someone that wanted to help others not hurt them… and this weapon was almost the literal definition of delivering excessive amounts damage both physically and psychologically _at the same time_. The fact that his father's legacy enabled him to deal the ultimate form of destruction onto others was not something that she assumed would be good for the boy's current mental situation… not with all the fighting that has happened lately and his friend being murdered by one of them.

"But… but if I can beat my opponents without using Kiritsugu… then I will go down the harder route. No one deserves to have their soul destroyed." He continued with conviction. "I will only use it if I see no other option."

"Shirou…" Rin looked at him worriedly before Bazett stepped forward and interrupted her.

"Good. It's safer for you that way. The less times you use it, the less of a chance anyone will find out about it's true capabilities. Besides if you became over dependant on it you would get sloppy and that would make me look bad as your teacher." The eldest one there smirked with a confident grin. "Still… I have to say Shirou, that's one hell of an ace you have there. It's so good I'm almost considering thinking about maybe trading Fragarach for it if it was possible…"

Shirou blinked before snorting and donning a dry grin. "Tch. Yeah right. Even if it takes forever to make, I'd rather have Fragarach any day of the week over Kiritsugu."

Bazett laughed. "Hah! Is that any way to talk about the last gift your old man left you? Honestly he must be turning in his grave right now!"

The boy paused before chuckling lightly, making a copy of all three origin blades and laying them on the ground before watching them. "… Nope. Not moving, I guess he really doesn't care one bit about what I just said."

The females there blinked in confusion at the boy's actions for several seconds before the joke finally set in… and cause them to hunch over with their hands over their mouths in order to stop from laughing as hard as they could.

"Thank you. Thank you…" Shirou bowed politely as if the girls were his audience. "I'll be here all night."

Rin snorted and had trouble controlling herself. "I heheh… don't think that's how he wanted his remains to be used Emiya-kun heheheh…"

"Keep it up!" Bazett giggled. "Make them play dead!"

Several bad puns later the three had managed to calm down a fair bit. Rin had gone inside to make dinner and surprisingly enough Shirou didn't try to negotiate the position for once. Instead he settled for simply sitting on the porch with a cup of tea while he waited for the food to finish.

"So can you tell me what's been bothering you lately?" Bazett asked from behind the boy, leaning against the wall casually.

Shirou didn't say anything for a moment before pulling down the shroud to uncover his mouth and drink some tea. "I thought I told you about Kiritsugu's secondary ability…" He began in a tired tone before the elder cut him off.

"You know that's not what I'm talking about." The enforcer frowned. "You've been frowning at the sun and even more at the moon ever since you managed to recover. I've seen you do it repetitively when you practiced your forms."

The boy clicked his teeth in irritation before sighing and looked up at the sky. "… I think I might have been more affected by the vampire's blood than we first assumed."

Bazett paled. "Shit. Does that mean that you're getting the thirst for blood?"

The boy shook his head. "No… well, my mouth has been a bit more dry than normal lately, but it's nothing that I can simply ignore and it doesn't seem to change in intensity. Just to be safe, I don't think I'll be testing if another person's blood really does incur a reaction in case I turn out to be a case similar to a true ancestor… and thankfully, I don't have a blood fetish."

The woman took a step forward. "By the sound of things you seem to be judging your hypothesis on something else" She looked up at the sky. "… You're being affected by the lunar cycle and exposure to sunlight aren't you?"

Shirou nodded. "Yeah. My skin isn't burning off, but I feel noticeably lethargic during the day and unusually energetic during the night… the latter more so as time goes by, which can be explained by the fact that it's getting close to the full moon." He pulled back his cheeks and showed off his incisors, which looked pretty much the same as always. "No Dracula teeth though, which is always a relief." He looked at his hands experimentally. "The peak of my daily magical activity used to be at around 5 in the afternoon, but now it might as well be midnight. I don't know if this change in me is gradually happening and the shroud isn't working, or if it simply is what managed to change in my body before the priest treated me and this thing is preventing my condition from getting any worse."

"And if it does?" Bazett asked in a dark tone.

The boy sighed and looked at the moon again. "I don't know. Dad… Dad entrusted me to do a lot of things in the near future… things that he believed that only I could do. If I let anyone kill me before doing all of that… I feel… no… I know that I would be betraying not only myself and him, but countless other people as well." He shook his head. "But I can't deny the possibility that even if I retain my sanity and transform I would still become a monster at some point."

"A monster that can project one of the most dangerous anti magic weapons on the planet as many times as he wants." The woman pointed out. She would have mentioned his reality marble, but since she wasn't sure that he knew about it at the moment, she held back so that she wouldn't be putting more fuel on the fire. Technically speaking, if Shirou ever managed to master his reality marble and became a dead apostle, she wouldn't doubt it if he was eventually recognized as one of the 27 at some point… if none of them killed him of course.

"Which makes the situation even worse." The boy sighed dejectedly before taking another sip of tea.

The two remained quiet for some time before Bazett spoke up again. "So what do you suggest? I doubt that you've figured this out to this degree without coming up with some idea of what to do."

Shirou remained quiet for a few seconds. "… For right now… I think that it would be best to keep quiet about this until after we deal with Louvre. He's the more imminent issue right now. After that… if we survive… I think it would be best to keep me under some supervision… see if this is the extent of how much I've changed or if I'm still turning. If it's the former… then I'll just wear the shroud for another year or so to be safe…"

"Are you sure you just want to keep wearing it because it makes you look slightly interesting?" The enforcer gave him a wry smile.

"And if my condition progresses…" He continued, ignoring his second sister figure's jab at him. "Well… I was hoping that you, Waver-nii or Sirius-jiji knew someone that could help me out… and if not… well then I guess I would have to ask you guys to put me down before I lose control over myself."

Bazett grimaced as Shirou's words echoed in her head. Magi were used to death and possibly dying yes… but few ever spoke of their own so casually as if it was an inevitability… and fewer still as young as Shirou. _He is fully willing to die if things get out of hand…_ She thought before remembering how he had threatened to decapitate himself in order to save Sakura and Rin. _No wonder he has a reality marble… he really does has no sense of self preservation when it comes to others… he thinks of himself as a mean… no… a tool to obtain other's happiness. That aria that Rin told me he muttered before the vampire bit him… it's linked to his reality marble. _She shook her head to clear her thoughts, groaned loudly, walked forward and slapped the boy upside the head.

"Ow!" The teen grunted and rubbed his skull. "What the heck?"

"Damn it Shirou, I thought we told you to stop worrying us like that every time something looks bad! You especially aren't supposed to do it when a big fight is around the corner. It's unprofessional and lowers morale." She crossed her arms under her chest and frowned at him. "Look, I happen to know a few people that can help if things really do get worse for you, and I know for a fact that the old drunk happens to know the Kaleidoscope himself… even if the nut hasn't been around for the last dozen years or so. Don't count yourself out until we know for a fact that your condition is getting worse. Your old man would get pissed if you gave up so early." She sighed and scratched the back of her head. "Honestly, you're such a hassle you know that? At least let us try to figure out what's going wrong first before resigning to killing yourself."

The boy looked at her skeptically. "Isn't it always good to be aware and prepared for the worst possible outcome though?"

The woman rolled her eyes. "Yeah, but… ugh. Let me put it this way. If our positions were swapped, you'd be busting your ass to help fix my condition and not even letting yourself think that it's impossible to help me, and I would be confident enough in your abilities that I wouldn't even be close to worrying about my possible point of no return until at the very last moment." She nodded her head and closed her eyes. "Yeah, you definitely value yourself too little compared to others Shirou. If this keeps up you're going to have a lot of trouble later on in life."

The boy flinched as Bazett's explanation sunk in. "You have a point…" He muttered as he recalled multiple people telling him similar things over the years. "But I can't really change that." He relented. "That's just the way I am. I'm the kind of guy that wants to help out everyone he can see but always forgets about himself until it's too late if even then." He smiled weakly to his teacher. "But then again I'm happy this way and I personally don't see what's wrong with helping others."

"Shirou…" The woman looked at him pityingly.

He looked at his hands as they held the tea cup in his lap. "You know Nee-san… when dad first really explained my problem to me, he gave me a good example to compare myself to. He said that I was like one of those old swords of legends. I am really powerful by myself and could easily kill a lot of things alone… but if I'm left alone I would either rust, get cursed, or go wild. In order to prevent this he said I would have to find someone to wield me… to guide me through my life so I wouldn't get carried away."

Bazett blinked and thought about the comparison. "That… that's actually a pretty good analogy." She agreed. "You go out of your way to save others, but in the process you never check yourself for dents, scratches and rusting that you get in the process. In a way you need a scabbard…" She paused before snorting and laughing to herself.

"What?" Shirou blinked in confusion.

"A sword needs a scabbard, so you need something or someone to stick yourself in." The woman chuckled and shook her head.

Shirou frowned and shook his head. "Anyways to be honest, I didn't really know who to look for or to trust myself with when I thought about what dad said. At first I considered Waver-nii and Sirius-jiji since they were the first people to know about my abilities other than dad and seemed to care about me."

Bazett couldn't say anything as she was too busy trying to not laugh at the top of her lungs and stay on her two feet.

"Plus they seemed to know what they were doing most of the time even if they got angry on occasion and forced me to do painful things to vent." The teen continued, clearly missing what Bazett found so funny and personally not wanting to know what she found so hilarious. "But, I don't think the old man would last that long with me. I mean he's strong, but he can only teach me so much and he's not as young as he used to be… his back might give out at some point and I think it would be a bit creepy to dedicate the rest of my life to an old man that's drunk half the time."

The sister figure dropped to her knees at this point, her muscle control having failed her as she was now struggling to get sufficient air.

"But after a while I realized that they weren't the ones for me." Shirou's eyebrow twitched, trying to ignore Bazett's odd behavior. "Sure they knew what they were doing and were very experienced, but they weren't what I was looking for… is something wrong?" He asked. "What am I saying that's so funny?"

"It's nothing!" The woman gasped with a grin on her face and tried as hard as she could to stop her laughing. "I'm just remembering a funny joke hahaha… keep going! I'll be fine!"

The boy frowned before shaking his head and looking away again. "So for a while after that, I considered you being the one to guide me." He was somewhat confused that Bazett's laughing stopped suddenly at that. "But it didn't last long. You were always going off on your own jobs so I concluded that just being around me would waste too much of your time." He leaned back. "Since then I pretty much put the question out of my mind… until recently." He looked at the moon. "When Sakura and Rin were in danger… I was terrified… I was angry… and…"

Bazett looked at Shirou curiously. "And?" She asked curiously.

Shirou paused as he tried to figure out what he wanted to say. "I… I felt like that if I let them die… if I let those two in particular die… I'd forever loose something important to me…" He looked at his hands. "For the past few years… I've been dreaming of this place, it doesn't exist in the world but… it feels natural to me. An endless field of swords with a lone hill that I've always been sitting on… waiting. Things would get clearer as time went by, but I would never move from my spot on top of the hill, like I was just like those swords… waiting for something to give me reason to move." He glanced over at the kitchen where Rin was still cooking. "And during that fight, when those two were in danger… I did… and so did all the other swords there."

The enforcer swallowed heavily. If her guess was right, that place the boy was dreaming of was his reality marble, and if that was the case than Rin and Sakura were definitely extremely important figures to his psyche. Should anything happen to either one… "Is that so?" She asked hesitantly. If what the boy said was true, then Shirou must have undergone some kind of significant development in his inner world during the fight. "Well… I guess that means that you've been waiting for those two then." She sheepishly replied. "I mean that place sounds interesting, but I mean it's just a dream and..."

"Unlimited Blade Works…" The Faker interrupted the Fraga suddenly.

"Huh?" She blinked in confusion before remembering that Shirou repeated the password to open Kiritsugu's box.

"My reality marble Nee-san. That's what it's called." The boy stated as he looked at the sky, silencing Bazett almost instantly. "I could barely recall it before, but I do remember that vampire shouting about it just before I blacked out…"

"Y-You know?" The teacher asked surprised.

"… Well… I just found out myself to be honest…" Shirou shrugged. "Dad seemed to know a lot more than he let on before he died, but he trusted Waver-nii and Sirius-jiji to make sure that things didn't get out of control." He snorted. "I guess he didn't put into consideration Dead Apostle Ancestors." He shook his head. "It's ironic that the thing that makes people think that I'm going to die early happens to be the source of my strongest possible power. In a way, I'm my own double edged sword." He laughed dryly before turning to Bazett. "Hey Nee-san. Can we keep this a secret between us? You know, my personality and the whole possible turning into a vampire thing? I don't want to worry Tohsaka about unnecessary stuff."

Bazett blinked before calming down and regaining her in control demeanor. "… You know that she's going to find out eventually if she hasn't already. She's pretty sharp…"

The boy nodded. "That's an understatement. I know my exposure to the magic world isn't on your level, but even I can tell that she isn't simply just bragging whenever she shows off her spells and states her superiority to me. She really is a genius and talented, but I don't think she's completely figured everything out yet and with things the way that they are now she has other things to worry about."

The woman looked at the boy skeptically before walking away. "I'll do it, but please remember this… it's not a bad thing to have people worry about you Shirou. Regardless of what you think, there is nothing wrong with occasionally standing back and letting someone else do your job for you."

Shirou tilted his head and sighed. "There's nothing wrong with that… but there's nothing wrong with wanting everyone else to be happy either Nee-san…" He closed his eyes…

"_My body is made of blades…" _

He could see his inner world now without having to go to sleep. Having it explained to him through his father's letter, he now understood the hill's significance, of what it represented, of what it could be and what it was…

"_Fire is my blood… and glass is my heart…"_

He was a unique person, he saw the world differently than others. Through fire he had seen what it could really become and how helpless people really are. Through death he had seen how others could really suffer both physically and psychologically. In order to stay whole he had to shatter, so he did. He was a warped human unable to stop himself from trying to prevent such things from happening again if he had the power to regardless of what became of himself. It did not mean he was weaker than the others. He was simply… different.

"_Through countless battles I forever wait, alone on the hill of blades…_

… _For Hell's hands to bear… for Heaven's hands to temper…"_

Yet he was different than most humans. He could fight in ways others couldn't, but he could also break in ways others couldn't as well. He doubted that his life would be simple after the events soon to come would pass, if things even got that far… so odds are his life would be filled with more fights to come. More obstacles to overcome. More people to save… yet if he was left alone he knew that he would just keep going forward in order to be someone's savior… and completely forget about himself. A sword can be used to save or kill humans among countless other things, but it can't be used to repair itself.

…... Well technically there were a few that could but he was fairly certain that he wasn't one of them.

Still, he felt that Rin and Sakura were people he could trust himself to constantly. He could, would and was willing to sacrifice himself for them… and he knew that in return they would take care of him with as much fervor… no that wasn't right. They wouldn't stay with him out of obligation, but because he could see somehow that they cared for him almost on an equal level that he cared for everyone that he saw… though he still didn't know why he was interested in them so much.

Reaching out with a hand, he literally pulled out a fairly common blade from his world into the natural one while barely using any prana at all. Now that he knew how his powers worked, he could confidently say that the efficiency in his magi took another massive leap… how far he wouldn't be able to say until he practiced with Avalon, but even now he could tell that something inside the machinations of Shirou Emiya had fallen into place to make him more efficient.

Swords, axes, knives… anything that could be considered a bladed weapon or related to one that he had seen throughout his life flew past his mind's eye, yet he could identify each and every one of them as fast they appeared and even tell where they were located exactly within Unlimited Blade Works. While most were unremarkable there were however the occasional minor mystic codes, sharp tools that he had encountered in his studies. The five basic element swords that Sirius had shown him to increase his practicing, Rho Aius, Avalon, and of course... the three blades made of his father's corpse.

"Dinner's ready!" Rin's voice interrupted him from marveling at his currently meager collection and brought him back to reality.

Looking to the living room, the boy blinked before a loud gurgling from his stomach finally convinced him to get off his ass. Laughing lightly, he picked himself up and dispelled the temporary blade that he had been holding for a short amount of time. It was funny. Most of the time he wished that Rin would just leave him alone since all she seemed to do is make fun of him and the like… but at the same time he enjoyed spending time with her more than ever. No matter how many times he asked her why she bothered with such a dull guy like himself, she would simply tell him to be quiet and give him some weak excuse… but he could tell that she enjoyed helping people as much as he did. She and Sakura were very similar like that. Maybe that was the main reason why he trusted himself with them so much.

"About time you got here." The girl grunted as he walked in through the door. "That was the third time I called!"

"Sorry." The boy laughed sheepishly as he knelt down to the table that was full of food. "I kinda lost my sense of time going over the blueprints of one of the swords I have."

Rin rolled her eyes. "Ugh, Boys and their swords. Honestly, if there was a more childish combination…" She shook her head and began to eat, not bothering to look at him directly. "Hurry up, you wasted a lot of time and the food's going cold…" She remained quiet as she stole glances at the boy in concern.

Despite what Bazett and Shirou had thought, she had heard everything since she was just about to let them know food was ready when they began to talk. She would have stepped into the conversation at some points, but the shock of learning about Shirou's condition… how he really thought of her… what his reality marble was like… how his mind was distorted… she couldn't bring herself to step out and let herself be known.

… Well that and she had as hard of a time standing up due to laughter as Bazett when Shirou was spewing out horribly misplaced sexual innuendos. The boy really was completely oblivious when it came to those for some reason.

She was simply too overwhelmed with information to say anything at this point. She would sort out all her emotional issues after the vampire related work was dealt with. After she had regained her head, she would then work her hardest to cure or at least halt Shirou's contamination… not that she would let him know that she knew of course. She did have an image to keep up after all. Following the presentation of her no doubt genius cure or solution, she would once more have the twisted boy under her control. Where he would no doubt follow her every "suggestion" as repayment and spend most of his time only… with… her...

She frowned as she took another bite of food. Sakura, at first she was going to compete with her distant sister for Shirou's attention and heart… she wouldn't go down without a fight after all… but now she was having second thoughts. It wasn't a matter of feeling guilty… she had managed to push that feeling down the moment she had declared war with Sakura with Shirou as the prize… but now that she knew that Shirou had such a deep connection with both of them that they affected his reality marble itself… the idea of making one of them a bystander while the other hogged the idiot to themselves seemed far less appealing and more importantly… dangerous. Shirou's power was to materialize any sword he laid eyes on, powers and all. To do anything that could destabilize such a thing was more than a bit risky, not to mention that she wasn't willing to damage the one she cared about so much on a fundamental level… or at least not for something as petty as this.

"…Ka. … ear me?"

Still… this left her with a problem. Polygamy wasn't really looked well upon by many of the more modern countries, and magi didn't really like it either since it made choosing a successor significantly more difficult and potentially catastrophic…

"Sh… no… aying …ention Shirou…"

Not that she didn't think her little sister was rather attractive. Not in the slightest, but the hoops they would have to jump through in order to make things work for both societies would be more than annoying. Plus there was the fact that Shirou was pretty much brain dead when it came to taking a hint… heaven help her trying to get him to try to agree or get used to the idea of being with more than one female at once.

"TOHSAKA!" Shirou yelled, causing the brunette to jump in surprise and fall backwards.

"I didn't say anything! It was all for your benefit!" Rin yelled frantically, waving her arms frantically and thoroughly confusing the other two people at the table.

"What the heck are you babbling about girl?" Bazett raised an eyebrow confused.

"Erk." The Tohsaka froze with a distinct blush on her face. "N-nothing! I was just thinking about an experiment that went wrong a while ago and blanked out…"

"From the way she was screaming it was probably one of the ones that almost killed me." Shirou muttered under his breath.

The blush on the girl's face quickly replaced with a calm frown. "What was that Emiya-kun?"

"Oh you're listening now?" The boy asked innocently, only to get whacked upside the head by Bazett.

"Stop fooling around and tell her whatever it was you were going to tell her." The enforcer sighed.

"Yeah, yeah." Shirou sighed before looking at Rin again. "Look. Rin, I know you want to help when things get ugly again, but I'm gonna have to ask you to sit this one out."

Rin blinked confused before she finally managed to process the new topic, and glared at the boy angrily. "What was that? Please do tell me why I should Emiya-kun."

"You're just too inexperienced and so far you haven't been of that much help since this all began." Bazett stated before holding up a hand to stop Rin from interrupting her. "I am well aware of your contribution into destroying the first vampire's weapon which allowed Shirou to pull off the win, however more often than not a good portion of the time he has had to cover for you because you exposed yourself too much."

"We're going to be up against even stronger guys than before Tohsaka." Shirou sighed. "Last time it was only by a fluke that you and Sakura managed to get out of things alive. This time we really are the only ones left to fight."

"This isn't some pissed off bitch that you'll be handling either." Bazett added. "You're going to be going up against a full blown Ancestor and his son… and both of them won't be taking any chances. Odds are they know who I am since I used Fragarach, and they know that Shirou has a reality marble. Don't get me wrong, you are strong for your age with your Gandr and those jewels of yours, but so long as you are exposed you are going to be a liability. You simply aren't fast or strong enough in closer range combat to keep up."

Rin grit her teeth and glared at the both of them. "And Shirou is? A single enforcer and a kid who is only a bit more powerful and experienced than the average magus think they can stand up to an apostle ancestor and his son, which will mean that they will be experiencing a resonance effect and be even stronger than they are normally? I don't care if one of you has a noble phantasm and the other has an impossibly dangerous set of mystic codes. You two need the backup somehow and I'm the only one that can give it!"

"Then explain to us how you can do that without putting yourself in their crosshairs and getting killed before we can do something about it?" Bazett frowned. "You have strong spells but the best they can do is serve as a distraction since you'll be too far away." She didn't notice Shirou blink and frown in concentration.

"Too far away?" Rin blinked as she clearly took offence to that statement. "I might not be as good as Emiya-kun, but I am also able to reinforce my nerves and eyes to fairly high levels lady. I also know a few cloaking spells so I can easily help distract and confuse those bastards while you take them out."

"That's not good enough!" The eldest one slammed her hands on the table. "Louvre is an apostle that became one through his studies, a magus! He obviously knows how to deal with low level tactics like that! Plus there's also that new weapon that he has that let him take out an army of a hundred magi alone almost easily! This isn't a game girl! You aren't strong, experienced, or good enough to fight in this and we have no tactics that you can put you to use efficiently without getting you killed…"

"Actually…" Shirou frowned as he interrupted his teacher's speech. "That… might not be completely true…"

"Is that so?" Rin smirked before noting the dark look on the boy's face. "Something wrong?"

"Hey Shirou, I thought that you didn't want Rin to fight in this thing." The woman eyed her student warily. "That's why you asked me for help in the first place…"

"I know…" The boy replied hesitantly. "But… there may be a way that she can fight after all, one that you just reminded me of. It's risky, but it has worked multiple times in this kind of situation before… plus…"

"Plus?" Both females asked warily.

Shirou sighed heavily before looking up with calm eyes. He didn't like what he was about to suggest, but at the moment the results mattered more than the means. So long as only the vampires died in this fight with no more innocent casualties, he would be willing to use anyone or any tactic to win…

It was time for him to take a few pages out of his father's book…

o. o. o.

Three Days later:

A private plane from England to Tokyo landed in the early morning. Its occupants were escorted quickly to a limo that had parked right to its side, ensuring that barely anyone had a chance to discern their identities. The car traveled a short distance through the major city before it went into a parking garage and disappeared…

"I hope that you are not wasting my time Lord El-Melloi…" An irritable, fairly young, but unmistakably noble and commanding voice stated tersely. "It is rare that I give second chances… not to mention the fact that you somehow convinced me to come to this backwater country…"

"I am not wasting your time my lady…" An equally young male voice replied, albeit one with less foundation than the first. "Louvre will come for the boy at some point. I have great faith that Shirou will be able to at the very least disarm him of the noble phantasm…"

"Yes the son of the Magus Killer." The Queen of the Clocktower snorted. "You seem to hold this child in great regard despite being a part time student of yours…"

"I do." Waver nodded. "He is not only a special student, but… an experiment of sorts between McGinty and myself. He's really a one of a kind specimen, so I would appreciate it if we could manage to keep him alive and in one piece through this incident…"

"An experiment?" The Barthomelloi asked with the barest hint of curiously in her voice. It would after all be unbecoming to show a significant amount of interest or confusion to anyone. "I was not aware you spent time on human based research other than analyzing and perfecting various forms of spiritual invocation. Do you mind telling me what it is?"

"Unfortunately my lady… I will have to decline." Waver admitted. "This experiment is… one that is I admit prohibited by the Association, however this boy has proven to be such an exception that I could not simply leave him be unobserved and undocumented… I have already made quite a few breakthroughs in many studies related to him and I only expect more as time goes on…"

"Is that so?" The female asked as if stating a fact. "If that is the case, why do you not just keep him in the Clocktower for experimentation?"

The male bit his lip. "I admit that my attachment to him is part of the reason, however there is more than that to stop me. In order to regain optimum results, I need him to be exposed to the outside world and live life among normal humans in order for him to realize his… qualities, and thus make them develop. Unlike most experiments, a controlled environment will only prove to be detrimental to what I wish to accomplish and develop. In addition to that there is… a task that I believe only he can accomplish."

"A task? For some reason I do believe you are drastically downplaying the severity of what you are talking about Lord El-Melloi." The Queen stated coldly.

"I'm afraid I cannot say any more on the subject for now my lady." Waver solemnly replied. "It involves things that to be blunt I am more cautious of rising the suspicion of then you and the Association. However allow me to just say that my actions are to ensure the security of our world and to prevent its exposure…"

The noblewoman stared at Waver quietly for what seemed like an eternity before starting again. "No doubt you will claim that this boy and this event you are talking about is a unique case and that it would be in my best interests to not get involved lest the situation become unstable and uncontrollable…"

Waver's mind briefly flashed back to seeing Gilgamesh standing less than a few feet away from him before walking in the other direction. "To be honest my lady… it has already gotten to that point in a sense. In a sense you could say that our situation is similar to a massive bomb being planted and the controller holding its trigger in his hand, one that will press the button not for a purpose, but on a whim that thankfully has yet to come…"

Lorelei snorted. "Humph. An interesting situation, however I find it unlikely. Very well. I shall humor you up until we have witnessed this special boy of yours encounter the vampire. Should I see reason to believe that this student of yours is out of the ordinary, and that your incompetence was not to blame for the failure of your hunt, I will reconsider your capability and punishment. However should I see otherwise…"

"I will accept any verdict you may hand out." Waver bowed. "I have trust in your judgment."

o. o. o.

Somewhere in Europe:

A young man sat casually in an otherwise empty church as if it was natural to him. The lighting was poor, the room was fairly adorned, and the air was somewhat stuffy, however this did not bother him in the slightest as he leaned back in his seat and enjoyed the silence…

"You have something interesting to tell me?" He spoke out loud to seemingly no one, breaking the quiet just as easily as he was relaxing.

From out of the shadows an elderly priest chuckled and walked out without a sound. "Indeed I do. It seems that our acquaintance Louvre has managed to obtain quite a piece recently… one that you would be most interested in."

"Oh?" The boy raised an eyebrow. "That one's collection was rather impressive, even if he's not always the most selective. I am curious, what artifact did he come across?"

"The Mace of Odo my lord." The priest replied, enjoying the look of momentary surprise and amusement on the child's face.

"The one depicted on the tapestry of Bayeux? Ah that is quite an impressive find." The seemingly younger of the two nodded in agreement. "I will have to go to him and see it for myself… and perhaps barter for it…" He got up off of his chair and looked at the priest curiously. "… There is more isn't there?"

"Indeed master." The elderly man nodded. "I have recently learned from our contacts that he has been unusually active as of late. He has kidnapped a magus from the association who is the leading expert in mystic code manufacturing, dubbed the "mystic code crafter", has used the mace to destroy a force of 100 enforcers that were sent in order to rescue the old man, and recently has had an interest in a city called Fuyuki in Japan for some reason… and has lost his daughter in the process…"

"He has lost one of his heirs so soon after being promoted?" The boy frowned disappointed. "A shame, I had hoped that he would be more composed and careful with his valuables than this. But if he was, it would be all the more interesting to see who or what managed to kill her. …Though another question is why he would be so interested in Japan of all places so soon after obtaining not only a master weapon maker, but a very potential noble phantasm as well… something is missing." He looked at the old man curiously. "I am assuming that he is traveling to the city as we speak."

"With his son and the mace yes." The priest confirmed. "He appears to be going after the ones that killed his daughter and are going to make sure that it is done right…"

"Interesting…" The teenager mused and scratched his chin like an old man before he began to walk to the exit of the room. "Yes… I have a feeling that this event will certainly be worth our attention… come. It would be best to leave now lest we miss anything worth observing…"

The priest nodded. "But of course. I shall make the arrangements with the church and then meet you in the standard place."

The boy smiled in a worry free manner. "Please do hurry my left arm. It is getting rather close to morning and it does take some time to get to Japan from here, even on my left leg."

"I understand." The elderly man smiled as he disappeared into the shadows of the church as easily as he had appeared. "I will be with you momentarily."

The boy smiled as he turned to exit the room. He was very curious as to what in that city had so much of his fellow Ancestor's attention…

o. o. o.

A/N:

Thanks to Bloody Hero for betaing this.

Ugh. This chapter was way harder for me to write than I initially thought.

Fighting will start next chapter. Blood will fly. Tricks will be pulled, and of course blades will fill the sky.

Onto other stuff. From Fake Dreams has a tvtropes page now. Still tiny, but it should get bigger as time goes on and stuff.

Fanart. None yet, but I've been getting questions from people that want to try their hands at the new weapons, but personally I'm hoping for someone to try my new version of Shirou. (shroud around lower head like a ninja, hair going white, skin going dark, and maybe a glowing circuit on his chest). If anyone wants to try, please go ahead.

So I've been getting a few people telling me to kill off Sirius because he has nothing to give to the story now and well… people die in the type moon universe. It happens. I killed Shinji after all. Well I'll humor and annoy you guys at the same time. Something less than desirable will happen to the old drunk in this arc, but that does not necessarily mean I'm gonna off him.

As for future plans with the story… I have just decided to add in just one more OC to this thing that will have an effect on the plot, however I believe that who he comes with will make people at the very least tolerate his presence… until I kill him that is. Heh. Let's just say, I needed a reason to keep the characters I wanted alive after the war alive… and I think I've developed a damned good and logical way to make it like that.

So that's it for now. REVIEW! WORSHIP THE LOG! THANK THE LORD THAT YOU ARE CAPABLE OF RECOGNISING BAD SEXUAL INNUENDOS! AND REVIEW AGAIN!


	16. Chapter 16

Chapter 16: Machinations

I do not own Fate/Stay Night and stuffs:

o. o. o.

Fuyuki City:

Emiya Shirou chuckled to himself in a grim fashion as he tinkered with the motorcycle that Taiga's grandfather had sent to him to fix. He wondered if this was what it was like for soldiers that were stationed at a place that they knew was going to get hammered in the very near future but the exact time and date were still unknown. Just waiting every day to see if hell would finally arrive, and in the mean time realize that everything else being done is either subtly frustrating the soldier to no end or is significantly more difficult because of those frustrations. When he wasn't training, studying up on magic, cooking, meditating, or tinkering with his latest project, Shirou's nerves would unfortunately get the better of him. Granted as time went on his nerves seemed to have numbed themselves enough that it wouldn't affect his work or cooking anymore, but the upcoming fight still preoccupied his thoughts…

It had been several days since he, Rin and Bazett had gone over his rather hastily put together set of tactics. While there had been some minor arguments and second thoughts, the group eventually decided to give it a shot. In order to increase the odds of it working, Rin had to do some practicing in a certain activity that she was not normally accustomed to on her own during the day time. However, given the circumstances Rin sparingly grumbled and complained about her task.

Meanwhile, Bazett spent most of her daylight hours either getting sleep or walking around the city in order to see if she could gain a quick heads up on Louvre's arrival before he had a chance to get the drop on them. She hadn't come across anything yet but at least she was getting used to the town in general.

Click. Snap. Whir. Clank.

Shirou absentmindedly worked on the bike, letting his hands move almost by themselves as his eyes traced and examined the vehicle's engine and inner workings. Tools entered and left his hands at a pace that even professionals would be impressed at, seeing as the boy could tell exactly what was wrong with the machinations of the equipment through his magic and how to fix it through his experience with fixing this same bike on multiple occasions in the past.

Shirou's hands were a testament to his dedication to his hobby. Both hands had rather thick callouses on the palms of his hands, and while he didn't have many scars thanks to Avalon, they had enough blemishes to indicate that he worked with them fairly frequently. They were strong yet precise; tough yet supple; they were the hands of a craftsman… an engineer… a blacksmith…

The teen had lost track of how long he had been in his workshop. It was at times like this that he had forgotten that this was the only place that he could truly be alone to think anymore. Rin was egotistical at times, but even she didn't dare trespass on his privacy and studies. Bazett was much the same way. Shirou was certain that Sakura would have attempted to get inside to wake him up had he slept in on a school day, however, his father had taken precautions against that early on by putting an alarm clock based bounded field on the shed that would wake up absolutely anyone inside that wasn't put under via drugs, in a coma, or in a critically wounded state at five in the morning every morning. That particular addition had to be made shortly after Shirou started his thaumaturgy training and had to be forcibly woken up from the shed in order to get to school on time for a month.

The memories of his father made him chuckle dryly. The things he knew of this father, the things he learned of the man's past, the way that other people reacted to his name... Shirou highly doubted that his general studying and training would have varied all that much had he not been tasked with the debacle of the next Holy Grail War. People hated and feared Emiya Kiritsugu to such a degree that Shirou would have had to learn how to defend himself at some point else he would undoubtedly be murdered by some random magi at some point. Shirou wondered how his father's enemies would have reacted seeing the Kiritsugu setting the kitchen on fire while trying to cook, or getting pushed around by a confused and drunk Fuji-nee on her sixteenth birthday party between a dozen men that were literally twice his size.

Shink. Wrr Wrr Wrr

Shirou tightened the last screw on the bike before brushing his hands on his work pants and reached forward to analyze his work. A quick structural grasping told him that everything would work perfectly, and the only thing left that needed tweaking was the plastic outer casing that did nothing but give the bike its aerodynamic shape and visual flare. Technically he could easily repair the frame with his magic, however he didn't have any real excuse to explain how he could do so. Replacing normal parts was fairly simple and cheap for anyone to do, but customized plastic parts were expensive and took time to obtain. He knew of several companies that could do such jobs since this wasn't the first time he had to fix a car or a bike, however, it always bugged him to leave a project not completely finished when he knew he could do more to help.

Looking around his workshop the boy once more mused at how odd his workshop was compared to how other magi set their equipment up. While most magi preferred a laboratory setup, Shirou preferred the engineer's or mechanic's setup. Where most magi were neat and organized, storing tomes and rare items for analysis and experimentation, Shirou had mundane objects scattered everywhere that held no real significance, magical or not. They were merely there either because he wanted to fix them or because he wanted to see how his magic could alter or enhance them. Though, he did have a couple of desks and shelves filled with tools and books, both magical and mechanical focused lying around the place, but they were in no particular order and were clearly not put away neatly if the few that were laying around were any indication…

A knock on the door interrupted his musings and brought the teen back to reality. "Emiya-kun…" Rin's voice warned from the other side of the door. "Someone's here…"

The temperature in the room dropped at least ten degrees at that instant as Shirou's somewhat calm, carefree, and relaxed demeanor disappeared and was replaced with one that was more appropriate for the upcoming encounter. Wearily picking himself up and walking to the door, the boy opened it to see Rin waiting for him with her game face on. "It's just one person…"

"He's either confident enough to take us on by himself or he's merely here to declare war and set up a more appropriate place to fight…" Shirou observed as he closed the door behind him. He didn't worry about anyone trying to sneak up on them should the fighting start now. His group had set up multiple sensory bounded fields all over the area designed to inform them of how many major magical sources entered them. If only one source was detected, then that meant that they were most likely dealing with a messenger at this point in time.

"That was what I suspected too." Rin agreed as she followed him to the front where Bazett was waiting for them. "I had hoped that we had more time to prepare and practice. But then again, we've had a fairly generous period of time to recover as well."

"Yeah." Shirou nodded in agreement. As they walked the boy went over the various tactics and approaches to situations that he had both taken from his father's combat and assassination records (which had been hidden inside the house for Shirou to find when he opened the box), and ones that Shirou had made up later with Rin and Bazett. He noted that Rin was wearing a longer skirt than she normally did, this one reached her knees instead of her thighs, which helped display her "absolute territory" as Taiga had put it, not that he understood what it meant. While the skirt would impede the girl's movements, if only by a small margin, it served a greater purpose in concealing the tools she would need to serve her in the upcoming fighting. "Are you comfortable using it yet?" He asked in an even tone that barely let his underlying concern show.

Rin frowned. "Have some more faith in me will you? I may not be a combat nut like you, but I am still a genius and a quick learner. All I need is a good opening to work with. It's you that I'm worried about…"

"Don't worry." The boy smiled briefly from under the red shroud. He had become familiar enough with the cloth to be able to use reinforcement on it to comfortably wrap it around his face and mouth with a tiny amount of prana, and alter it to just around his neck when he ate or cleaned himself. Had he enough time, he would have considered learning to alter it to be an undershirt of sorts so that there was less excess cloth hanging off of his body, maybe even a jacket. "I haven't died yet and I don't plan on dying anytime soon. I won't do anything risky if I don't need to…"

"Don't be disappointed if that doesn't make me feel any better…" The girl said, glaring at her friend accusingly.

"I'd be concerned if you didn't." Shirou mused as the two arrived at the front gate where Bazett was waiting for them.

"You two took your time." The enforcer grunted as she flexed her hands and made sure her rune encrusted gloves were on properly. "I hope you didn't forget anything…"

"I'm not as experienced as either one of you, but don't go thinking I'm some careless idiot." Rin coldly commented while keeping her eyes straight ahead.

"I have everything I need right in here." Shirou tapped his head almost mockingly.

"Let's hope you're right about that Shirou." The eldest darkly stated before narrowing her eyes. "He's just about here…"

Shirou and Rin nodded as they too could feel the presence of another magically capable individual extremely close by, a very strong one if the amount of prana he exerted was any indication…

For what seemed like hours the three waited in front of the doorway for their mystery assailant to attack…

So it completely floored them when said individual did not destroy the front door or attempt to dispel the bounded fields around the house when he arrived at the property. Rather, he instead politely knocked on the door like any other normal individual. "Oi! Don't shoot! Ahm just ta messenger!" A loud, deep, and distinctly familiar voice shouted from the other side of the doorway, causing Shirou and Bazett to blink in surprise and Rin to tilt her head in confusion.

"Who the hell is that?" Rin asked confused as Bazett moved carefully to the front door to open it.

"…Old man?" The Fraga asked carefully as she peeked through the small opening to see Sirius standing on the other side, still in one piece but looking a bit more exhausted than he normally did. "Is that really you?"

"Ya want me ta tell everyone about my surprise birthday gift ta you ta Shirou?" The giant asked with a raised eyebrow. "Like ah said. Ahm' just ta messenger. Tat prick Louvre is playin mind games wit ya by sendin me here as a middleman."

"Humph." Rin snorted. "How conceited of him. Just because he's an ancestor he thinks he can just flaunt his advantages like this…" She eyed Sirius warily. "So you're the mystic code crafter that I've been hearing so much about lately…"

"You can't escape his influence?" Bazett asked warily.

The old man shook his head. "Can't. Ahm under a geis to not escape in return fer makin sure tat ta lad an I doesn't get killed or turned undead."

"So that's the reason why they were so adamant to capture you Emiya-kun…" Rin mused. "They were using you as a means to control him…"

Sirius shook his head. "Look, ah don't have much time ta be here so ah'll make tis quick. Louvre is downright pissed tat ya killed his girl so he's here wit his son ta capture Shirou and kill ta rest. Is tere a place ya can suggest ta brawl tat won't get ya too much attention?"

The three magi looked at one another before nodding. "Fuyuki Fire Memorial Park." Shirou stated calmly, getting a look from the eldest one there.

"Tat place?" He mused curiously before shaking his head. "Ah… Louve ain't gonna like it one bit when he gets tere… its cursed badly… but it'll do." He looked at Shirou warily. "Speakin of curses… did ya open ta box yet lad?"

The boy's eyes narrowed and nodded. "I did." He stated in a calm yet irritated tone, clearly indicating that he wasn't exactly thrilled with what he found inside.

Sirius sighed and scratched his head. "Look lad. Ah know ya aren't thrilled wit ta blades but ta be perfectly honest it was yer old man's idea… and none of us knew about how deep ta curse was in his body till ah was halfway through makin tem. Fer what it's worth, ahm sorry ah did it, but it had ta be done." His eyes hardened. "Ta be blunt though… they're not gonna be enough ta fight Louvre."

The three younger magi froze at the old man's statement. "What?" Rin gaped in surprise. "Not enough? How the hell can those things not be enough?"

Sirius grunted as a bracelet on his arm flared warningly. "Ah can't talk about it much, but if ya want ta live through tis ya gotta fight him indirectly. Even if ya use Kiritsugu ya won't be able ta beat him wit his current equipment." He turned to walk away so suddenly that it even caught him by surprise. "Crap. Ah gotta go. He'll be waitin fer ya at ta park soon. Ah'd hurry tere if ah were you, but don't forget anything. Don't worry about me though, ahm made of strong suff! My hide's as thick as a cow's!"

Bazett's eyes flashed dangerously as the old man disappeared around the corner. "As thick as a…"

Rin looked at Bazett curiously. "I take it there was another meaning to that last comment?"

The woman nodded slowly. "Yeah, but it would be best if neither one of you knew what it meant at this point in time." She glanced at Shirou and Rin. "You two. I know you said that you were ready to fight, but seeing how Shirou is still dressed in his work clothes I think we could spare a few more minutes to prepare correctly…"

Shirou looked down and saw that he was still in his school's jumpsuit, covered in grime and oil from the bike he had been working on in his workshop. He had completely forgotten about it when Rin and called him out. "Ah… sorry. I forgot about this." He chuckled lightly and went inside. "I'll clean myself up right now and get something better on. Just hold up for a sec."

Rin sighed as she scratched her head. "We're about to have a fight to the death with a Dead Apostle Ancestor and to prepare he's taking a shower to wipe off the grime from fixing a motorcycle that is in his workshop. Please tell me you also see what's wrong with this situation too."

Bazett relaxed a fair amount and shrugged, but still maintained her mature demeanor. "While it is a bit odd, he isn't the worst case I've seen. I once encountered a Sealing Designate in America that went completely insane from his research and asked me to wait so he could finish his battle preparations… which was to ingest a bit of virtually every major illegal drug on the market."

"Are you serious?" Rin blinked. "Was that supposed to help him in some way?"

The elder snorted. "Normally it would have since he had a magic that enhanced his physical and magical abilities in direct proportion to how many toxins he had in his body, converting the chemicals and the poisons that his body made in reaction to them into pure prana, but the idiot had been doing those drugs for so long that he had completely forgotten to cast the spell before taking the drugs and ended up dying of an overdose less than a minute after he popped his third pill." A hint of an amused smile echoed on her face as she recalled the whole thing.

Rin's eyebrow twitched. "I see… you know, I'm beginning to think that most of the magic that the association banned was because it resulted in the ones studying it to become either crazy or stupid."

Bazett nodded her head reluctantly. "You'd be surprised how often the ones who break that rule are the latter, no matter how intelligent they are supposed to be…"

o. o. o.

The Collector:

Louvre had expected his prey to have a place in mind for his inevitable battle. He had expected traps, bounded fields, concealed areas…

He did not expect it to be in a park in the middle of the city with only the standard concealing and privacy barriers to ensure that no non magical aware being would be able to notice them… and the ground themselves being cursed with something insufferable.

He grimaced as he looked around. The entirety of the park was saturated with a dark spiritual scar that belonged to the natural, yet was unnatural at the same time. To an existence that was more sensitive to the workings of the planet such as himself, the field might as well been covered in raw chemicals or trash. It was a miracle that there were even trees and grass growing here, even if they all looked like they were half dead…

"Sister and I were concerned of this place as well when we first came across it." The younger vampire commented as he shifted from side to side, clearly as disturbed by the area as his father. "Whatever happened here… it was neither reasonable nor controlled… it is extremely unexpected for a place with such high natural mana concentrations…"

"This foul presence is repulsive yet at the same time it is anchored and bonded to this land." The vampire commented. "It is almost akin to a reality marble. Something not of Gaia's or Alaya's work… it is unexpected to come across such a deeply cursed land in the middle of a city." He closed his eyes and focused only to be immediately bombarded with disturbing and fowl images and concepts. "A curse on this scale… we will have to research this area it at some point once our business here is dealt with. Whatever caused it must be investigated thoroughly…" He opened his eyes and turned his head to look at Sirius who was casually sitting on a nearby bench and eating an apple. He was confident that with his geis in place the crafter would not try anything stupid lest he ruin his circuits, and took the large man's silence for resignation to his current position. "Care to tell us of what happened here blacksmith?"

Sirius shrugged as he chewed on his latest bite of fruit. "Ah heard tat this is where ta Holy Grail War ended about 8 years ago. Caused a real big explosion in ta process too. Ah wasn't told ta exact details, but from what ah've heard, sometin warped ta Grail an tainted ta contents in ta war before. Since ta grail was almost filled when ta war ended last time, ah can only guess tat sometin caused ta grail ta spill its contents here and tis is ta result."

"The Grail War? So that is why this city sounds familiar… this was the location of one of Kaleidoscope's larger projects some centuries ago." Louvre frowned as he looked around. "Several heroic spirits worth of prana concentrated at a single point… corrupted… and discharged at once… yes I can see how this place would be affected as thoroughly as it has been…" He shifted his cloak a bit, momentarily revealing his mace in the process.

"Does something else seem to be the matter father?" His son asked curiously. "You were a bit uncomfortable while we were traveling here…"

The elder shook his head. "It is nothing of importance." The Apostle mentally snorted at the message that he had received only hours ago from the princess of the dead apostles, Altrouge Brunestud, a woman with precognitive powers. Frequently she sent messages to the twenty seven when she predicted their deaths in order to let them prepare their next in line adequately. The one she sent him was no different.

_Your end will be sealed by the Magus Killer's machinations._

He shook his head. The Magus Killer had been confirmed dead for years now and not once had he or his children encountered the man, not that he had bothered to remember the mercenary's name in the first place. Whatever plan the human had prepared pre-mortem had nothing to do with him. He had half a mind to declare that the princess' abilities were waning after he dealt with this situation, however it would be best to wait a while lest he incur the wrath of her supporters...

His musing were cut short however as he turned to the direction of something that triggered his senses. "We will talk about the processes and implications of examining this area later." His eyes rested on the slowly approaching forms of Bazett, Shirou, and Rin from the other side of the field. In the sky behind them, the full moon was shining brightly, bringing him some comfort from nature in this field of disturbances.

He took note of the boy standing on the right side of the group. He was dressed in thick dark blue carpenter pants that looked like jeans, a black shirt with long blue sleeves and collar, black fingerless gloves, and dark sneakers… however, the most notable part of his attire was the red shroud that he wore around his face and neck like some kind of ninja that human children seemed to be enthralled with this decade. Still the boy seemed to already be prepared for anything as he felt the child focusing a fair amount of prana into his body, no doubt in order to reinforce it if what his son told him was correct.

The two groups remained silent as the second party approached gradually until they were a healthy distance from one another and examined the other warily. "I hope we didn't make you wait long." Bazett stated in a calm and controlled tone. For a brief moment she looked at Sirius but didn't say anything. Talking to the blacksmith would only distract them at this point. Sirius was well aware of this as well, which is why he opted to remain quiet.

"I'd rather not spend any more time in this place if I can help it." Louvre frowned. "I take it you are the one that killed my daughter woman…"

"And your point?" Bazett frowned. "Enforcers have a tendency to hunt Dead Apostles and the like. Don't act surprised Louvre."

"Don't think that you have the honor of talking to me on the same level Fraga." The vampire glared with glowing eyes. "Your kin may date back to the age of gods, but you yourself are simply a normal human with some antiquated tricks."

"Let the old man go and leave us alone." Shirou stated calmly with unblinking eyes.

The younger vampire snorted. "Humph. Know your place boy. You are in no position to demand anything from us." He laughed and crossed his arms confidently. "Even if we wanted to, we can't do anything about his condition now. He and father have a geis set up, and nothing save for the contract's destruction, annulment, or death of one of the parties involved will change things."

Rin flipped her hair to the side casually. "Really then? Well that makes things easier doesn't it? All we have to do is kill you and our problems will be solved."

Louvre turned to Rin with a look of distain. "You are too overconfident about your situation girl." He pulled out his prized mace from his robes. "Your comrade's peculiar weapons and Noble Phantasm will be of no use here…"

"… Shit." Shirou swore as he got a good look at the weapon that was now firmly rooted in his inner world as his mind sorted out all the information about it in record time.

Noting that the boy with the supposed Reality Marble froze the moment he took out his prized weapon, the vampire swung his tool hard before the child could supposedly divulge its secrets to his comrades. In the middle of the swing the weapon rebounded against the very air itself and caused a massive travelling distortion that rippled to the three magi accompanied by an unstable seemingly underwater echoing sound that assaulted everyone's ears…

Acting on impulse, the humans jumped away from the barely visible attack in separate directions while preparing counterattacks of their own. Shirou's materialized at least three dozen swords around himself and fired them off at a rapid but steady stream towards the vampires while Rin shot off her Gandr curse as fast as she could to accompany the blades. Bazett, in the meantime, simply waited in the starting position, no doubt ready to hone in on her target vampire the moment he was far enough from his backup…

The group however did not expect Louvre's son to take out a small jeweled staff from his own garb and counter the attacks with a highly concentrated wall of fire that incinerated the counter attacks and blinded their targets in the process. Taking advantage of their target's distraction, the son then shot off another massive fireball at Rin before suffocating the wall of fire to enable his father and himself to bolt after their intended targets with the inhuman speed that their kind was known for.

Bazett, the most experienced of the group managed to regain her eyesight fast enough to see the fireball closing in on the least experienced one there. "Rin! Move!" She managed to shout before a slew of smaller faster fireballs made its way to her and forced her to focus her time on dodging.

Barely managing to regain her senses in time, Rin saw that she was not able to dodge the oncoming attack. Acting on pure instinct, she accessed her magic crest's powers and erected a quick but fairly strong bounded field in front of her as a makeshift defense. Unfortunately the field didn't hold as well as she had hoped as the massive conflagration exploded with immense force upon colliding with her defense and threw the screaming girl a fair distance away.

"Tohsaka!" Shirou shouted in alarm before managing to somehow jump away from Louvre crushing his shoulder with the gold and crimson mace in hand. While the boy himself didn't get hit with the weapon, he shuddered as he watched the ground it did hit collapse from underneath as if it was a sinkhole that had just formed. The topsoil and the grass remained unblemished, but the area underneath had clearly just been immensely impacted…

Shirou didn't have time to react appropriately to such a marvel however as he instantly projected a small wall of swords in order to gain himself some breathing room and backpedaled away from where Bazett was fighting the younger vampire. The wall did almost nothing though as they were knocked aside from the mace wielding vampire as if they were made of fragile glass and continued to charge forward with glowing red eyes.

The Faker swallowed heavily as he got another good look at the mace now and took in all the information he could about it, feeling its copy become realized and constructed inside his Reality Marble. This was a very powerful weapon. Old. Potent. Valuable…

And absolutely useless in his hands.

The mace was made in the 11th century for a catholic bishop from England who was involved with the battle of Hastings. He had used the mace avoid drawing blood and to motivate his soldiers from behind. It had been lost upon the wielder's death, but the weapon itself had been depicted on a very famous historical tapestry and thus impacting history indirectly through the centuries, influencing the world's mass population to believe that priests used maces to not draw blood in battle when forced to fight. This in turn caused the once normal mace to turn into a conceptual weapon on a Noble Phantasm level despite its wielder's seemingly standard tale.

The tool's purpose was to deal internal damage and bypass the outer layers of its target. When applied to manifestations of thaumaturgy, it would cause the weavings of prana that caused the mystery to actualize and violently unravel, thus forcing the wild energy to destroy the spell from the inside out. Ranked as a B+ conceptual weapon, it was certainly a perfect counter for almost all magic and armors… however there were stipulations that needed to be followed in order for it to work, and if one of them was not met, then its natural power ranking would also fall to a D+ rank. Of course since Shirou could only replicate a tool of that level to a certain degree based on sight alone, the best he could trace would only be strong enough to be considered of an E+ quality.

The first requirement the mace had was that the user had to not draw blood in any fashion for a certain amount of time before, and during combat. This was self explanatory as the tool's intended purpose was to not allow such wounds from occurring. As a holy weapon, it would automatically detect if its wielder had done so and would react the instant something happened that was contradictory to its purpose.

The second stipulation however was what prevented Shirou from being able to ever use the mace to its full potential. The tool that was supposed to enforce "peace" and served as a sufficient replacement for standard weapons used in battle. The primary reason why its user had wielded it in war was because his status as a cleric forbade him from wielding a blade or an 'arm of war'. As such this limitation carried over to the weapon itself with regards to using its powers, meaning the wielder cannot use it properly unless he or she was not carrying with them an 'arm of war' on them at the same time such as a sword or a gun. Shirou, whose origin and element were both 'sword', was in himself an arm of war, and as such would not be able to use its powers unless both were somehow changed, which would in turn of course prevent him from being able to trace it in the first place.

"What's wrong boy?" Louvre growled as he bolted to Shirou with his naturally inhuman body and swung again, destroying the two blue and red blades the boy had been holding upon contact and sending him flying meters away. "Is my weapon scaring you? What does your twisted little mind tell you about it?"

Shirou didn't bother to reply as he picked himself up and tried to gain some more breathing room. He could tell that most of his ribs had been bruised by that last attack, thankfully his weapons taking the brunt of most of the mace's blow. He couldn't fight in close quarters if he wanted to live. That mace was too dangerous and its wielder was too fast. With the full moon out and his son nearby, Louvre was damn near impossible to compete with on a physical level.

In fact… as much as he hated to admit it, Shirou had to guess that part of the reason why he had managed to do as well as he did so far in evading the vampire's attacks was because he himself was experiencing a minor boost from the full moon as well in addition to his reinforcement enhancing his body. He could see clearer in the night without having to use magic and his body felt lighter than ever as he basked in the moon's glow…

He ducked just as another swing of the mace nearly crushed his limbs. That was close, he nearly let the adrenaline get to his head and distract him from the fight. Breathing out slowly he funneled prana into both his circuits and his crest at the same time.

"Model. Defined. Process. Refined. Sequence. Automate. Production. Start." He muttered as he backpedaled as quickly as he could while feeling his reality marble hum and echo with movement. Landing a small distance away from Louvre and flared his circuits.

"Trace! Overclock!" He yelled as a few dozen of average looking swords appeared around him and fired off at the vampire quickly, only to be replaced with another sword that was bolted from its starting position just as quickly… and was replaced by another.

While "Trace Accel" was a spell that could be considered an average machinegun that shot modified high velocity bullets, "Trace Overclock" was just the opposite in that it shot off normal bullets, but the gun was altered to fire at least twice as many rounds in half the time. Granted this variation was less suited for high level opponents and more for large numbers, however it was also good for buying time as the number of flying swords produced was more than a bit distracting for most living beings.

Unfortunately, this would not be enough as Louvre demonstrated by hammering the air in front of him with his mace and making an even larger shockwave than before. The ripple in the air rolled forward like a tsunami and overwhelmed the torrent of blades that attempted to skewer the vampire and were torn apart in the chaos. Continuing uninhibited, the wave of distortion crashed into the area Shirou had just been moments before and caused the ground to collapse into a massive crater at least 4 meters in radius.

_Damn… this isn't good… _ Shirou panted as he glanced at the damage the mace had done before turning his attention back to the source. _How much longer am I going to have to stall him? _

Louvre's eyes narrowed as he stopped and focused his gaze on the boy. "… I see. I thought that something was peculiar when you came with that cowl on." Shirou's stiffening body was all he needed to confirm his guess. "I can feel it boy. My daughter's blood still runs in your veins, if only by a miniscule amount. That cowl you wear prevents your conversion into one of my kind, prevents your mind and soul from being truly afflicted, however your body has turned a small amount." The vampire's body relaxed while it flared a small amount of prana and caused Shirou to suddenly gasp in pain and grab his chest.

His heart, his lungs, his organs, his muscles, his bones. Everything seemed to be assaulted and writhing at once. "Wha…t… are… you… doing… to… me?" The boy grit his teeth and spoke between breaths when his organs would allow him to.

Louvre snorted. "Humph. I am merely causing my daughter's blood to become more active. As her father and the one who turned her in the first place, I am easily capable of such minor feats. While that cowl may protect your sanity, your body will eventually be converted to one of my own should I keep this up. Fortunately for you I am not able to do such a thing without repercussions, however it will do quite nicely as a method to keep you in line." He walked casually towards the boy. "You rely on my daughter's gift to fight yet you denied her life. You spurned her gift while at the same time using what you gained already for your own profit. Humans like you disgust me." His prana flared again, causing Shirou to scream out in pain. "I think I will put you in your place for a bit longer before I take you back for experimen…" Louvre's sentence was cut short however as a brief flash of light caught his attention from behind and caused him a severe amount of pain, forcing him to jump away from the boy and hide behind a tree. "What in the world?" He hissed in irritation. "This is sunlight! But how?" He glanced briefly from around the tree and cursed in pain, anger, and shock…

Sirius McGinty walked calmly from where he had been waiting on the bench to Shirou like a beefed up wingless angel. His skin glowed like a beacon and travelling across his body were countless runes, swimming across his body like individual fishes save for several dozen that were engraved across his limbs, were stuck on his chest, and a few on his forehead.

"Sirius-jiji?" Shirou panted as the Irishman stopped by his side to help him up.

"Ah was hopin ya would have lasted longer ten tat before ah had ta step in… but if ya really do have tat bitch's blood in ya ah can't really blame ya fer it…" The old man shook his head tiredly as the light emanating from him died down.

"What the hell are you doing?" Louvre shouted enraged. "Why are your circuits intact! Why are you going against me?"

The old man chuckled as he helped the boy up. "Ya made a mistake when we made the geis Louvre. Ah still had one code left on me when we made it, and ta deal doesn't apply to it. Ah still can't fight ya wit everythin ah got, but ah have enough legroom ta make sure ya don't hurt ta boy."

"Impossible…" The vampire growled through clenched teeth as he walked out from his cover. "We made sure to get rid of every tool you had on you! There's nothing else you have that could…" His eyes narrowed at the old man's form before widening in surprise. "… It couldn't be… you actually managed to turn…"

The largest man chuckled darkly as the runes across his body began to move faster randomly around his frame and he cracked his knuckles. "Yep. Ah turned my very skin inta my personalized code Louvre. Ta Lebor na nUidre." He cracked his neck a couple of times before hopping on his feet like a trained boxer. "Allow me ta show ya ta reason why ah was called ta Divergin Golem…"

o. o. o.

On top of a building nearby:

"Shit… so he's really using it…" Waver grimaced as he watched the fighting from a distance. His wincing was fueled by two things at the moment. The first was the current situation of course as he had just voiced.

The second was because he despised heights ever since Rider almost ditched him on top of the Fuyuki bridge at the beginning of the Fourth Grail War. On the bridge, the feeling of cold strong winds nearly pushing him to his death never really left him… and only came back with gusto whenever he encountered a similar sensations afterwards. He also still twitched whenever he heard thunder and saw lightning nearby as they reminded him of the near deafening sounds of the Gordian Wheel as it ran through the sky… without any way for him remain on the chariot save clinging to the side for dear life…

"The Lebor na nUidre…" Lorelei mused curiously as she used her magic to listen in on the fighter's conversations, not at all bothered by the wind or their current high position. "The Book of the Dun Cow. Supposedly it's the oldest known manuscript of Irish mythology discovered to date and made by one of the Twelve Apostles of Ireland. I thought that it was being kept in the vaults at the Clocktower…"

Waver sighed. He knew that the woman next to him had indirectly commanded him to explain Sirius' actions. "Apparently about a century ago the old man managed to scrape off a few pieces of the tome when his family was called in for rune related artifact examination and preservation. He later somehow managed to create a form of fusion based thaumaturgy through alteration and using his family's knowledge of runecraft to assimilate his body with the pieces. The end result is that his skin itself is now like a living scripture that can create, channel, and perform almost any form of rune based thaumaturgy there is. All he has to do is think of the sequence of inscriptions and where to apply them and it actualizes almost instantly. It's what he's been using to prolong his life, however his advanced reinforcement skills did help a bit as well…"

The Barthomelloi didn't say anything as she watched the fighting progress in the park below. The Emiya boy focused on attacking Louvre while the blacksmith acted as a shield for the boy since apparently there was a significant reason for the vampire to avoid harming him. While the old man's display of power was impressive, she was somewhat disappointed in the boy's performance. The knowledge that he was tainted with inhuman blood merely added to her ire at the child. Other than performing some above average projection and reinforcement, he had yet to do anything that was notable or significant in the fight other than managing to survive…

Bored with the fight against the Ancestor, the woman turned her attention to the enforcer that Waver had sent here prior to his current predicament…

o. o. o.

On top of another building…

"This is an okay fight…" The young looking vampire mused as he sat over the edge of the 20 odd story building he was on, not at all concerned about possibly falling off should the wind blow hard enough. "But I don't see what so special about the boy Kirei. I mean he's somehow still alive sure, but so far the only notable things about him are his projection, reinforcement, and the fact that he partially turned."

Kirei Kotomine chuckled as he stood behind and to the side of the vampire, the very picture of calm and composed. "Do not be fooled by mere appearances Master Solomon. That boy down there has potential that has yet to be tapped. He is one to keep an eye on, much like how his father was."

"His father?" The vampire blinked curiously. "Who was his father?"

The priest's eyes flashed in amusement. "Emiya Kiritsugu. The Magus Killer."

"Oh? The Mage Killer?" The Dead Apostle Ancestor mused in realization. "I remember hearing about that one. He was really good at killing both your kind and mine. I've never seen him personally but I've heard that he did things so differently and efficiently that he was even hired by the church a few times for a couple of jobs. I wasn't aware he had a son…"

"Few do, which makes observing him in the near future even more interesting." Kirei commented casually. "If you talked to him about the right subjects, you'd find that his personality is rather intriguing to inspect."

The vampire chuckled. "It seems you've taking a liking to the boy priest. Don't tell me you're one of those types that we have to keep an eye on…"

The man frowned. "I'm afraid to disappoint you, however even if I was homosexual or bisexual I would not bother with attempting any kind of relationship with anyone seeing as I have no desire to, let alone with a child that is almost third of my age…"

"Ah yes, I forgot that humans these days are rather uptight about that sort of thing." The vampire waved off the priest casually. "It seems a bit excessive if you ask me. Why not even a century ago your kind wouldn't have minded one bit if a man older than you took a thirteen year old child as his concubine while having a woman barely older than her as his wife and impregnated them both by the end of the year. How times have changed."

"And for the better in my personal opinion…" Kirei commented. While he did get a very sick satisfaction out of other's misery, the idea of such a relationship was more than he could stand both in pragmatism and in personal beliefs. His irritation with his kind's history was momentarily put on hold as a small movement caught his eye. "Hoh?" He mused. "Well that certainly is interesting…"

o. o. o.

With Bazett:

The woman frowned as she dodged to avoid three small fast fireballs before shooting one of her fists forward to destroy a boulder that had been hidden behind the glowing balls, only to jump back as a small insect like familiar with at least a dozen sharp limbs nearly shredded her apart.

This was getting ridiculous. For every mystic code that she managed to figure out the general mystery of… or destroy, her opponent seemed to have at least another dozen waiting. The only consistency she noticed was that her vampire foe tended to resort back to fire based equipment, meaning that he was most likely a fire element aligned individual, but that didn't really help much.

There were too many codes being used, and Bazett figured because of that, neither she nor her opponent would be able to tell what the vampire's most powerful attack would be. Thus render her Noble Phantasm all but useless. Fragarach was a powerful tool and the ultimate counter spell, but in order to work right it needed to be used against the opponent's strongest attack.

She hated to admit it, but she wasn't in a good position at the moment…

"_Bazett-san. Now?" _A small voice asked her permission to act through a small seal below the ear lobe, established just before the fight had begun.

"_Not yet."_ The woman warned as she destroyed the insect like puppet with a single punch before bolting towards her opponent. "_Wait for something special. You'll be able to tell when you see it… I'll keep fighting till that happens. Don't worry about me."_

"Damn…" Grunted Louvre's son as he swung his jeweled cane again to create a massive torrent of fire to protect himself. The man was no stranger to battle that much was certain, however he was getting rather frustrated with how this single woman was constantly putting him on the ropes. Most magi he encountered relied more on their magic in order to fight and handle obstacles. Manipulating the elements. Summoning demons and few actually bothered to enhance their natural abilities and physical skills to do combat and were often seen as crude imitators of thaumaturgy…

So why the hell was this woman who did nothing but punching, kicking, and running… overcoming everything he was throwing at her and coming back for more? "What will it take to make you stop already!" The vampire yelled more to himself than anyone else as he took out a new code from his pockets, a small round purple black ball covered in runes, and threw it to the ground in front of Bazett, who in turn jumped away just in time to escape the explosion of murky gas that revealed a tentacle covered demon that was almost 5 meters tall.

"Of course. Tentacles." The woman muttered irritably as she backed up even more to escape the thing's whipping moist limbs to escape its most likely enormous reach. "I was wondering when I would have to deal with those things in my career. Lord knows every female Enforcer has complained about them at one point or another…"

Landing at least 20 meters away from the… thing, the woman began to trace runes in the middle of the air in front of her. "Sowilo. Ansuz. Uruz. Ansuz." She muttered as she poured her prana into the physical based spell. As soon as her casting was finished, the four hovering letters shot forward until they inscribed themselves onto the beast and instantly immolated the hissing and screaming monstrosity in a massive pillar of flames. "The hell I'm letting that thing near me without at least doing that…" She muttered under her breath while breathing heavily. She didn't look away as she watched the beast shrivel up and turn into charcoal to make sure that it was really destroyed. She had heard of stories about creatures like this faking dead before, only to recover soon afterwards when their opponents turned to walk away and… yeah she wasn't risking that.

Bazett didn't very often need to rely on using her runecraft for anything other than enhancing her physical capabilities in combat, however a giant tentacle monster in her mind definitely qualified as an reason to deviate from that trait. Thankfully her lineage and knowledge in the runic arts enabled her to perform such high level thaumaturgy quickly even though she did not spend much time practicing it. Still, her studies were enough that she knew which combinations of runes would produce the largest explosions. "Now that the distraction is gone, where is little vamp junior?"

Her answer came in the form of a scimitar bathed in blue fire nearly cutting her in two from her right side, only to miss as the woman's experience and speed managed to save her life at the cost of getting a long cut on her back through her structurally enhanced suit and undershirt. She hissed in irritation and pain as the burning sensation pervaded her back painfully while she skidded to a stop a short distance away.

"I'm right here little girl…" The blood sucking man growled as he swung his burning blue weapon around casually. "Normally I wouldn't bother taking out this little trinket, but you weren't making things easy for me." He noted the woman's heavy breathing and smirked. "What's wrong? Feeling tired? Already?"

The woman grimaced as she realized that her od, her inner energy was noticeably lower than it should have been. Judging from how the man was mocking her as if he knew something, she guessed that he had used a code to somehow deplete her of her energy. Odds were likely it was the sword he was using now, but it could easily be another code that she didn't take notice of… scratch that, from the way he's twirling the damned thing and walking casually, it was definitely the sword.

"_Something tells me that it would have been better if you and Shirou had switched opponents…" _The disembodied voice commented almost casually from just outside the enforcer's head.

"_Shut up. That sword is somehow able to get rid of the target's od. I'm starting to run low here." _Bazett mentally snapped as she took a fighter's stance again and not once taking her eyes off of her overconfident opponent. "Just hurry up already. I have better things to do than smack around little boys who do nothing but play with their daddy's toys."

The vampire smirked. "You're just jealous because you want to play with them yourself!" He charged forward with the burning weapon and slashed rapidly at speeds that only his kind and few experienced enhanced humans could achieve, forcing Bazett back and jumping away.

"Don't underestimate me…" The woman growled as her right hand glowed with the runes on her gloves before hammering her fist into the ground. The small shockwave in the earth managed to stall the vampire enough for her to rip out a massive chunk of earth from the ground with unnatural ease and launch it at her opponent.

She didn't stop there however as she immediately traced two runes at the massive flying stone. "Eihwaz! Raidho!" She casted the speed and strength enhancing marks on the projectile just as her opponent was about to attempt to slash the seemingly loose clump of dirt with his blade, only to be surprised as the boulder suddenly bolted forward and hit him with the rigid structure of a steel building. A loud yell of surprise and pain graced her ears as she watched her counterattack crush her opponent. She didn't think that he was defeated just from that, but it was good to finally get a hit in for once. "_Be ready…"_ She warned her friend as she saw a blue glow from underneath the rubble. "_Your opening should be showing up soon…"_

Moments later the ground exploded apart in a blue inferno and revealed a disheveled and clearly irritated vampire, evident by his fiercely glowing eyes. "Normally I like women who can put up a good fight, but this is beginning to get on my nerves."

"YOUR nerves?" Bazett frowned as she prepared to move again. "You weren't the one that had to deal with a tentacle demon."

"Be silent. Your issues fail to matter in the least compared to mine." He prepared the sword again. "I will kill you to avenge my sister Fraga. With so many codes on my person, even I am not aware of what my strongest attack is." The fire of the sword he held burned fierce and bright, indicating that he was pouring a rather large amount of his energy into it. "Your noble phantasm is of no use here!" He roared as he slashed down and unleashed a massive wave of blue flames at his target…

The attack was so massive in fact, that he could not see his target smirking… nor the dark haired teenage girl stand out from the sparse forest to the side of their fight and point something at his flames…

o. o. o.

With Shirou

When the Faker had first walked into the field that had been where he began the rest of his life that night, he had planned for many possible scenarios. Multiple vampires. Many mystical weapons. Undead. His death…

But he had not expected Sirius to somehow manage to find a loophole in his deal with Louvre and join him in a two on one battle against a dead apostle ancestor armed with a noble phantasm that could break almost any form of thaumaturgy there was with a mere tap.

The three fighters stood across from one another all panting to some degree and bearing wounds. Shirou, panting at an even rate, was sporting bruises and wounds from the initial fight, but for the most part had not gained much afterwards. Sirius was breathing much deeper and sported a few dark spots himself, but his most notable injury was his broken left arm which had swollen rather marvelously yet was still held professionally in a boxing stance. Louvre on the other hand did not look injured in the slightest albeit his clothes were a bit torn and his breathing was a bit shallow.

The old man and the teen had been dancing around one another constantly in response to their situation. When Louvre was on the attack, Sirius was in front armed with his enchanted skin and moving at speeds that if anything surpassed the greatly irritated vampire despite his massive frame and old age. Since neither the vampire nor the blacksmith could do any lasting harm to one another without losing their magic circuits, they both had to hold back greatly and focus on dealing superficial blows.

The term superficial however was used very lightly in Sirius' case however as the man displayed an unusual amount of variety with his code. One moment the man was glowing like the sun, the next he was blending in perfectly with the night, and the moment after that he was literally on and breathing out streams of fire. There was virtually no supplementary thaumaturgy in existence save for those related to the five sorceries that was beyond the old man's reach in his current state. While Shirou had been aware of the his teacher's capabilities having performed structural grasping on him multiple times before, to actually see him in action really made him thankful that he had never truly pissed the old man off.

Whenever the old man took point against the vampire, Shirou would in turn provide ranged support by spamming his swords. The boy didn't risk using many of his key weapons just yet, however he did constantly wield two copies of Natalia in his hands at all times so long as he was able to as a precaution.

The strategy was good and against most opponents they would have made some significant progress by this point… however…

Shirou and Sirius were still in a tough spot. Louvre's mace made up for the lack of numbers with sheer power. There were several craters in the earth where the vampire had tried to catch the weapon makers off guard by destabilizing the earth under their feet, and much to their surprise the man was capable of wielding the mace without it's passive powers without any indication, simply attacking with a weapon with a natural power of a B+ mystery, which was lethal but would not assure permanent damage which was perfect for fighting the elder opponent. Sirius' broken left arm was a testament to its strength seeing as he had his code protecting his body and still suffered the injury. He most likely could have handled that damage if he had been able to use reinforcement in conjunction with his code, but unfortunately his geis prevented him from using any normal form of thaumaturgy against the vampire, so all he was left with was his code…

"Tat time reversal power of his is startin ta piss me off…" Sirius grumbled as he tried to ignore the pain in his arm. "Ah forgot how bloody annoyin it is ta prevent his kind from recoverin from wounds… ahm too old fer tis crap…" He glanced at Shriou. "Oi lad. You thinkin of usin Maiya anytime soon? Tat sword could really help us out around now."

Shirou frowned. "I actually thought of using Maiya in another way that could help a lot. Problem is I need to get a good cut in for it to work." He looked warily at Sirius' arm. "I really don't want you to get injured anymore than you have already, but do you think you can hold him long enough for me to get a few cuts?"

The elder laughed as he put on a sadistic grin, lowered his body while increasing his prana output and causing the runes on his skin to move even faster. "Ah tink ah can manage tat bit lad. Just be fast wit it and make sure not ta bind me with ta prick. Ah don't wanna spend ta rest of my life wit an annoyin bastard like him at my side…" Before the boy could respond the old man bolted forward and suddenly glowed with a bright light, momentarily blinding everyone there and stunning the vampire in pain. The opening was all Sirius needed to get in more than a few solid blows and push the undead man away from the boy.

The Faker breathed heavily as he delved into his inner world. "Beginning tracing. Execute. Pause at Excelling Manufacturing Process. Incorporating concept of timeline stability…" His magic crest began to glow.

"When will you stop with this annoying foolishness!" Louve roared as he thrashed his mace wildly in order to keep the brightly shining Sirius away. "You are only making things worse for yourself blacksmith! I may not be able to do anything permanent to you after this, but rest assured I will see you suffer for this!"

Sirius in response simply spat in Louvre's face with the uncanny and fabled Irish accuracy that has been passed on for millennia, and blinded the vampire more than he already was before and rammed his massive good arm into his target's stomach, knocking the wind out the undead man. "Ah stuff it up yer dime sized arsehole Louvre!" The larger of the two men yelled before quickly weaving himself behind the man and twisting the arm holding the mace up behind his back painfully enough to force him to drop the annoying weapon. "Lad! Get him!"

Shirou didn't even wait for his magic to finish before bolting towards his target with sharp eyes. "Processing complete. Proceeding with construction. Execute." The hammer inside his head fired the two altered bullets he had produced in his mind and in an instant a pair of identical dark grey Chinese falchions with light brown vein-like designs along the sides. Despite the clear artistic beauty they held, neither one of them reflected light and seemed to blend into the nighttime atmosphere as naturally as shadows. Faster than what most eyes could follow the two weapons in the boy's hands struck downward in a cross strike at the struggling vampire as quickly as they had appeared…

"ENOUGH!" The vampire roared as he surged his own internal energies to deceptively high proportions, blasting Sirius and Shirou away just as the younger of the two managed to carve the first few inches of Louvre's chest with his blades. The force of the pulse of unrestrained energy destroyed the boy's swords in the process, though Sirius was still glowing like the sun. Wasting no time, Louvre turned to the elder of his opponents and glared at him, reciting an aria at a rapid pace. "My people are my tools. My pets are my property. Those who do not abide by my whim shall be put under or controlled. Tame yourself in the abyss my possession, or forever be broken."

Without any other warning, Sirius was suddenly surrounded by countless black chains that wrapped themselves around his cursing frame and restricted his movements before a large cloud of darkness enveloped the area around him, trapping the giant of a man inside a dome that was three meters in radius.

"Sirius-jiji!" Shirou shouted in alarm before noticing that the vampire had managed to pick up his mace again and sent another shockwave at him and forcing him to move.

"You are now without backup boy." The vampire growled irritably as he touched his chest to see how much he was bleeding from Shirou's attack. "You have managed to harm me more than I expected, and more than I will ever admit to anyone." He flared his prana once more to cause his daughter's blood in Shirou to paralyze the child with pain before walking forward menacingly. "Tell me boy. How are you so twisted? What happened to you that enabled such a worthless individual such as yourself to achieve a power that I desire so much? It is not loss since my daughter's death has yielded nothing. It is not hopelessness since I experienced that too when I was pushed to the brink as a human and resorted to turning myself to escape the worthless dealings of society, murdering my noble father, mother and sister in the process…" He stopped in front of the writhing child and picked him up by the throat, forcing Shirou to look at his assaulter in the eyes. "You have no more right to be called human than I do now. We are both something that is neither a product of Gaia or Alaya, but something of a separate design that denies both. Tell me boy. I know what I am, but what are you?"

Shirou struggled for air and relief under the demon's grip which prevented the blood from getting to his head and making him feel dizzy. His breathing was labored, his body was aching, and his mind was swimming. Still he struggled as he grabbed the arm that held him up and tried to relieve the pressure. Very briefly the image of the hill of blades flashed past his eyes, basking in the twilight of the full white moon and stars yet at the same time reflecting the blood red light of the evening sun to give it the illusion that it was all on fire…

"I… am…" The images of Sakura and Rin passed his mind, both smiling happily doing their own thing as they cooked or relaxed with him. He wanted to protect them with all his being. To make sure that they were happy. It was such a simple yet selfish desire that he would sacrifice himself without any hesitation to make it true…

"I am…" He repeated, more firmly as memories of his father was played in his head. The look of utter joy when they first met eyes. The look of remorse as he began to teach Shirou about magic. The look of despair he had as he attempted to stop the boy from acting out. The emotionless demeanor of the Magus Killer, the tiredness that seemed to emanate from his body as time went on… and the look of peace the night he died…

"I am not like you…" The boy growled as his grip on the man's hand tightened significantly, getting a momentarily surprised look from the vampire. The vampire blood in his body was weakening, claiming less influence over his inside's functions.

"Oh?" Louvre frowned as his grip tightened. "You think you know more than a man over 500 years your elder? Do tell me then. What makes us so different child?"

Shirou met eyes with the demon and chuckled. "Because… you kill people to keep going. You're body is already decaying, dead and corrupted and you only do things for yourself… but I'm still alive… I want to save people… and my body…" His circuits began to flare and it was too late for the vampire to realize that he should have knocked the boy out when he had the chance.

"My body is made of blades…" Shirou stated with absolute conviction as the entirety of his skin was instantly converted into countless miniscule razors that meshed together like chainmail, slashing apart the vampire's hand and arms where the Dead Apostle and the boy had respectfully grabbed one another.

The resulting pain caused Louvre to shout in surprise and throw Shirou away wildly. Focusing more on his injured appendage he hissed angrily. "You stupid child. It was a mistake to try and converse with a freak like you in order to find out anything." He reached out with his power to spur on his daughter's blood in the boy, only growl in irritation as he realized that not a drop of his daughter's remains were left in the child… only the slightly warped blood of the boy remained. "What? Where did my daughter's blood go?"

Breathing heavily and picking himself up from the ground, the younger monster returned his body to normal. "Let's try something different…" He muttered and in an instant materialized dozens of massive swords that embedded themselves into the ground around the enraged vampire randomly, setting the man in the center of a forest made of steel and iron.

Louvre spat in irritation. "Since you cannot defeat me through skill you resort to petty tricks? How childish." He looked at his injured hand and chest with disgust, annoyed that the boy had once more injured him, minor as they were. Channeling his prana into his body, he attempted to heal himself by reversing his body's condition to a previous state in time… and felt his very being lurch in a way that for a moment he had honestly believed he had gone insane. "What… on earth?" He gasped out as he grabbed his head and chest in order to attempt to stabilize himself. "Why can't I heal myself?"

"So you finally noticed?" Shirou's voice chuckled from the forest of shining metal around the man, seemingly coming from multiple directions. "That time trick of yours was getting annoying, so let's just say I evened the scales a bit at one point."

Louvre frowned as his eyes darted around to look for the boy while at the same time trying to figure out what the child could have done to perform such an unheard of mystery. It only took him a few moments to recall what was done differently before and after his previous recovery time. "Those peculiar tools you cut me with…" He growled as he stood up and examined his body internally. Within seconds he discovered and realized that his personal connection to the timeline had been virtually fused, or to be more accurate entangled, with the natural world's timeline. If he even attempted to try and heal himself with his normal methods, he would simply end up tearing his very existence apart. "You somehow fused my personal time space to Gaia's flow of time… I have never heard of such a thing before…"

There was a brief silence before Shirou spoke up again. "I will give you one last opportunity to give up, leave, and free Sirius McGinty. If you don't, I assure you that you will lose something you value something very precious in this fight, victory or not."

The vampire snorted and held his mace in his non injured hand. "All words boy. Nothing has changed. The blacksmith can no longer help you and even if I am injured I am still far more powerful than you are. Your achievement of actualizing such a high level mystery on me is commendable, however it will not save you from my wrath." He focused his prana. "Begone from my noble sight, tools of the peddler." In an instant all the swords around him were dispersed by a focused spell designed to nullify all low level thaumaturgy around him. He looked around to see the boy standing at the Sirius' prison and readying his hands. "That is your plan boy? To cut free the blacksmith?" He barked out in disgust. "Do not insult my ability! That bounded field is far above something a simple projected blade can pierce!"

"Sacrifice and save, blade of the cursed hero." Shirou muttered, ignoring the vampire's insults as a black long sword with blood red stains and bright brown veins was traced into his hands.

Time stood still for Louvre as the man instantly felt something was drastically different about this sword in particular. It was beautiful. It had power…

It was cursed with the same dark feeling the park was flooded with.

"Kiritsugu!" The boy roared and activated his prized sword's power as he plunged it into the edge of the bounded field…

o. o. o.

With Bazett:

"How many codes did this idiot bring with him?" Rin wondered in disgust and awe as she took out another artifact from the dead vampire's pockets. She did not let the fact that the man's orifices were all leaking blood or the fact that half his chest was caved in rather brutally, distract her from examining her potential spoils of war for a few seconds. "Honestly, I mean it did give him the ability to use them without risking getting pegged by your Noble phantasm, but I doubt that he even knew what he was attacking with half the time…"

"You make it sound like a bad thing." Bazett stated calmly as she stretched her limbs and cracked her neck. "Come on. We can collect our spoils later. First we have to help out Shirou and hope he isn't dead yet."

The Tohsaka sobered quickly and nodded with a calm face before they both ran to where Shirou was fighting on the other side of a small line of trees. "Same plan as before?" She asked warily.

"If you aren't needed to heal someone yes." Bazett agreed. The two were just about to reach the fight when an enraged bloodcurdling scream reached their ears. "Well at least we know that they didn't spend the entire talking..." She muttered. " That was Louvre's voice…" Her musings were cut off as a massive shockwave echoed throughout the area and tore up a good portion of the trees in right of the females.

"**What have you done to me boy?"** Louvre's significantly distorted and feral voice roared across the park in rage. Had there not been a bounded field around the park there would have been no doubt that all the police and armed forces would be racing to their position right now. **"What have you done to my circuits?"**

"This doesn't look good..." Bazett frowned as she ran forward again to provide backup. "Though from the sound of things it seems that Shirou used Kiritsugu on him."

"Look at the bright side." Rin laughed nervously as she moved to the foliage. "At least he doesn't know that we killed his son yet."

"At this point I doubt it would make much of a difference…" Bazett sighed before nearly doubling her speed and entering the warzone.

Rin stopped by a tree and shivered at the destruction being done to the area. Louvre had abandoned any and all form of restraint as he swung his mace in any direction he damn well pleased. Troughs, craters, and trashed equipment littered the area as the vampire tried to kill Shirou to the best of his abilities. With her magically enhanced eyesight the girl saw that the undead man was bleeding a bit from several parts of his body including his mouth, left arm and chest. Roaring wildly, the blood drinking man rammed his weapon as hard as he could against the air and made a blast of distorted air so large that she knew that it would have caused major damage to the nearby buildings had the attack not been aimed in the direction of the local river. Thankfully his intended target was fast enough to dodge the attack... but even she could tell that her friends wouldn't last long at this rate…

She watched as the vampire had turned his attention onto the very odd looking old man with glowing skin and unleashed another massive wave of distortion at him. In turn however, the giant stopped and his arms glowed with more symbols running down their lengths. Before the girl could even guess what he was about to do, he crossed his the massive limbs and unwound them in a wide circle just as quickly. With his hands pointing towards the attack as he spun his limbs, he traced at least three dozen runes in the air rapidly through his palms as if they were printing out what had been stored up the length of his body and completed a large and complicated Celtic circle.

Rin was not much of an expert on rune based thaumaturgy, but even she knew that the man had just performed an absurd feat as she felt the vastly complicated spell take form at a record pace. She estimated that he had just prepared a mystery that was the rough equivalent of a seven count aria in a single second when he slammed both of his hands in the middle of the seal and made one last large seal in the center of the array, and blasted out a massive wave of chaotic wind to counter the distortion about to kill him.

The two forces collided with enough force to blow the teenage girl back from where she had been standing and cover her eyes to protect them from the dust. _This was the guy that was teaching Shirou? _She mentally yelled in disbelief as she noted that both mysteries had canceled each other out with the dying wind. Reaching out with her senses and recalling what she knew of wind based thaumaturgy, she managed to deduce what had just happened…

The spell the old man made was layered. He used a large wind based thaumaturgy to shift the flow and kinetic energy of the oncoming attack into multiple directions as the primary function of the first layer… while the second and inner layer of the spell was focused on delivering pure ramming power. Somehow when the attacks met the vampire's spell focused on the second layer of the old man's magic and was influenced greatly by the first.

She straightened herself out, dusted off her clothes, and briefly contemplated convincing him to teach her few things after this… after all there was little doubt that he was a better teacher than the fake priest…

"Tohsaka!" Shirou shouted as he ran around the vampire at a reasonable distance and speed, no doubt thinking that she was there from the fact that Bazett had just joined him. "Use the normal rounds!"

The genius blinked in disbelief momentarily before she was unbalanced by another shockwave made by the vampire. "This is getting ridiculous…" She grumbled as she shook her head and took out her borrowed weapon out from her pocket. At this point she didn't even bother to question what was going through Shirou's mind. Barely even paying attention to what she was doing, she cracked the tool open along the hinge in the middle and fed it a single large object before snapping it shut again. "Attacking a Dead Apostle Ancestor with something like this…" She continued irritably before she stepped out, briefly looked around to see that none of the fighters in the area were near her, and pointed her non armed hand at the demon, smiled a shit eating grin, and fired off at least several dozen Gandr curses at the vampire.

Sirius bolted to try to help the soon to be assaulted girl the moment he saw the orbs flying from a direction that did not come from Shirou, Bazett or himself. "Damn it lass! What ta hell do ya tink yer…!" His enraged warning was cut short however as he saw the seemingly foolish girl swing forward her other arm and instantly knew what was about to happen. "… I see…"

The black orbs, each with the force of a bullet rammed into the area Louvre was in, causing him to yell in pain and irritation. He should not be having so much trouble with an old man, a boy, and a woman! He should not be rendered unable to heal himself! He should not have a fourth of his circuits rendered useless! And yet more salt was rubbed on his wounds as a small girl of all things somehow developed the gall to try to attack him from behind! Roaring in absolute rage, he turned to the newest offender violently, already in the middle of swinging his mace…

And in turn stared down the barrel of a modified 1967 Thompson Contender single shot hunting pistol.

"Get off my property." Rin growled as she pulled the trigger.

Time moved slowly as those with truly enhanced senses barely managed to follow what happened in the following split second. Rin's aim had been true as the single large bullet she shot flew straight towards the enraged vampire. Louvre's speed and counter attack had also been dead on as he swung his mace to intercept the bullet and most likely kill the girl in the process with another shockwave, under the assumption that his mace would simply overwhelm and counter the projectile as it had done with virtually everything else thrown at him since obtaining the tool…

However there was one mistake he had made with this. He had assumed that the girl had shot something special at him. He had assumed that as a magus she had attacked him with something that contained prana that would perform some sort of mystery designed to harm him on impact…

The bullet however was none of those things. It was simply a large .30-06 caliber Springfield bullet, and that made all the difference.

The Mace of Odo was indeed a powerful weapon. With its ability to bypass external shells and deal damage to the interior of its targets, it was the ultimate tool of destruction against anything possessing mana, prana, od, or intricate inner workings… delivering all of its B+ ranked power into the interior while leaving the outside unharmed…

Unfortunately it's greatest weakness was that it's the effectiveness of its powers were significantly reduced against simple base objects. A slab of metal would only have its insides warped while still maintaining its general shape. A two by four would have its insides reduced to sawdust, but still have enough outer structure to be considered fairly rigid…

A bullet flying at an extremely high velocity would have the solid lead alloy interior shifted around, but its gilded metal jacket unharmed in the slightest… altering none of the power behind the projectile while taking the entirety of the blow without issue…

Clang!

The bullet shot with greater power than that of a magnum collided with the mystical artifact and knocked it out of the stunned vampire's grip, sending it flying a short distance away before landing on the ground with a thud.

"… I can't believe that actually worked…" Rin, Bazett, Shirou, and Waver muttered under their breaths in relief and or mild disbelief.

"Bloody hell!" Sirius laughed and panted hard as he landed where the mace fell and picked it up and inspecting it casually. "Sometin ah made years ago actually trumped a Noble Phantasm! Ah must be betta then ah thought! Ahahahah-argh…" The blacksmith winced as he grabbed his side in pain. "Damn… fergot about ta broken ribs…" He obviously didn't take into account the fact that half his face was swollen, both his arms were broken in at least two places, and one of his legs had been at least sprained. There was little doubt that his mystic code was part of the reason why he was still moving as there were several seals glowing on any part of his body that looked injured, however it was still impressive that he was moving at all.

"McGinty!" Louvre roared as he surrounded himself in a cloud of pure corrupted energy and chaos. "Return my mace to me immediately and I may go easy on your punishment!"

The oldest human there glanced at the vampire as if he had just said something impossibly stupid. "How about "No" ya dried up cunt bucket? Ya may be strong, but without tis little trinket here… yer done fucked." He turned to his comrades and waved the mace casually at them as if it was a flag. "You brats finish Louvre off while ah keep tis damned thing away from him!" He shouted to the rest of his group before running in the opposite direction. "He fights like a magus so you fight him like yer father would lad! Try not ta die!"

"Is he serious?" Rin yelled as she approached Bazett, reloading the original Magus Killer's gun with an origin bullet this time. "I thought he would at least fight with us using that thing!"

"He probably can't." Bazett frowned as she kept an eye on Louvre who was swearing profusely and building up more magical power. "He's old and injured Rin. In his prime he probably could have taken on Louvre with the mace on by himself, but my guess is that he's at his limit now. He'd be a liability if he fought anymore, plus someone has to make sure that Louvre doesn't get his hands on the Mace again."

Rin shifted around nervously as the air thrummed with mana. "How much power does he have? I mean even though Shirou used Kiritsugu on him he's still able to cast a spell on this level without issue?"

"Enough that he was chosen to be an Ancestor in the first place…" Bazett replied before she saw Louvre suddenly turning away from them to where Shirou was standing alone and tired. "Shit! He going to go after Shirou!" She yelled before bolting to her student and younger brother figure with Rin quickly behind her.

"My keep is made yet my stock is still to be filled. Come my subjects, for the leaves are falling and the harvest is upon us…" The vampire growled as he forced his remaining circuits to draw upon the cursed air around him.

His circuits and his very soul had been harmed and flawed somehow by the boy. He didn't know how, but somehow it had happened and he was suffering for it. He had trouble remembering various facts now, and any effort to recall them only caused more damage to his being. He remembered that he had a son and daughter, but he couldn't recall their ages, habits, and other various things about them. He knew that he had made an agreement with the mystic code crafter that had stolen his weapon, but he couldn't remember the specifics other than the old man had to be kept in one piece and he would get more codes in return.

"… Under the harvest moon you work, tirelessly for your lord's benefit, for if he prospers then the land does so as well." The vampire continued quickly as he set his sights not on the two females to his right, but to the boy… no, the mistake of nature right in front of him. The freak had ruined him in a way that was impossible to recover from. His daughter was dead. He could feel his son's presence no more. At least a fourth of his circuits were rendered useless and his soul was rendered unstable. He was through. At the back of his mind he realized that there was in fact a reason to not kill the child, however his rage and the damage to his pride had rendered him incapable to restrain himself at this point…

Shirou breathed heavily as he saw the vampire building up his prana for something big and was aiming at his direction. Whatever it was, he knew that Kiritsugu wouldn't be of much help since against something this big it would only result in a double kill. Knowing he had only one shot at saving his skin at this point, the boy began to channel his own prana. "My body is made of blades…" He growled as he reached into his world and grabbed the object he needed from the hill basking under the sun and moon…

"Should one fail his duties then shame is brought onto all, so sacrifice yourself for the noble cause of protecting and serving your better!" The man finished his aria and fueled his spell with his energy and let it pulse around him. The following moments were filled with loud echoes as dozens and dozens of odd objects ranging from spheres to blades to guns appeared floating behind the caster who was looking rather insane at the moment… and all facing the frowning boy with red going grey hair. "Feast of the Ruler's Pilgrimage!"

Feast of the Ruler's Pilgrimage, a spell of Louvre's own design that utilized his origin of "possession" to return to him all of his greatest treasures at once in order to be used against his opponents, regardless of where they may be in the world at that time. While warping objects across such a distance so quickly is normally placed on the pedestal of high class magic, Louvre's condition as a dead apostle ancestor enabled him to work further outside of Gaia's reach than most humans are capable of…

The only way to prevent an item from returning to him is if it is in the possession of another who is capable and powerful enough to disrupt the spell from forcing the object from being teleported in the first place, or if it is in a bounded field that can produce a similar effect.

"He actually teleported all his mystic codes here?" Bazett blinked in surprise as she tried to get to Shirou in time. "That's borderline true magic! We have to get out of here! Fragarach can only counter one of those things! It can't stop them all!"

"Who cares what it is!" Rin snapped as she watched the hundreds of mystic codes begin to glow menacingly just as the girls reached the boy just as the weapons fired. "Shirou! Run for it you idiot!"

"Die!" The vampire roared as his arsenal was let loose all at once at the threesome, filling the sky with countless objects and hundreds of life ending sounds…

"Rho Aias!" The faker roared in defiance as he held out one of his arms and projected a seven layered bounded field between his group and the oncoming tsunami of death.

A massive series of explosions echoed throughout the park as the enchanted weapons collided with the Shield of Ajax. The earth shook, lights blinded the fighters, and a war occurred within seconds. Fire, ice, wind, light, stone, demonic, holy, ether, assaults of these elements and more rammed into the red and golden wall relentlessly at once, yet when the dust cleared only three of the petals had been destroyed.

"That was…" Louvre seethed in rage and shock. The only thing preventing him from taking a step back was his own pride. "How?"

_Fire is my blood… and Glass is my heart…_

Shirou panted as he felt the damage done to Rho Aias reflect onto his already wounded body. His legs and head were heavy. His arms even more so… however he did not bother to think about them at the moment as he took a step forward and dispelled his shield and past his stunned partners.

"Sh-Shirou…" Rin attempted to stop him, worried that he might be pushing himself too far, only for him to shoot her a sharp glare.

"He's mine… don't stop me…" He stated bluntly as he walked forward without looking back.

"But…" The Tohsaka began to argue before Bazett grabbed her shoulder gently.

"Don't." The elder woman sighed. "You'll just get in the way at this point." She looked at the weapons readjusting to the boy, ready to fire again at any time. "Right now the smartest thing we can do is get away and not distract him."

The girl looked back worriedly towards the boy before relenting and backing away. "You better live Emiya-kun, or else I swear I will practice necromancy so I can bring you back just to kill you again."

The teen didn't respond as he was too busy focusing on the vampire.

"That girl is annoying you too it seems…" Louvre snorted before aiming at one of his cannon shaped code at the retreating females. "I'll fix that for you…"

Shirou didn't flinch as he instantly analyzed the weapon in particular. He couldn't trace it, but that didn't prevent him from knowing its capabilities inside and out. The instant after he did so a weapon from his reality marble shifted…

The firing of a cannon was heard as the code launched a massive spinning boulder at the retreating females at an incredibly high velocity… and was cut in two as a blue and red Chinese falchion materialized right in front of its path, causing both halves to fly away to either side of the retreating women.

"You're better off focusing on me right now." Shirou stated calmly.

"How many times will you continue to humiliate me?" The elder swore as he took out a blue flaming sword that he barely recalled was a favorite of his son's from his arsenal. While his spell and his codes were powerful, they was also extremely cost heavy in terms of prana, especially if he used them all at once. Considering he could no longer heal himself and a fourth of his circuits were fried, it was reasonable to say that he could no longer waste energy attacking relentlessly anymore. "I will kill you boy!" He roared as he charged forward with dizzying speed and attempted to decapitate the boy.

Clang!

The vampire's sword was interrupted as it met a faint blue and deep red sword in the boy's right hand, somehow managing to repel his blow with raw strength despite the fact that the defender was human and the attacker was not. Louvre barely registered that the opposing blade had for a moment attempted to actualize something onto his own before he jumped away in order to prevent a twin of the same weapon from biting into his side held by the child's other hand. Grunting in frustration, he jumped forward again with more speed this time, aiming to overwhelm the teen with an overhand blow towards his unprotected head. Surely even with reinforcement the boy cannot handle such an attack unguarded as he was from this stance…

The vampire had made a big mistake in his assumption however. Despite the fact that he was indeed larger, faster, and stronger than Shirou, he was also far more inexperienced in close quarters combat. Louvre fought most of his battles through the overwhelming power of his magic and his codes. In his rage he had completely disregarded the fact that his own close ranged combat abilities were lacking, as well as the possible idea that a boy whose only spells seemed to originate from projecting swords may be far more competent in the field than he was…

His mistake cost him dearly as the Faker shifted to his right side at the last moment. Not stopping there, Shirou parried the blue flaming sword with the blade in his left arm… and cutting off Louvre's left arm with the blade in his right at the same time.

Roaring in pain but not blinded by it, the vampire abandoned his tool and retreated with Shirou in fast pursuit. "Enough of this!" He roared as he threw out his good arm. "Rho Aias!" He activated the conceptual weapon that he had retrieved from his daughter's body just as the boy was on top of him and forced the Faker back with rapid fire from his codes, causing him to run away from the attacks in order to prevent getting hit. Louvre didn't care about saving energy now. He just wanted the boy gone at this point…

Yet Shirou had other plans as he instantly dispelled the blades in his hands while running at speeds that no human could match… and projected a single black sword that flew at the vampire and impacted his shield.

Louvre's world went white with pain again as now a third of his original circuits self destructed and destabilized his soul.

▅▅▅▅▅▅…

He remembered spending time with a young boy and girl that were like him. Were they family? They seemed so familiar…

▅▅▅▅▅▅…▅▅▅▅▅▅…

His treasures were accumulating now and he was confident that he would soon gain the recognition he rightfully deserved. Through them his research could be completed… research… what was he researching? Was he a scientist?

▅▅▅▅▅▅… ▅▅▅▅▅▅… ▅▅▅▅▅▅…

He was confronted by a dangerous looking man made of animals. He seemed to know and highly respect him. He was offered some sort of position that made his dead heart jump. Could such a thing as a possible rank actually make him this elated?

He found himself on the ground gasping for air before he was even aware of the world again. What had happened? Had he been fighting? All these objects around him… yes… they were his. He couldn't remember what they did or where they came from, but they were without a doubt his. His prized collection…

Pain. His body was in pain. He remembered that he had two arms before… but now he only had one. His lungs were filled with fluid and more than half of his magic circuits were now destroyed. What happened? Why couldn't he reverse his time and return to normal? Why was this happening to him? Why why why why why wh…?

The sound of a series of light footsteps brought him to reality and prompted him to look up. There was a boy walking towards him. He looked to be in his teens with his red hair going grey prematurely and an odd red cloth wrapped around his nose, mouth and neck. For some reason he knew that this child… no… this abomination was the reason for his current condition. The very sight of him filled him with rage unlike anything he had ever known or remembered. "Y-You…" He spat out blood and pushed himself up with his remaining good arm. "You are the reason why I am like this… you have ruined me… destroyed my work… you freak!"

Shirou didn't say anything as he approached the pathetic looking demon gradually. His body was tired. His limbs were worn and oversaturated with prana. His head was foggy, and he was fairly certain that several of his bones were broken. His circuits themselves were all quite warm, however oddly enough they were the least strained part of his body at the moment seeing as he had only used at most sixteen of them to a moderately strained level. "Your collection is impressive Louvre." He spoke up in emotionlessly as he stopped a few meters short of the man and looked down at the small field of random tools lying useless around their downed master. "Power… variety… history… quality… There's just one problem with it…"

_Through countless battles I forever wait, alone on the hill of blades…_

"S-stay away from me!" The man roared insanely, spitting blood and spit everywhere as he put pressure onto his bleeding stump of an arm and tried to crawl away while he strained to levitate his codes again and attack Shirou. He managed to get about fraction of them off the ground and aimed at his hunter before the strain began to get too much and focused on priming them at the boy. All in all, of the roughly four hundred codes the man had summoned, only about eighty of them were about to be used "I don't know what you are, but I won't let you win! My collection is absolute! It is infallible! What is wrong with my treasure that I cannot see that some lowborn fool like you can?"

… _For Hell's hands to bear…_

The teen stopped in his tracks and looked at the vampire without any emotion on his face at all.

"It's not big enough."

… _For Heaven's hands to temper…_

All 27 of his natural circuits flared full blast and all the blades inside his reality marble moved at once. An instant later the sky above him was filled with dozens… no… hundreds, maybe even a thousand of swords, knives, clubs, daggers, spears and every other possible melee weapon imaginable made of stone, plastic, metal, crystal, bone, and unidentifiable substances… stunning everyone who was watching. Most if not all of them were simple tools without a shred of thaumaturgy to them, but what they lacked in power they made up for in sheer numbers. Louvre recognized more than a few copies of codes that he had just used to try to kill the boy with hovering among the arsenal of death, shocked that a mere child could humiliate him to such a degree.

Before the vampire could respond, the blades had struck down on his own arsenal before they could fire, crushing each and every single code there relentlessly regardless of the code's quality, history, and ability. There was a limit to how far the quality of anything could go before it would eventually be overwhelmed by sheer numbers.

Screaming in anguish the man was bombarded by the rain of blades and the shattered remains of his prized collection, piercing his body in every area and every direction possible, spraying his blood in proportion to the damage he sustained. His other hand was torn off after the third sword hit it. His other shoulder had been caved in by a gold and crimson mace. Half of his left foot had been severed at the touch of a faint steel blue falchion with a deep blood red stained design on the edge… the injuries accumulated in the span of seconds as the single wave of shining death passed and left a graveyard of blades and broken tools standing in front of the panting boy.

In the middle of the graveyard, the only organic target coughed up blood, butchered in every direction and pinned to the ground by at least a dozen sharp implements. "Impossible…" He whispered. "What… are you?"

Shirou stared down at the dying man pitifully, panting hard with magic circuits so hot that his breath actually steamed outside of the shroud around his mouth. Lifting one tired arm in front of him, the boy traced one last sword in his hand and pointed it at Louvre's neck. "My name is Shirou Emiya… and I am the Magus Killer's son."

Louvre's eyes widened in shock as he recalled the message he received from the princess of the dead apostles just before the fighting started…

_Your end will be sealed by the Magus Killer's machinations._

"I see… so you are my death…" He whispered in realization and amusement just before the boy swung...

o. o. o.

A/N:

Thanks to Maximorph1 for betaing this. You really did a good job.

Please note before reading the next section that I do appreciate people who give me **reasonable** critiques and point out problems in my style of writing, however also please note that this is something I simply do to kill time and because I enjoy doing this. I am good yes, however like everyone else on this site I am not doing this to get paid, become famous, make the best fanfic story ever to grace the eyes of every man, woman, child, and sexless existences who stumble across it, or anything else like that. I am an engineering major and I have an engineering job and I plan on keeping it that way…

(Cracks knuckles and neck.) Time to piss off a few haters… and people who actually enjoy the elections.

So I was bored a few days ago and I checked out some random forums to see what people think of ffd. And I laughed. The story gets brought up on a few sites which I won't name, and all of a sudden three fourths of the people there start complaining about "how bad it is" and how cheesy the plot is, or how long it's taking to get to the war because that's the only part that matters… and it went on for pages… and days. And I laughed even harder because this means only one thing: even though the story is apparently a giant piece of crap to them… it's the only piece of crap worth talking about…

Kinda like the participants in the Presidential Elections…

The point really is this. People can complain all they want… but until someone makes something that can top what I do with this particular series (or at the very least makes a good story and updates as much as I do) at this point in time… odds are they're still going to be talking about it, and there's not a damn thing they can do about it…

Like the participants of the Presidential Elections…

… For some reason I feel like Ron Paul right now… or Rick Perry… whichever one matches the situation better at the moment…

On another note, thank you everyone on the other forums who actually enjoy the story and don't simply brush it off to the side because it's a bit longer than the normal fic and actually enjoy reading outside of the box.

And for those who care, I try to base my writing style on George RR Martin, not Gabriel Blessing. I know that old bastard hates fanfiction with a passion, but he's damn good at what he does… when he gets off his ass to do it at least.

Bottom line, if I made a glaring mistake, by all means point it out… but don't go through the story with a fine tooth comb.

Anyways. Onto important news. I'm going to start grad school for power based electrical engineering next week in addition to doing work so unfortunately my writing will be stalled even more as I balance my jobs and education along with writing for the hell of it. It shouldn't be that bad since its related to what I'm doing at work now, but it should still eat at a good portion of my free time.

So… I think I've pissed enough people off with this A/N. Time to go hide… I mean hit the books. Yeah, totally that second one…

Review! Worship the log! For God's sake get off Tohsaka's Lawn! And Review again!


	17. Chapter 17

Chapter 17: Offerings

I do not own Fate/Stay Night and stuffs:

o. o. o.

He felt as if his body was at war with itself. It was an odd sensation… as if two parts of his being, which were normally perfectly compatible with one another, were now fighting to overcome the other simply because the other existed.

Death. Life. Taking. Giving. Darkness. Scorn. Acceptance. Cold. Warm.

And strangely above all else a distracting thirst that would not go away.

These sensations as well as many others that he had no words to describe swarmed his mind, body, soul, and entire being as if it was the battleground…

He watched from his hill of blades as the moon and the sun fought for supremacy over the sky. It was nothing really to marvel at under most circumstances as there was very little to watch or see happen, however it still happened slowly as it may.

The change was there, however, he couldn't tell what had happened or how long it had been happening. Nor could he tell how long it would continue to happen. Weeks? Months? Years? It could be centuries before this silent war would reach a conclusion or even made a visible change for all he knew. Yet, it was still important for him to remember and see the conclusion of it.

He woke up in his room with a raging headache and a body that throbbed with every breath. His mind ached every second, his muscles were stiff and groaning in pain from overuse, his arms and legs felt as if they were covered in lead. He looked at himself and saw that his chest and a couple of his limbs were wrapped with bandages, however from what he could tell nothing was broken or damaged enough for him to not move, even if it did hurt to do so.

"Ugh…" Shirou grunted as he slowly picked himself up and held his head with a hand. "What ha…" Before he even finished his sentence his memories returned to him. Louvre. The Mace. Sirius' help. Using Kiritsugu. Killing the vampire after projecting every… weapon… in his reality marble…

Well that would at least explain why he apparently passed out after killing Louvre and why his circuits were throbbing like crazy. He felt as if he had just projected Avalon for the first time all over again.

Getting up, he reasoned that Rin and the others must have taken him back home after he passed out. Since he was still alive and treated, he assumed that they must have taken out the other vampire as well. He just hoped they weren't hurt in the process.

Shirou frowned as he put on a fresh pair of pants. Despite the fact that the old man had carried himself as if nothing was wrong when he last saw him, Sirius had taken more damage than he did in the fight. If something wasn't done soon he could be in a fair amount of trouble. Rin was a good medic if needed, but if someone truly capable was necessary to aid the blacksmith then there was a chance that they would require the aid of the priest again… something he was not looking forward to if that was the case. Even if his father hadn't warned him of the executor's threat level, he still would never have trusted the guy.

Shirou paused as he reached for an undershirt and noticed that he still had the crimson shroud around his mouth and neck. He honestly didn't know what to do with it at this point. He had developed a sort of attachment to the cloth, however he knew that he would never be able to wear it in such a fashion in public without gaining unwanted attention which was something that all magi try to avoid. Still, he remembered Louvre doing something to his body that had to do with the vampire blood in his body, so he didn't know if the time needed to keep it on was extended.

Deciding to keep it safe, the teen channeled a small amount of prana into the fabric around his neck and altered its shape around his body until it was a fairly tight short sleeved undershirt. It caused his circuits to throb a small amount, however it was still very much manageable.

Shirou nodded in satisfaction as he briefly inspected his work before grabbing one of his casual shirts to put on. Fully dressed and confident that he was ready for the day, he made way to the kitchen. If he was lucky and didn't encounter anyone on the way there, Shirou planned to start making himself some food. Not only was he more than a bit hungry at the moment, but after what he had just been through he needed something to help calm his thoughts. The clock in his room had said it was six in the afternoon so he decided to make a light simple dinner to help his body regain energy without much stress. Now, the only real problem, as far as he knew, was deciding on what to make…

He walked outside to his porch and made way for the main living area, thinking absentmindedly about what to make himself and how to make said dishes. The sun was just about set and the partially sky, giving the masses of water vapor a rather rare pinkish and soothing hue.

He never noticed that the direction he was walking to was the location of several very strong magical signatures.

"Maybe a quick stirfry…" Shirou mumbled to himself as he listed off rather simple dishes out loud. "Then again I haven't tried to make any western dishes in a while. I could try to make some pasta and marinara sauce…" He distractedly walked through his home and opened the door to the living room to reveal that it was full of both people he knew and had never seen before in his life. "… I'm gonna need more spaghetti…" He said absently as his mind tried to catch up with the image in front of him.

Sitting at the living room table on one side were Rin and Bazett. On the other side of the table were Waver and a woman with brown hair in a ponytail, a white coat and brown pants made of extremely fine material, a crimson bow around her neck, and a gauntlet on her right hand which he immediately identified as mythril and possessed a very nasty and bloody history behind it. She looked like she was born to be all business and screamed of nobility.

Off to the side on his living room couch was some young boy with medium length black hair wearing a simple white and gold robe and black pants. The child seemed fairly harmless as he donned a pleasant and amused look on his face…

Rin and Bazett were both sitting nervous and rigid. The woman in front of them put them on edge for some reason as their eyes constantly flickered between him and the female guest… and it obviously had to do with the fact that her body was just thrumming with potent magical energy. Waver seemed less stressed than the two females that he was sitting across, however he was carrying himself significantly more stiffly than he normally did. The kid…

Shirou swallowed heavily as the boy smiled calmly and sincerely at him. "Um… this may be a bit rude, but why are there two strangers, one of which is a vampire, in my home?" The "boy" was old. Even if his body was that of a child, Shirou could tell that there was a VASTLY larger history in him than everyone else in the room combined. He was older than Louvre. He was **stronger** than Louvre…

But unlike Louvre the boy he was looking at now had an odd sort of body. All four of his limbs seemed to have a life of their own. What more, he could actually see a great deal about the "child's" right arm. It was a sort of massive mechanical creature that was composed of many weapons including swords and cannons of varying designs and sizes…

And he had no doubt in his mind that he did not stand a chance in hell against it, let alone any of the other limbs which seemed to possess just as much power.

The boy's smile didn't change. "Oh? So you can identify my kind on sight? That really is interesting Shirou Emiya." He glanced at the Faker curiously. "I see my right arm in particular has your interest. Is it because it she is partially made of swords that you can tell what she is?"

"Crown." The brown haired woman spoke up in an otherwise calm and polite tone, causing Rin and Bazett to flinch. "I would be most appreciative if you would hold your petty mind games with the boy until after I am done conversing with him."

The boy identified as Crown shrugged and bowed to the noble bearing woman. "As you wish m'lady Barthomelloi."

Shirou's mind literally froze. "… Can you repeat that please? I could have sworn you just said Barthomelloi."

"Shirou, it would be best if you be more careful with your words right now." Waver warned calmly but with a sharp and telling look in his eyes. "You are in the presence of the Vice-Director of the Clocktower, Lady Lorelei Barthomelloi…" He glanced at the boy on the couch. "… As well as the twentieth Dead Apostle Ancestor and member of the Church's Burial Agency, Merem Solomon, also known as Crown."

Merem laughed as he and everyone there watched Shirou blink in confusion and disbelief. "Hahah. I think you broke him. I knew I made the right decision to stay here instead of with Kotominei."

"Still your tongue vampire." Lorelei shot a threatening glare at the Ancestor. "The only reason why I am allowing your presence and existence is because you are a notable member of the Church."

"It is an honor to be given such a privilege by one such as yourself." The eldest one there bowed sincerely, not at all threatened by the woman's thinly veiled threat.

"Um… since my home isn't the center of a massive crater in the earth, I'm guessing that both of you want to talk to me for some reason?" Shirou hesitantly as he slowly sat himself down at the head of his table.

"Yes." The noblewoman stated calmly. "However if what you say does not please me, do not be surprised if your first assumption does eventually come to pass in one form or another."

"Duly noted." The redhead smiled weakly as he looked around and noticed something. "Um… this may be a bit sudden, but has anyone gotten you any refreshments? I noticed that you don't have anything in front of you."

Lorelei narrowed her gaze at the boy skeptically. "No I have not, however to be frank I do not think or expect that anything inside this building would be up to sufficient standards."

The boy's demeanor relaxed somewhat and looked at her curiously. "I think I still have some Earl Gray in the cupboards." He offered innocently.

Waver, Bazett and Rin all froze at the boy's stupidity. Once again he in his effort to be helpful he had inadvertently proven the Queen of the Clocktower was wrong and as such insulted her. Granted he was not exactly accustomed to dealing with nobles and as such didn't know that he had made such a mistake, but most of the upper ranks of the Clocktower would have been glad to use Shirou's statement as an excuse to do who knows what.

The woman looked at Shirou with an unreadable gaze before closing her eyes and donning a patient pose. Next to her Waver made some small gestures to the boy to urge him to go make the tea if he valued his life.

Wasting no time Shirou walked quickly to the kitchen and began to prepare the drinks. "I'll be just a moment. Does anyone else want something to drink as well?"

"I would like a cup as well.." Waver nodded. Lord knows he needed one to calm his nerves right now. Technically he would prefer something with at least a hundred more proof and one of his cigars to do that job, but he didn't want to risk it at the moment.

"I-I'm good." Bazett smiled nervously, obviously not in the mood to eat or drink anything right now.

"I'd like some tea too please." Merem asked politely from the couch before blinking and laughing apologetically. "Ah sorry. Make that two."

"I'll help him out." Rin smiled hesitantly as she picked herself up and quickly followed Shirou to the kitchen. The moment she was out of sight of the Queen and everyone else in the living room, she let the smile drop off her face and grabbed Shirou roughly. "What the hell were you thinking?" She hissed, shaking her friend semi violently. "That's the Queen! THE QUEEN!"

"What are you talking about?" Shirou whispered just as frantically. "She didn't have anything to drink and I know that nobles like this kind of stuff."

"If she didn't expect much from you then don't suddenly just prove her wrong so suddenly!" Rin countered almost frantically. "There are nobles who kill commoners for things like that!"

Shirou shook Rin off of his shirt and momentarily frowned at her before shaking his head and went back to his cupboards where he managed to find the tea container he was looking for. "Fine. I get it. I'll be more careful about how I offer help."

"No! No helping!" The Tohsaka argued as she took out the teapot from the area where Shirou kept his cooking ware. "You'll make things worse if you open your mouth and offer your services. Just shut up and answer any questions she asks you. If you do any more than that you'll probably get killed or worse." She frowned as she began to get out some cups. "If you need a reason to keep that mouth of yours in check, then do it for the old man."

"Huh?" Shirou blinked in confusion as he started setting up the tea and heating up the water. "What's wrong with Sirius-jiji? He's injured, but from what I can tell he's not in any danger…"

"Lady Barthomelloi put a sealing designation on him." Rin frowned, causing Shirou to completely freeze in his tracks.

"Wh-what?" The male barely managed to ask in disbelief, the color on his face vanishing almost completely. "Why?"

The Tohsaka crossed her arms and closed her eyes. Thinking about how to deliver the somber news managed to distract her from the Barthomelloi's presence and calm her down a bit. "Remember that rune based code that he fused with his skin? Well it's big enough to warrant that sort of attention. The perfect fusion between an inanimate magical appliance and a biological magical command base such that the biological base is capable of reproducing the code's properties as if it was a genetic trait certainly would warrant that kind of attention. If done right it could possibly lead to the development of artificial sorcery traits, unique abilities that are passed down through blood." She looked at Shirou dead in the eyes. "From what I've heard from Bazett-san the old man has enough standing in the Clocktower to prevent himself from being constantly experimented on, but if you happen to agitate the Queen that future could be uncertain. Regardless he's been in the lady's care since the fight ended getting treated for his wounds. I don't know where he is and demanding for his location is akin to committing suicide." She narrowed her gaze. "Once again. Please don't say anything stupid or try to be helpful. It will only make things worse right now." _Plus it would hurt my chances of getting her to sponsor my entry into the association…_ She mentally added. Rin was on Shirou's side in this matter and she did want to help him, but that didn't mean that she couldn't see a golden opportunity to benefit her own future when it presented itself.

"Got it. Hey… uh… do you think I can convince her to not Sirius-jiji…" Shirou began to ask Rin hopefully before the girl shot him a deadly look that left no arguments. "Er… never mind." He relented, knowing if the girl gave him that look then there was no point in trying to convince her otherwise. "I'll try, but I'm not going to be rude to a guest and give them the silent treatment. That might make things worse."

"Fine, but if she kills you don't say I didn't warn you." Rin held her hand to her face in frustration and glared at the boy before noticing something. "Where did you put the shroud? I thought that you still had it on when we put you in your room."

"I turned it into an undershirt since I didn't know if I should still keep it on or not when I woke up." He replied as he lifted up his outer shirt to reveal his makeshift crimson one underneath. "Louvre did something with his daughter's blood in me when we fought. I don't know if it lengthened the time I need to wear this thing or not, but to be honest I kinda like the thing now. I just couldn't wear it around my head all the time or else people would start looking at me funny."

The Tohsaka nodded. "Good idea. Just make sure that you don't tell her about it. We don't know how she'd respond to it along with all the other crap you're involved in."

He looked back at the living room with a depressed expression before turning back to Rin. "What about that Solomon guy? Why the heck is he here?"

Rin's demeanor relaxed a bit more as she shrugged. "I don't really know. He says that he came here because he was interested in that mace that Louvre was using against you and he guessed that Lady Barthomelloi would be here soon, which was apparently right. He claims he's a collector of holy artifacts for some reason. He's so into those things that he's even working with the Church just so he can get more as payment. He watched the fight in the park with Kirei who I'm guessing told him of everyone… but thankfully the priest didn't follow him here." She shook her head. "There's a ton of reasons why he could be here right now. He could simply be here for the mace. He could be here to get revenge on you for killing a fellow Ancestor, but I doubt that since everyone knows that the Ancestors actually go to war against one another for fun…"

"He seems pretty nice." Shirou commented as he noticed the water beginning to bubble. "… But there's no way that we would stand a chance against him if he did decide to fight us. He's in a completely different league than Louvre."

"You could tell right off the bat too huh." Rin let her head sag depressed. "To be honest all that means right now is that you have to be careful of what you say to him as well. We are hosting the equivalents of the Dragon and the Tiger in your living room right now."

"I figured. Waver-nii and Sirius-jiji told me how the Barthomelloi despise vampires and how the Queen puts even them to shame. To have one of the Ancestors in my home is just asking for it to be destroyed." Shirou relented before turning to his friend. "I haven't asked yet, but what happened after I…" He flinched as the fact that he killed someone finally registered in his mind. "Well, you know. Beat Louvre."

Rin sighed and looked up to the ceiling. "Well to start things off it's been almost a full day since the fight. The first thing that happened after that was you passed out from exhaustion right next to the corpse. It wasn't that surprising since I've never seen you project that many weapons at once before." She scratched her head. "After that Bazett and I had to take a few seconds to convince ourselves that you did just pull off killing the vampire before we got our butts into gear and ran to make sure you were all right and that the bastard was already dead. It took a tiny bit later to get to you than we would have liked cause there were just so many shattered codes lying around both of you that we had to be careful or else we might have set something off."

"Oh yeah he did have a lot of codes with him at the end." Shirou mused. "What happened to them?"

"Lady Barthomelloi had been watching the entire event and had a fair number of her private group of enforcers with her." Rin answered. "When I was busy healing you she and Lord El-Melloi the second arrived to inspect everything up close. They had come across the old man while getting to us and had some of her men treating him and took the mace into custody. During that time the geezer fell asleep and he's been out ever since. The rest of her group are either working in the park to repair the damage done to it, recover all the codes that Louvre summoned, or they're stationed around the house right now since she's been here since this morning."

"This morning?" Shirou blinked as the pot began to boil at the right amount to serve tea and he quickly attended to it. "She's been in my home all day? Why?"

Rin rolled her eyes. "Why else? She wants to talk to you. It's not every day that you see a kid beat an Apostle Ancestor at their own game you know. Plus it doesn't help that at some point Lord El-Melloi let it slip that you're the Magus Killer's son. Hell he even went a step further than that and referred to you as the second Magus Killer. Of course you would warrant some interest to her, or to any other noble for that matter." She frowned at the boy. "Like I said Emiya-kun, be very careful of what you say around her, because if she thinks you could be a potential threat make no mistake that she would incur the wrath of the Clocktower on you."

Shirou smiled nervously as he began to pour the tea before taking out cream and sugar for those who may have wanted some. "I'll keep that in mind… but what about Solomon-san? When did he get here?"

Rin's eyebrow twitched. "He actually got here before we did. He gave us a damn big scare with that casual smile when we saw him on the couch like that. He introduced who he was right off the bat and said he was a member of the Church. Since my family has some connections with them I was able to confirm that he wasn't lying with a few specific questions, but that really didn't make Bazett-san or I any more comfortable with his presence. Still there wasn't anything we could do to make him leave, not that he was being an unreasonable guest. Quite the opposite really. He just asked for a room that was isolated from sunlight for the day. He was really adamant to stay here for some reason." She rubbed her temples tiredly. "I nearly had a heart attack when Lady Barthomelloi came here this morning and noticed his presence. Had he not actually step out and briefly talked to her when she first detected his presence, I'm guessing that your home really would have been destroyed by the time you woke up."

"Well at least that means that things really haven't been as truly bad as they could have been." The owner of the house smiled weakly as he set up a tray with the tea and related items on it. "Can you help me out with this?"

Rin nodded. "Sure."

"I hope you haven't wasted your time attempting to come up with some meager idea to poison me." The Queen stated calmly as Shirou began serving the drinks. "I have several universal elixirs on hand at all times for such an event, and many of my guard are highly skilled in countering such concoctions."

Shirou laughed nervously as he served her the tea. "I'm afraid to disappoint you, but I would never do such a thing even if it did work. I am rather prideful when it comes to cooking and the condition of my kitchen. For me, contaminating anything that I make in there would be the same as stabbing myself."

"I see." The woman coolly looked at the boy. "Do not be surprised if I do not believe you. You are after all someone that has been raised by a rather notorious individual."

The chef's face fell as he continued to serve the drink to Waver, his eyes dimmed as he remembered his father. "Dad may have been a notorious assassin, however he was a terrible chef. The few times he did try to make anything he nearly burned down the house. If I didn't learn how to cook early I would have spent much of my life going out to eat or having cheap canned food for every meal of the day."

"A sufficient reason to take up the skill." Lorelei stated as she quickly chanted a few spells under her breath to ensure that neither the tea nor the cup she was holding were laced with any form of poison, curse, parasite, spirit, spell or anything intended to harm her upon skin contact or digestion. "Though I am somewhat surprised that your sire never hired any servants. From what I assumed he accumulated during his career, he could have easily hired one or two post mortem."

The woman's words struck a chord of curiosity with the rest of the guests there. If Kiritsugu was as wealthy as the woman suggested, then there was no need for Shirou to do some of the things he puts himself up with, like working a job after school or being careful about acquiring several specific texts and materials over the years.

"Dad like things simple." Shirou shrugged as he finished serving the tea. "I myself work a side job even though he left me a fair amount of money because I don't want to rely on it to get through with day to day life."

"Independent and self reliant to not even rely on your family's funds even when you have full access to it." Merem blinked in surprise before smiling as if he heard something very appealing. "You are becoming even more interesting than I originally suspected Emiya-san. I find most magi these day to be far too reliant on their connections and their history for my liking. It is very comforting to see someone like you in this day and age." He looked down at the two cups of tea he was served. "And so well accommodating too." He didn't blink as his left arm glowed momentarily causing the rest to momentarily be on guard before the glow subsided and separated from his body to shape…

"A r-r-r-rat?" Rin fumbled with her words as a pure white rat with a large red gem the size of its plump body around his neck and a rather cute crown upon its head. Judging from how Bazett was staring at it, it was safe to assume that she was experiencing a similar reaction only she had the control to not say anything.

"I would prefer to be called by my moniker, the King of Rats, if you don't mind young lady." The rat replied in an elderly but polite and sincere tone before looking at Shriou. "And to the owner of the house, I thank you for your generous hospitality."

"Um… Thanks… I think." Shirou blinked, clearly not expecting one of Merem's limbs, each of which possessed an inhuman amount of power, to turn into such a small creature. "Are you sure you can finish that cup? It's a bit bigger than you are."

The rat blinked before shaking his head in embarrassment. "Ah! Of course. Where are my manners? This is not a form to take when conversing with others and partaking of food. My apologies." Moments later the small rodent had transformed via some magic to take the form of a somewhat elderly man in a black priest's garb and a grandfatherly like smile on his face. "I hope this form of mine is more appealing to the guests here." He stated before taking the cup in front of him and taking a sip. "Wonderfully done. My compliments."

"I knew that the Ancestors were capable of miraculous feats… but I never imagined something like this…" Waver blinked in awe. "An imperfect fusion between divine leveled sprits that can drastically undergo rapid metamorphosis? But then how would that compensate for the natural control when they are attached… spiritual… perhaps a potent biological based magic or some form of artificial nerve mutation… but how would he naturally establish dominance over him with such a strong personality?"

"If we could please get back to the subject at hand." Lorelei took control over the table once again with a calm but overwhelmingly powerful tone before looking at the nervous Emiya. "You obviously have had a large amount of combat training boy. What was it supposed to be for? Are you to take up a similar career as your father or do you have something else in mind?"

Shirou stared at the Queen for a moment before sighing. "Other than one particular task that dad wanted me to perform in the future, the purpose of my training was to ensure that I could protect myself and any family I may make later on from those that dad has angered during his exploits."

"Obviously you do not intend to tell me what this task is." The woman stated as she drank her tea.

"It is a private and sensitive matter and so I would prefer to keep it known only to myself until the time is appropriate." Shirou responded as he finally poured himself a cup. "I assure you however that my task will not threaten the association nor expose the existence of thaumaturgy."

"I find it hard to believe that your task would require you to be strong enough to handle an apostle Ancestor, if only a weak one." Lorelei continued as she momentarily placed down the cup.

"I was not even sure I was capable of performing such feats myself." Shirou smiled nervously. "My magic is fairly different and I have not made much progress until recently."

"I was watching." Merem nodded. "At first I was somewhat disinterested by your projection magic. Granted it was of a much higher level than I expected that field to be taken, however when you began producing tools that possessed their own abilities I began to pay closer attention. I was very surprised when you made all of those weapons at the end, especially since many of them were exact copies of ones that Louvre had just used on yourself." His eyes flashed curiously. "I even saw the Mace of Odo among the tools you had produced."

The Faker laughed nervously. "Y-yeah, well, my element is "sword" and I have a very strong attachment to melee weapons. Plus my method of doing projection magic is different than the normal ways so between the both of them I can do things like that. To be honest though it's pretty much the only special thing I can do."

"A "sword" element?" Lorelei raised an eyebrow, showing that she actually was caught off guard for once. "That is rather… peculiar."

"I got similar reactions from dad when he first found out." Shirou admitted, somewhat telling the truth. Kiritsugu did SAY he had that reaction when he first found out, but he told Shirou about his element years after he found that out. "Still it didn't help much when it came to my studies in the standard lines of magic. Other than material transmutation spells, bounded fields and maybe runes, I'm at best average in most fields of study."

"I already know that much." The Queen stated as she drank some more tea. "Your teacher Lord El-Melloi has been very cooperative when it came to describing your strengths and weaknesses. He was fairly confident in saying that you were the foremost expert on projection magic, making advances in the field that were vastly ahead of anything that anyone at the Clocktower has made in the last few centuries. Considering what I witnessed last night, I am willing to give you the benefit of the doubt."

Shirou let out a breath of relief.

"So long as you provide me with an adequate example of your work." The woman continued as she took out the Mace of Odo from a small pouch that was next to her, causing many there to blink in surprise. "This is indeed the weapon that Louvre wielded in your fight. I wish to see how well your imitations compare to an artifact of significant making. Witnessing your work from a distance was not enough for me to come to an adequate conclusion of your capabilities. Should you perform above expectations, I may even consider sponsoring your entrance into the Clocktower."

"Urk!" Rin's stomach nearly jumped out of her throat at the statement. Getting sponsored was one thing. Getting sponsored by THE QUEEN HERSELF was on a completely different level. _How?_ The Tohsaka raged to herself in confusion and disbelief. _How in the world is Shirou getting her attention? Is it because he killed that vampire? What is going on here?_

"Sponsor m-me?" Shirou squeaked in equal disbelief and fear. Glancing at Rin, who was glaring hat him murderously, he felt as if the Tiger and the Dragon had been joined with the enraged Ox… and he was the Rooster that they all wanted to take down. He would have considered himself the Rat, but obviously that position was already taken up. "Wouldn't Tohsaka be a better person to chose? She's a genius and an average one on top of that. I'm just some kid that dad adopted with a tiny butchered magic crest and an above average circuit."

The Queen's eyes narrowed. "Don't question my generosity boy. You are a useful tool and as things stand now it will only be a matter of time before you land yourself into the hands of someone significant… or you will be destroyed to prevent such an event from happening. Now produce a copy of this noble phantasm and let me make my verdict."

Shirou swallowed heavily as the woman's words weighed heavily in his chest and on his shoulders. She didn't want him because of who he was. She wanted him because of what he could do now and in the future. Given the look the woman, Waver, Bazett, and Rin were giving him, it would be best if he didn't say anything else lest he get murdered. Merem and his familiar however seemed to be enjoying the show quite much as they continued to drink and watched with amused eyes. As such, he decided to just go with the woman's instructions and look at the mace in front of him again. To be honest he didn't need to do so in order to trace it, however the person threatening his life didn't need to do that.

"Trace… on." The Faker muttered as he let prana flow through his circuits gently as they were still fairly sore from his fight against Louvre. Reaching into his reality marble and pulling out the mace to the outside world, he never noticed Merem and his familiar blink several times in surprise. "Well, here it is." Shirou smiled weakly as he handed his replica of the noble phantasm to Lorelei.

"If anything else it at least looks exactly like the original." The woman commented dryly as she took the copy into her other hand and inspected it critically. He facial expressions did not change in the slightest as she fairly frequently switched her gaze from one object to the other and muttered several spells under her breath.

"Master, I am curious." The priest turned rat asked the boy next to him. "Had you seen the original and the copy in different points of time, would you have been able to distinguish them apart? I must admit even I am having a bit of trouble telling them apart."

Merem's eyes flashed eagerly. "Yes I would have… but it would have taken me some effort to do so. The copy lacks several traits that make it a perfect replica of the original, however even if it is a temporary construct, it is marvelously well made. Even the magic and the feeling it exerts is exactly the same." He turned to Shirou. "You give your abilities far less credit than you deserve Emiya-san. What you are capable of is certainly a noteworthy feat."

After what seemed like hours to most of the individuals in the room, Lorelei finally placed the copy down on the table and looked at Shirou sharply. "You will have until the end of this country's summer education vacation to go to the Clocktower to receive my instructions. Unless you truly have a valid excuse, I suggest you do not make me wait."

Shirou gulped and looked at Waver pleadingly.

"I'll explain later." The young man stated with the barest hint of relief as he drank some more tea. "For now it would be best if you do as she says."

"This has to be a dream… it just has to be." Rin whispered to herself in a daze. "How am I being overlooked for Emiya? By the Queen of all people? How?"

"Quiet!" Bazett hissed as she tried to snap the girl out of her funk. "She might hear you!"

"Now before I allow Solomon to speak to you, I will ask you a few final questions." Lorelei stated with finality, though nearly spitting out the vamprie's name. "Is it possible for another person to replicate the mysteries you performed that prevented Louvre from regenerating and the one that somehow damaged his circuits?"

Shioru shook his head in denial. "My apologies but no. The first mystery is something that I created on the spot that requires a specific mystic code that was once mine and the remains of the Emiya family crest that I bear. The second requires a second mystic code that I once possessed, however both of these codes and a sister code that made them a set were destroyed soon after I obtained them so that they would not eventually fall into irresponsible hands. I felt they were too dangerous to think otherwise."

"I see." The noble stated not expressing understanding nor disappointment from the boy's revelation before closing her eyes. "That makes you all the more valuable for hunts then I suppose." She reached for her tea again and brought the cup to her lips. "You have my permission to speak to him now Solomon."

"My thanks Lady Barthomelloi." Merem nodded appreciatively before turning to Shirou. "I have to ask that we speak in private Emiya-san. What I wish to speak of is not something I want others to know of."

"Forgive me if I express discomfort with that request Lord Solomon." Waver frowned. "Your kind has not been known to be rather trustworthy, especially as of late."

"You have my word as a member of the Church's Burial Agency." The boyish immortal assured Waver. "Besides, if I were to do something to Emiya-san now I would not be able to barter for the mace with Lady Barthomelloi afterwards would I?"

"My lady…" Bazett looked nervously at the mace. "I highly recommend against allowing that mace to go to anyone's hands. We had enough trouble removing it from Louvre's to begin with…"

"If you're worried about me using the mace, I could always sign a geis to prevent me from using it on anyone if we manage to get a deal formed." Merem smiled non threatening. "I really enjoy collecting rare ancient artifacts and I make it a personal rule to not use them for fighting. It's really just a hobby of mine to be honest." The one armed vampire picked himself up and walked to the porch. "Now if we could go to somewhere more private?"

Shirou looked at his guest skeptically before relenting and getting up. "Fine. We'll go to one of the guest rooms to have this talk."

"Shirou. I shouldn't have to remind you to be very careful." Waver narrowed his eyes at the boy. "You tend to be a bit too trusting at times. Don't do anything reckless."

"I'll try… though I don't really think I'm in the mood to be very trusting to any new people right now after what's happened recently." The teen replied tiredly as he led Merem to another part of the house.

"It's a very smart thing that you do that Emiya-san." Merem nodded. "I wouldn't trust myself either if I just went what you did."

"You're not making this any easier for me you know." Shirou glanced at the vampire warily.

"Just trying to help." The vampire smiled again cheerfully as they exited the room.

Rin and Bazett looked around somewhat nervously as Shirou left the room with the Ancestor between the familiar and Lorelei, both of whom were drinking tea with the utmost posture and discipline. Waver on the other hand had a calm and controlled expression on his face, though nowhere near as much as the demon and the Queen.

"This really is quite good tea." The King of Rats commented pleasantly as he poured himself another cup. "My lady Barthomelloi, if it is not too much trouble to do so, may I possibly inspect Emiya-san's replica of the mace up close? You do not have to worry about me using it against anyone or anything here. Master created me with the purpose of being a stand in for modern human society since his form is as you saw it. I am not exactly a combat capable individual."

The room was silent for several moments before the Queen placed down her cup of tea and passed the demon the artifact replica. "Be warned demon. Should you make one unsavory gesture with it I will strike you down."

The demon priest smiled pleasantly as he took the projection from the woman. "I wouldn't dream of it. I wouldn't last even a second against someone of your caliber."

"F-forgive me for asking, but I have never heard of a demon being so well mannered and pleasant to other humans before." Rin spoke up. "Considering what you are and who your master is, I would have expected something a bit more… reserved at the very least."

The King of Rats smiled. "You are not the first to say that young girl. My master himself was also quite intrigued when he first realized that I am rather fond of the human race even though he did not create me as such." He raised the mace to the light in the room to get a better look at it. "When he asked me about it, I merely replied that I constantly work for the betterment of all rats, my master… and humans so long as the latter continue to make pizza of course."

Everyone in the room save for the Queen blinked owlishly at the demon's polite yet clearly unexpected statement.

o. o. o.

"So what is it that you wanted to talk to me about?" Shirou asked curiously and nervously as he and Waver sat each in a chair in one of the guest rooms of the house.

"Hmm." Merem mused, for all intents and purposes acting and looking as if he really was a fourteen year old boy. "I have several questions, but in a way the big one would be where to begin. Normally I am not the one that would be doing this but from what I've seen you do there really would be no one else that could adequately do the job without causing an uproar…" He sighed defeated. "Oh well. There is a first for everything I suppose." He looked at Shirou dead in the eye.

"Shirou Emiya. I am here to offer you the position as number ten of the Dead Apostle Ancestors as you are the most fitting successor to the previous tenth, Louvre."

Shirou's world froze. His breathing had stopped. His heart was still and his eyes could not tear themselves away from the vampire in front of him.

"Fortunately lady Barthomelloi is under the impression that Louvre's daughter put you under some sort of blood curse which can explain what Louvre himself said during your bout, otherwise I doubt you would be even alive right now…" Merem continued as he put on a ponderous expression, clearly talking more to himself more than Shirou at this point. "It would be more accurate to say that your potential is potentially even greater than Louvre's. I was uncertain before, but when you produced that mace earlier I could tell that you do in fact have a reality marble. Even if it isn't completely manifested inside of you, it is a mystery in itself that you managed to develop it this much at such a young age. Normally it would take centuries for even a powerful apostle to be able to get it to your point, yet you are not even in your later teen years in age. Plus there's the fact that you are so familiar with how it works that you have been developing it long before you even obtained any apostle blood. No wonder Louvre was so immensely enraged by your mere existence when he fought you. You are young even by human standards… but you already have what he will take several more centuries to obtain… not that you are fully qualified for the position either at the moment but still…"

"W-w-wait." Shirou finally managed to find his voice again. "You… want ME… to be an apostle ANCESTOR?"

Merem shrugged. "It's less of a matter of desire and more of simple qualification. When one of our kind is predicted to die in the near future by Altrouge Brunstead, another Ancestor, they are informed so that they can prepare their successor with the proper information and equipment so that the damages done to their work and territory are kept to a minimum. While it may have been by accident, you have not only inherited the man's blood through his daughter, but also a good portion of his legacy as well in the form of the codes he collected which you can replicate. It may sound like a sick joke to you, and no doubt to many others of my kind who would desire the position, but for better or for worse you are in fact the most suited to succeed him as of this moment."

"But… how?" Shirou tried to wrap his head around the new twist to the situation. He had to be asleep. That was the only explanation to rationalize how bizarre things had been since he woke up. There was simply just no other reasonable explanation for the Queen of the Clocktower's presence in his living room and the Dead Apostle Ancestor offering a position of equal power right in front of him. "I'm human! I haven't been turned and I don't drink blood! Isn't the requirement for being a Dead Apostle to at least drink blood as a habit? I'm not even dead!"

"Normally yes." Merem nodded as he inspected the boy with a careful eye. It was only then that Shirou noticed that unlike most vampires that he had encountered or heard about, Merem's eyes were a dark blue color unlike the standard blood red. "However if what I have gathered is correct, you managed to intake a sub standard amount of blood into your system when the one that infected you died and then you were treated for it quickly afterwards. Whatever you are using has done a rather good job of preventing the conversion of your body into one of my kind… however I am guessing that when Louvre agitated the remaining blood inside your system he inadvertently permanently converted some of your body's nature to match qualities with my kind's." The elder shrugged. "I believe that it would be best to describe you as a hybrid of sorts. You are without a doubt human, however it would be a lie to say that you aren't at least in part one of my kind as well. To be frank, if you were only partially transformed and killed Louvre through some other mundane method we wouldn't be having this conversation. However since you have a reality marble I am convinced that you are already far enough from being a human both in body and in mind to bend the rules."

Shirou slumped in his seat and stared at the ground. Everything seemed to be falling apart around him as he let the facts sink in. The war. His sister. His promise to his father. His ability to manage them all in the future were falling out of his hands between his fingers like sand. "Will… will I have to drink blood? Will I get the impulses to attack my friends?"

"I don't know." Merem replied in an apologetic tone. "Once again, I am unaware of how complete your transformation is, and I have little to no experience with this sort of situation despite having lived over a thousand years as I myself have very rarely ever feasted on a live human and even rarer have I actually turned one. It could be that you will only have a constant thirst that will linger in your mouth for the rest of your life. It could be that it slowly grows over time until you placate it with a minor amount of fresh blood from virtually any source. I myself only drink a cup of blood every week or so and that in itself is above the minimum to maintain my body. Still, accessing blood in a city without harming anyone is fairly simple for a magus with moderately standard hypnotizing spells."

"Or I could just go on the internet." Shirou absently stated, knowing that it was pretty easy to buy virtually anything online these days.

"The internet? You mean that device that normal humans are using these days to rapidly send information to one another?" Merem tilted his head to the side. "I have heard that technology was progressing rather rapidly lately but to be able to simply obtain blood through it is beyond what I had anticipated."

Shirou blinked at the vampire in front of him for a moment before snorting and chuckling lightly. "I forgot that most people involved in thaumaturgy don't like to familiarize themselves with modern technology." He smiled.

"It's not very polite to laugh at your guests, especially ones that are trying to help you." Merem pouted.

"I'm sorry." Shirou grinned weakly. "I guess I'm just very tired right now and am having trouble controlling my emotions."

Merem shook his head. "On the contrary, you are doing far better than most. A majority of vampires would attempt to gloat, make plans to obtain land, power, and prestige all while attempting to look humble. It is refreshing to meet someone as upfront as you for a change, even if many others of my kind would simply see it as a weakness."

"Tohsaka says the same thing." Shirou shook his head before dropping it. "I appreciate your offer Solomon-san, however even if I did take it, I am still just an average magus in every field outside of combat. I have nothing to enforce my territory in case someone decides to come and attack my friends save for said friends themselves, and I don't want to put them into any danger because of me. Right now accepting the position is more of a curse than a boon."

Merem nodded slowly as he looked at Shirou curiously. "You are indeed correct. As you are now even if your territory is only this city you would not be able to defend it well… but… can you answer something for me? So far all of your comments and questions about your current situation revolve around protecting your friends and ensuring their safety. Not once have you asked about anything you would use as your own initial benefit. It is rather odd."

Shirou paused before chuckling to himself and putting one of his hands over his face. "Sorry. You could say that it's part of the reason why I have my reality marble. I don't really have a sense of self when I'm comparing it's weight to another person's well being. I'm the kind of guy that would instinctively go out and risk his life for the sake of a complete stranger for no other reason than the fact that it's the right thing to do… even if it could get me killed in the process."

Merem raised an eyebrow. "That is certainly an interesting thing to know Emiya-san… however I don't think it was wise to tell someone like me that. I could easily use it against you you know."

Shirou shook his head. "No… I trust you. You went out of your way to not only tell me of my condition, but you're helping me out in your own way by patiently explaining things to me. It's the least I could do in return for your aid. Plus you don't seem like a bad person to me."

The vampire blinked several times in disbelief before he began to laugh. "Kirei was right about you Emiya-san. You really are an interesting person to talk to."

Shirou's eyes narrowed. "The priest talked to you about me?"

Merem nodded. "Yes. He was quite interested in you from the beginning and I can see why now. I take it you are not fond of him."

"My father was the Magus Killer. He was scared of that man. Let's leave it at that." The second Magus Killer stated bluntly.

"Very well. I will respect your request." Merem relented without putting up any sort of resistance. "If I may make one of my own though, how did you came about developing a reality marble? From what I've seen, you have some sort of idea of how it happened. The only reason why I ask is simply that it is rare for a human to be able to have one as you very well know."

Shirou looked at the vampire for a moment before leaning back and closing his eyes. While many would scold him for divulging potentially important information to the vampire, Shirou would simply wave off such concerns as Merem had already in his mind proven himself trustworthy to a degree. Plus despite the fact that the event was one that defined who and what he was today, it did not really fall under confidential information as far as he was concerned. Merem already knew he was adopted by Kiritsugu and that he was fundamentally broken, which was really the only things that the story could prove.

Without hesitating he told the elder about his first memories in the Fuyuki fire. About seeing all the dead and dying people around him and not being able to do anything. About slowly falling apart piece by piece inside in order to survive for even a moment longer. About seeing Kiritsugu hovering over him with a smile and tears on his face and wishing that he could ever be that happy… and then recalling the irony that it was Kiritsugu that started the fire in the first place, yet not blaming him in the slightest.

When Shirou opened his eyes and looked at Merem again, he noticed that the vampire was staring at him in what could only be disbelief. "Solomon-san, is something the matter?"

"Fascinating…" The elder whispered as he looked at Shirou as if he was seeing him for the first time. "To think that our beginnings would share so many similarities… remarkable…"

"Similarities?" The Faker blinked in confusion.

"Let us just say… that the event that made you are today have an unnaturally large number of parallels with the event that led to me becoming a vampire." Merem replied hesitantly. "It would not be that far off to state that your idolization for your father is equivalent to mine for Crimson Moon Brunstud."

Shirou's eyes widened. "T-Type Moon? You were turned by the ultimate one of the moon himself?" There wasn't a single magus who could call himself one that didn't know of the dangers that were Types, the strongest beings belonging to the celestial bodies of the solar system. So far only two were identified, Type-Moon and Type-Mercury, both of whom held spots in the twenty seven Dead Apostle Ancestors, but none the less the rule of thumb regarding them was if you see them, run away as fast as you damned well can and pray they didn't notice you. Type Moon himself warranted special interest here simply because it was a known fact that he was the FIRST vampire.

Granted he was supposedly killed off by Kaleidoscope centuries ago, however it was also known that there was a chance that he could be resurrected in the future by some secret method was also mentioned in every other textbook.

Merem nodded happily at the memories of the being who killed and saved him in the same day. "The very same. Given the similarities, I will have to read into your father's past when I get back to the Church. No doubt the man who inspired you to such lengths must have been a magnificently wonderful and interesting human behind the stories that people know him for." He turned and glanced at the clock mounted on the wall of the room and winced. "Ah, it seems we have been here for quite a while Emiya-san. I fear that if we linger any longer then I may not be able to negotiate properly with Lady Barthomelloi." He turned to Shirou apologetically. "I am certain I know the answer to this question, however I will ask again. Will you take the mantle of the tenth?"

Shirou smiled sadly and shook his head. "No. As it stands I have nothing to gain and everything to lose for donning such a hat. I am sorry."

Merem smiled. "That is quite all right. Just do not be surprised if a rat comes by every few months with a similar offering. There are multiple openings in the twenty seven that have been there for centuries, and I think that in time you would make a wonderful addition to our little club. We are in no rush. The odds are likely that should you accept it when you are fifty we would allow you to have it with little issue. Regardless of that, you interest me very much. I will have to talk to you again sometime soon. If anything else, consider me your ally in the dark."

Shirou returned the smile. "I'll try to be more accommodating when you arrive then."

Merem led the younger man outside of the room. "No by all means don't go out of your way for me. I have enough of that at the Church and when I visit other vampries. Your honesty is a breath of fresh air, especially from a person as truly pleasant as yourself…"

o. o. o.

Several hours later things finally seemed to have come to a close at the Emiya household. Merem had managed to haggle Lorelei for the Mace in return for signing a geis to not use it in addition to giving her bits of information that Shirou, Rin, Bazett, and Waver wisely pretended they knew nothing about. Shirou offered to make everyone dinner, but they all claimed that they were not hungry as they had all either ate already or did not need to feed as frequently as normal people.

So right before he finished making a simple meal for himself, his guests began to leave one by one. Merem left first stating that if he didn't he would make everyone feel nervous being what he was without a human powerhouse to possibly keep him in check, which Rin and Bazett both agreed to. Soon afterwards Lorelei and Waver left as well in order to manage the reports on what had happened and send word to the Clocktower of Louvre's death. Rin had attempted to subtly convince the powerful female to consider sponsoring her entrance, but her attempts apparently fell on deaf ears until Waver whispered to her that he'd spread her name around to several of the higher lords in the association as a consolation prize. Shirou could easily tell that it wasn't what she was aiming for, but all things considered it was not that bad of a deal either.

"Finally." Bazett breathed out tiredly as she sat down on the couch and leaned back. "I thought they'd never leave." She laughed bitterly at the events she had just been witness to. "I still can't believe it. Lady Barthomelloi here drinking tea across the table from the only Apostle Ancestor that works for the Church. Even if I was certain that I wouldn't get crucified for telling the guys back home about this, they wouldn't believe me in the first place."

"I didn't really mind them being here." Shirou shrugged as he finished cleaning up his dishes. The chore had really calmed his nerves and mind down from the night's events.

"Of course you weren't stressed out." Rin grumbled, still extremely irritated that Shirou was sponsored by one of her idols for the association and not her. "You don't really care about getting a higher education in the Association or have to worry about funding for your studies or have to buy your own jewels for your research…"

Shirou raised an eyebrow. "You know, if all you need are standard diamonds and basic crystals, all you have to do is get me the base materials needed for them and I can make them with my reinforcement. It's not exactly that hard of a thing for me to do you know. I learned how to turn graphite into diamonds years ago as part of a molecular restructuring experiment. After learning the basics of that, doing slightly more complicated crystals shouldn't be that much of an issue."

Rin paused for a moment before looking at Shirou warily. "… Can you do sapphires, topaz', rubies and other ones like that?"

The Faker shrugged. "Sure. Their basic structuring is pretty simple to set up since crystals are basically an eternal pattern up until you run out of materials. Plus if you need spirits bound to them all we would need to do is get a few and then cut them with the jewel with Maiya. Then all you would have to do is make the binding more natural and erk!" The boy's explanation was cut off as Rin grabbed him by the front of his shirt and glared at him in the eyes.

"Emiya-kun." The genius girl growled as she held him at his mercy. "I am very conflicted right now. Part of me wants to murder you where you stand, and the other part wants nothing more than to bow down before you and thank the root that you are mine to do with as I wish. I do not like being conflicted like this, so I will not do either." She evened her glare at the boy. "If you have any other possible methods to aid my magic or my financial situation, now would be the best time to let me know. If you decide to hold back and tell me later, I cannot ensure your health."

"Not my life?" Shirou squeaked weakly.

"I need that intact to make me more gems for my research of course." The Tohsaka smiled sweetly, belaying the evil intent coming off of her.

"I don't think I know of anything else that can help out with your jewel magic right now, but that may be because you are threatening my life again." The Emiya whimpered fearfully as she stared at him with a look that he was far too familiar with than he would ever like. It was the look that preceded many experiments that made him truly glad that he had Avalon inside his body and even gladder that he had managed to learn how to accelerate the healing ability it gave him by even a small margin.

Rin didn't drop her smile as she let her friend go and gently patted him on the head. "I'll forgive you this time so long as you provide me with some samples of your work, just please do not hesitate to inform me of such possible boons to my future research Emiya-kun."

"Yes ma'am." Shirou shivered.

"And I do expect you to make me some samples by the end of the week. I should be able to prepare some spirits to bind to them for testing in the process. If they are in a good quality and the binding experiments fail I am at least certain I can find a vendor that I can trade them with in order to get some more suitable gems for my research…" Her face momentarily became dark, conniving, and malicious. "… and make a small fortune on the side…" She muttered the last bit under her breath but not soft enough that the other two people in the room didn't hear it.

"What was that last part?" Shirou asked warily. "I don't want to get arrested Tohsaka."

"Oh nothing you have to worry about." Rin smiled happily, not fooling anyone for a second.

"Hey can I have some of the profits too? The pay for being an Enforcer isn't really all that it's cracked up to be. Suits are expensive you know." Bazett asked curiously and hopefully from the couch.

Before Rin had the chance to snap back at the enforcer, the phone rang to interrupt their activities. "Huh?" The Tohsaka blinked as she looked at the clock. It was a bit past ten. "Who would be calling at this hour?"

"Hello? This is the Emiya residence." Shriou answered the call as if nothing was odd about the timing of it.

"Sempai?" A familiar voice asked from the other side. "Is that you? Are you ok?"

"Sakura?" Shirou blinked in surprise. With everything that had been literally thrown in his face the past few days, let alone hours, he had completely forgotten about his shy friend. "Y-yeah it's me. I'm fine and everything." He winced as he remembered that he had been completely knocked out for a day and so the news of how the park had been completely destroyed must have spread around. "I bet you have a lot of questions about what happened recently…"

"Yes. It's all over the news that several massive sinkholes that were missed in the park collapsed a few nights ago… but grandfather said that there was really a large fight there instead. What happened?"

"Ah… well, let's just say that we won't have any more major apostle problems anymore." Shriou laughed nervously. It wasn't that he didn't want to tell her about what truly happened, it was just that he didn't see the need to tell her the entire story and worry her sick. "We might need your help on cleaning out the city's remaining undead though. Without their masters alive they might go on a frenzy and kill more people to feed."

"I'm relieved." The girl breathed out happily. "I'll talk to Tohsaka-sempai about taking care of the undead in a few days. What about you though? There were no problems? You aren't hurt are you?"

"I'm a bit roughed up, but otherwise I'm fine. Tohsaka and Bazett-nee are good as well. As for Sirius-jiji…" He hesitated. "Well… he'll get better, but I'd rather not talk about his situation right now. It's a bit complicated."

"I see." Sakura mused, though she didn't seem to sound worried for some odd reason. The tone of her voice though quickly turned nervous as if she was suddenly paying attention to something terrifying nearby. "Um, Sempai, I'm sorry, but the real reason why I called is because Grandfather wanted to talk to you about something he says is important. Could you come to my place at night within the next day or so?"

Shirou's face hardened at the mention of Zouken and he instinctively gripped the phone hard catching the notice of Rin and Bazett who were paying attention to him. His father had spared no expense in informing his son of what the cruel worm user had done to his adopted granddaughter and what he was capable of, though he seemed to have left out who the girl's family originally was. The despicable monster had to be killed in order for any sort of closure in Fuyuki and his life to be possible… yet now was unfortunately not the time to do so as much as it hurt him to admit it.

However what was most concerning was that the man wanted to talk to him so soon. The war was not for another two years… so why would he reach out to the boy already? Had the old bastard watched his fight against Louvre and determined that he was a valuable piece to use, or was there something else that had happened to cause the man to call out to him?

Wait… there was. Shinji had been killed. That annoying guy who he considered a friend, even if he was a bad one, had been just another tool for Zouken to manipulate… and had done so by constantly raping his adopted sister in order to keep her in line. If the bastard wasn't killed off by Louvre's son, Shirou might have had to take extreme measures himself if he couldn't convince him to not do that anymore… or so that he wouldn't have been capable of having sex at the very least.

If he wanted to, Shirou could easily just meet up with the monster under innocent circumstances and shove Maiya into his chest, binding his soul into the fake body and then killing it to end the man… but that could easily lead to more issues down the line. According to his father's letter, Zouken's soul was rotten, so even a binding it to a dying body could possibly not prevent him from tearing himself away without absolute damage, moving to the worm in Sakura's body… and after that it would only get worse. Kiritsugu was useless against that many minor familiars, and neither was anything else in his current arsenal should Zouken try to kill him with the thousands of insects under his influence…

Which left him with only a small handful of ways to rely on… and all of them required him to wait until the war started much to his utter distaste.

But unfortunately at the moment killing the worm user was not the main topic at hand and Shirou had no clue what the ancient man wanted with him…

"Sempai?" Sakura's voice asked worriedly over the phone. "Are you still there?"

"Ah…" Shirou faltered, realizing that he had spent too long thinking. "Er, yeah. Sorry about that Sakura. I accidentally let my mind wander a bit." He breathed out slowly. It wouldn't do to let his emotions distract him right now. "I may be busy in the next few days… would it be ok if I came over now?" He threw a curve ball, even if it was a small one. Zouken wouldn't do anything big now if Shirou didn't either. It's too early in the game for that. Still by coming early Shirou can at least cause the old man to not be as prepared for their conversation.

"T-tonight?" Sakura stammered in surprise as she no doubt watched Zouken's reaction from nearby. Shirou was certain he heard the old man laugh which was akin to rough gravel shifting around. "Um… Grandfather says that's fine as well. We'll be expecting you soon."

"Thank you very much for making time for me." The Emiya thanked the girl politely.

"Sempai… I…" Sakura began to speak up again as Shirou was about to turn off the phone.

"Yes? What is it Sakura?" The teen asked curiously and worriedly. His question was met with silence for several seconds before he got an answer.

"Never mind. I'll see you soon." The Emiya sighed as he turned off the phone and turned to see Rin and Bazett looking at him warily.

"I don't know what you're planning, but you have that look on your face again Emiya-kun." Rin frowned.

"Look?" Shirou blinked in confusion.

"It's the look you get when you've resolved yourself to get in the middle of something nasty and violent." Bazett explained. "You are a bit of an open book when it comes to reading your emotions through your facial expressions."

"What business do you have with the Matou and why are you wary of them?" Rin ordered.

Shirou looked at both women nervously before raising his hands in defeat. "I really can't talk about it, but it has something to do with the letters that dad left to me. That's really all I can tell you right now. Please don't make me say anymore."

The Tohsaka frowned. "I'm inclined to do so if Zouken's involved. If you make an enemy out of him for whatever stupid reason you give him, I am obligated to join him since our families are allied. You didn't simply react to Zouken's mentioning, you nearly blew up. The only time I saw you go that far was when we found out that Shinji was killed. I don't want to have to risk choosing between family pride and you."

Shirou smiled nervously. "Don't worry Tohsaka. I'm not in any condition to start any fights right now. Zouken just wants to talk to me about something that's all."

"That's what I'm worried about." Rin countered. "That old bastard is almost on par with the fake priest when it comes to feeling either infuriated or threatened."

The Faker laughed lightly as he walked to the door. "Considering I just hosted the head of the Barthomelloi family and a Dead Apostle Ancestor in my home at the same time for the past four hours, I'm fairly certain that I can keep my cool for a while longer. Thanks for the concern though…"

"Shirou! Wai…" Rin tried to stop her friend, but she was already too late as the door closed behind him. "He's up to something…" She growled.

"Hey Rin… is this Zouken guy really that big of a concern that Shirou might be in danger?" Bazett lifted her head from the couch concerned.

The dark haired teen bit her lip in frustration. "Yes and no. He's strong enough to kill Shirou if the idiot doesn't pay attention, but he isn't the type to throw the first punch either. I don't know what he's up to, but whenever he makes the effort to reach out to someone, bad things happen to them…"

"I take it you're speaking from experience." Bazett frowned as she looked at the girl skeptically.

Rin's silence spoke volumes.

o. o. o.

"Ah Emiya-kun. So nice of you to arrive so soon." Zouken smiled as he opened the door for Shirou. "You have to excuse my granddaughter. She is a bit tired from running errands lately and I am afraid the shock of Shinji's death is still lingering."

Shirou extremely doubted that what Zouken said was the truth in the slightest but he made no indication as he walked in the front door. "I know what you mean. I'm also a bit numb with it still. When he showed up like that…" He shook his head. "At least he was avenged in the end…"

"Yes I heard. No doubt that the event in the park was really your final confrontation with the abominations." The worm wielder nodded approvingly. "You have my thanks for that… though I am somewhat surprised by the damage done there when I inspected the aftermath. What sort of spells was that remaining demon using to cause such an effect?"

The Faker's eyebrow twitched, knowing that the old man was beating around the bush. "It was the father of the vampire that turned Shinji that did that. He had some kind of mystic code mace that did most of that damage in the fight, though I don't know where its origins were located."

"A code? How odd… though I suppose it no longer matters. The creature is dead and you are in one piece."

"It doesn't feel like it." Shirou grumbled, causing Zouken to laugh dryly.

"No I suppose you wouldn't after fighting such an opponent, but then again it also speaks wonders about your ability to defeat him in the first place."

"I had some help from Rin and a few friends that had a bone to pick with him." Shirou brushed off the compliment. It felt wrong to him to accept compliments from this guy on a fundamental level. "I just managed to carry my weight around and deal the final blow…"

"Dealing a final blow to a powerful Apostle though is in itself a feat, what with their unique regeneration abilities and all they are capable of." Zouken smirked as he glanced at Shriou. "I am quite curious as to how you managed to get around that."

"Is this what you invited me over to talk about?" The Faker asked with a slightly irritated tone, no longer in the mood for the old man. "I'd rather not recollect that fight for a while or tell people I am wary of about how my mysteries work."

The old man merely laughed again with that grating voice of his that caused the hairs on the back of the teen's neck to stand on end. "My apologies. You are quite in your right to make that request and it is very rude of me to inquire of such things." They entered the living room and both sat down in their own seats facing one another. "No, the reason why I called you here is for more… sensitive and personal matters."

Shirou raised an eyebrow. "Sensitive and personal? If it's that important, why are you calling me here? You only met me a couple of weeks ago at the most."

"Your presence here is not due to your relationship with me, but due to your relationship with my grandson and granddaughter." The old man sighed in apparent exhaustion, something Shirou didn't buy for a second. "As you probably determined by now, Shinji was not born with any magical ability or circuits, so when Sakura entered the family and it was determined that she had the potential, she became the successor of the Matou thaumaturgy. Unfortunately due to certain issues regarding the nature of her birth and the way our family teaches the subject, I needed to take some certain… liberties when it came to her training." He saw the teen glare at him angrily. "Your assumptions of what I did to her are most likely not far off… you are well within your right to despise me for what I have done to my family, however what's done is done and we cannot change that…"

Shirou was indeed enraged at Zouken, however a good part of his pent up anger had to do with the way the old man told him the tale of Sakura's past. It sickened him to admit it, but the man had indeed told him the truth. If he hadn't been informed of what the old man was doing to his dear friend, he probably would have bought Zouken's sob story too. "Get to the point. What's wrong with Sakura and why do you need me?" The younger of the two stated bluntly, not wanting to stomach any more twisted truths at this point.

The weary appearing old man sighed reluctantly. "Due to the method used to adjust Sakura, we inadvertently altered her nerves such that on occasion she would suffer from… well, the best way to put it is extreme arousal, but of a dangerous variety. Leaving Sakura unsated for long periods of time would cause her extreme mental strain and damage her circuits and her nerves."

Slowly, very slowly, Shirou's face went pale as he pieced together what Zouken was telling him with what he already knew. "Y-you're joking right? You're telling me that due to a mistake you made Sakura's body occasionally… yearn for sex… to a degree that it would actually damage her body if she wasn't…"

"Satisfied? Yes, that is exactly what I'm saying." Zouken stated coolly, in his own way preventing Shirou from telling if he was doing so to hide his own distaste or to show how much he really didn't care. The old man really was a good actor. "Having Sakura's best interests in mind, after a certain point I had Shinji take up the task of curbing this risk."

"Meaning you forced Shinji to rape her." Shirou stated the obvious with a bit of a murderous tone in it.

"At first yes, however as time went on he seemed to enjoy the act to the point that I no longer needed to tell him to do the act. Regardless, at that point was either that or have her self destruct. I chose the lesser of two evils given the circumstances." The magus answered without any remorse. "However now even you should see our current issue. Shinji is dead and as such we need someone to fill his place or else my granddaughter will slowly loose her mind and her circuits will destroy her from the inside out."

Shirou blinked in confusion before Zouken's words sunk into his thick skull. "You want me… to…" He began to sum up the old man's request before his brain shut down for the third time since he woke up that evening. _Oh no. __No no no no no no no no no no…_

"Have fairly frequent intercourse in order to save her life. Yes." The worm manipulator stated as if he was talking about another mundane theory. "If you are having trouble admitting that this is happening, I suggest that you rephrase it so that she needs frequent tantric rituals in order to maintain her od's stability." He raised an eyebrow. "Though I am not sure why you would be hesitant. From what I understand my granddaughter is rather attractive by today's youth's standards… or are you simply one of those types that have other preferences…"

"Could you please stop talking for a moment?" Shirou asked with as much politeness as he could muster. "I'm trying to make sense out of this. I've had a very stressful day and you are not making things much better."

"I apologize, however you now see the problem at hand." The old man stated.

"Why can't…" Shirou began before taking a second to get used to the topic of conversation. He had no doubt that he was going to have a horrendous taste in his mouth when this farce of a deal was done. "Why can't Sakura just… please herself?"

"Her circuits become unstable and her od gets low when she suffers from long periods of inactivity. Masturbation takes care of one issue, however I have found that when her od reach minute levels her nerves have a tendency to act up again fairly rapidly." Zouken replied. "She needs the release AND the extra supply of energy in order to stabilize. The reason why I called you is because not only are you the only person that Sakura seems to trust comfortably with this, but you are also the only male magus of reasonable age in this city, and as such can do the best job out of anyone I can think of. If you decline I am afraid I will need to take more radical actions in order to preserve Sakura's life."

Shirou bit his lip in frustration as he tried to think of more questions to ask and get more information out of the situation. He was so stressed at this point that he managed to draw blood without even noticing. "How often will I need to… stabilize her? I often go out of the country during the main breaks for weeks at a time. I might have to be gone even longer due to recent events and I assure you they aren't negotiable. If I try my luck you'd probably never hear from me again."

The old man's face scowled. "Hmm. That indeed is an issue. Assuming your internal od is large enough, I can estimate that Sakura should be able to last at most about four weeks without causing any severe issues from what I have seen with Shinji. Perhaps five if she can prolong it with her own activities…"

"I can't believe I'm having this conversation…" The redhead grunted with his even redder face in his hands.

"Grow up." Zouken said bluntly, having no time for childish qualms. "This too is a path that many magi must walk eventually. As we walk alongside death, we must go hand in hand with many other obscure and otherwise distasteful subjects as if it were a constant companion. Sex is no different. In fact I am surprised that you are not somewhat elated to be offered to have my granddaughter as your partner. Does she not appeal to you?"

Shirou shook his head. "It is not a matter of her appealing to me. Sakura is a very beautiful and kind person, but right now I am more concerned over her wellbeing than I am of my own libido."

"And that is another reason why I chose to go to you first." Zouken nodded. "You seem to truly care greatly for both my legacies… though why for Shinji I probably will never understand. I can trust you with taking care of Sakura from herself and from any other possible threats."

_Other possible threats? Could he be talking about the war?_ The teen's eyes narrowed. "Why can't you simply reverse, undo, or stop what you did to Sakura, or at least try to find someone who can?"

Zouken narrowed his eyes at Shirou. "Even if I could do such a thing I will not. Sakura is the only person capable of passing down the Matou's magic and as such she needs to be able to perform it. So long as she is able to live and continue my legacy I have no issue with our current situation. Regardless her change was done so long ago that nothing can be done now. Her nerves do and will continue to act up on occasion. Her internal energy does occasionally get low, and as such she needs someone to be her partner in order to survive. There is nothing to get around it." The shriveled man paused. "Well… there is one way…"

_And here it comes. The real reason why he wants me here. I should have seen this coming._ Shirou mentally growled. "Go on."

"What do you know about the Grail War?"

o. o. o.

Shirou grit his teeth so hard he was fairly certain that one of them cracked as he walked back home. Of all the bombs that had been dropped upon him since he woke up, this one was the by far the one that got to him the most. He didn't mind getting forced to join the association since he knew that there was a chance that he was going to go there anyways to further some of his studies. Getting offered a position as a Dead Apostle Ancestor was a big shock, but thankfully Merem was an understandable person and accepted his denial without much issue.

But being forced into being a part of Sakura's life and make those plans for the war? He could stomach a lot of things, but this was where he truly got pissed. Had he not already been aware of how truly cruel and malevolent Zouken could be, he might have completely walked into the old bastard's hands unknowingly and wound up destroying the world. Thankfully he had managed to adjust the initial deal so that he would have a better advantage of things in the long run… if he had enough energy to keep things going that long at least…

Everything was changing so suddenly. Even if he had the time to memorize all of the possible plans and approaches to the next war his father had made in his notebook, the fact was that more than half of them had been rendered completely impossible in less than half a day more than two years before the war was supposed to happen.

"Damn it…" He grunted as his hands made fists so tight that he began to draw blood without even knowing it. Without even paying attention he flooded his body with prana and punched a streetlamp that was right next to him as hard as he could. His enforced limb sunk into the metal without much issue and caused a massive dent in the shape of his fist. Thankfully he did not touch or break any of the wires inside of it and get electrocuted, and the hole he made wouldn't be enough to knock the pole over, however he did still manage to break a few bones in the process. "DAMN IT!" He yelled in frustration, still not noticing the pain in his arm.

"If you keep on going like that I might have to take you down Shirou." A voice calmly stated from the shadows nearby, distracting the teen from his anger as he turned to the source to see Bazett staring at him. "I don't know what's gotten your panties in a bunch, but I'm fairly certain I've trained you to control yourself better than this."

Shirou clicked his teeth in irritation and looked away both embarrassed and frustrated. He really wasn't in the mood to be lectured right now and getting asked questions on what happened would only make his mood worse. "What are you doing here?" He asked with as much stability as he could muster at the moment.

"Rin was worried about you going alone to the Matou's, and I can see now that she was right to be so." Bazett crossed her arms and looked at her student with a concerned gaze. "I won't ask what happened or what you talked about in there if you don't want to, but I will ask that you calm down. Nothing will get done if you start raging around wildly like this."

The teen looked at his elder warily before sighing deeply and letting his arms relax by his sides. His face turned from one of anger to one that was extremely tired and depressed. "You're right Nee-san. Sorry…"

The elder shook her head and walked over to the boy as a sister would to her younger sibling. "Come on. Let's get back to your place. You must be exhausted since you still haven't fully recovered and all these things have happened. I'll ask Rin to put you under a sleeping spell for a while so that you can recover more. When you wake up you can decide on what you can do next and if you want to tell us what happened." She patted him gently on the back. "Like it or not you are going to have a very rough time ahead of you in the next few months."

"Yeah…" The redhead muttered tiredly as Bazett led him back to his house. "Months…"

Regardless of what Bazett said, the facts would not change. A deal with the devil had been made that night. From Zouken's perspective everything was stacked in his favor without any sort of risk. In Shirou's, which was more realistic, it was more of a wild gamble with a very large number of variables that had yet to be determined. However what was at risk and the prize were the same.

And so two years before the war officially started, over a year before the first command seals would appear on the participants and even longer still before said participants were even chosen… the 5th holy grail war had unofficially begun.

o. o. o.

A/N:

Thanks again Maximorph1 for betaing.

Yep. Things are beginning to change in the timeline big time and it will definitely lead to some very interesting changes in the war. For the plot, I am not going to jump immediately to the war, but you guys will see soon enough why. I'm not going to add any more major arcs before the war, but there will be a couple of mini arcs which will further show major changes in the main event.

I felt like I rushed the bit at the end with Zouken and all, but by the time I got to it I really just wanted to get it over with so things could move on. I also took some liberties with Sakura's worm condition to make things work better. Technically so long as she doesn't have something draining her reserves other than constantly fully active worms, she can last a while without a tantric ritual, which is why I was a bit generous with the time she can last without a recharge. If you have any complaints… meh. Go bug someone else.

I have decided, Shirou is getting a harem… mostly because I truly do believe that he needs that many women to keep him out of trouble and take shifts so that they don't get overworked and end up killing him out of frustration. Normally I try to avoid this kind of route, however the further I get into planning this story the harder it is to avoid it without a reasonable excuse. How many women is he going to get and who is in it… well I'm not gonna say, but rest assured I am NOT going to make this one of those obvious love at first sight and now they are on his side kind of bull crap stories. I hate those. It's part of the reason why I try to keep Rin in the Tsun mindset. It's easier for me to write.

All in all though, rest assured, I am planning to do some extreme mind fucking with the characters here at one point or another. This arc really just set some foundation for a few of the mental screws that will come later.

So… Still waiting for FZ season 2 to come. Still planning how to completely twist the Grail War around even more than I have already imagined. I got the pieces and events all set up, just not in the right order, plus it gets a bit annoying when I come up with more good events to use.

There hasn't been any FFD fanart yet, but I'm still fairly confident and hopeful that some good stuff will show up eventually. Also don't forget that there is indeed a TV tropes page on FFD so check it out and make any additions you feel like.

Also, I have just rekindled my love for massively oversized jawbreakers. I don't care if I look mentally retarded walking around my house with a giant ball in my mouth, because I just love the things.

Close to the 1k mark guys. Go break that sucker with gusto.

So I think that's about it. Gotta study for a midterm now.

Review! Worship the Log! Be a good person and feed your neighborhood rodents some Pizza! And Review Again!


	18. Chapter 18

Chapter 18: Global Variables

I do not own Fate/Stay Night and stuffs:

o. o. o.

The streets of Fuyuki City:

"Moh." Rin grumbled as she and Sakura walked next to one another during the night once more to clean up any potential undead that may have lingered from the incident five months ago. "This is getting annoying! Why are they still here? I thought we got the last of them a month ago but nooooo there's still somehow a couple left that managed to avoid all those stupid bounded fields we set up!" Rin's frustration was understandable to a degree. Making sure that the undead in the area had been completely wiped out had taken a considerable amount of time and effort and kept getting in the way of her studies and her experiments. In fact that night she had planned to conduct a rather large one regarding the potency of the jewels that she and Shirou had made in comparison to the ones that she already had.

Instead, She and Sakura were busy walking down the various streets of Fuyuki looking for what they hoped was the last remnant of Louvre and his children's prey. Rin was dressed in her trademark red coat over her summer clothes despite the warm night and Sakura was in a light pink dress. Even though it was night time, the air was still mildly humid and warm due to the fact that Fuyuki was a coastal city. As such there were many people of all ages out enjoying the night life in the city in various ways and forms.

"Please calm down sempai." Sakura smiled nervously. "I was just as surprised as you were when I heard about the assault last night in the news. We couldn't have known that we missed one. Besides, we have been doing a pretty good job of managing things by ourselves even though we're inexperienced to a degree."

"Yeah yeah." The elder muttered under her breath with an irritated tone. "Doesn't mean I have to like it."

The two girls continued to do their rounds in the dark streets of the city, inspecting all the places that they had set up their special anti undead bounded fields and looked for other decent spots where they could set them up. They had casted a spell earlier that made them almost completely unnoticeable unless they did something obviously out of the ordinary to normal humans. Thus, no one would bother the high schooler and middle schooler pair walking around without any supervision.

"Hey Sakura." Rin asked as she looked down another alleyway with a bored glance. "Can I ask you something?

"Yes sempai?" The younger replied as she looked down another one. "What is it?"

"It has to do with Emiya-kun." The elder continued with a casual tone, but if anyone saw her face they could tell that there was a hint of uncertainty to it.

Sakura swallowed nervously. It had been only a few days after the park incident when her grandfather had told her that Shirou had been enlisted to help with some of her more private reoccurring issues. Given the circumstances she of course broke down to a degree, believing then and still now that it was her fault for dragging the one person she valued most into her cursed life, and more importantly ashamed and terrified that he had been told about her lewd and defiled body. She was absolutely certain at the time that he would abandon her like the rest of her original family those many years ago should he ever find out about it…

But to her surprise, when he saw her in that fake room where she supposedly slept, he didn't gaze upon her body in disgust or lust, but of genuine concern, an expression she had never experienced when it came to her condition. At that moment all her bottled up emotions had finally broken through the wall she had set up within herself and she collapsed crying with her crush embracing her carefully. They did not have sex that night, they merely embraced one another's presence without even saying anything. By the following morning Sakura had fallen more in love with the boy than she had ever been.

However…

This did not mean that Shirou shared similar feelings, or at the very least he did not recognize those feelings just yet. Granted she still had yet to truly inform him of her true feelings, but most males should have gotten a hint or two by this point. Yes the teen did genuinely care for her, however Sakura noticed that he put an effort to try and keep their relationship as it had been before the vampire incident. Sometimes it was if he was unaware of how to interpret his own feelings at times, and at others it was more like he was distancing himself when he really didn't want to.

They did eventually have sex, and while the Emiya did have far more stamina than Shinji did, he was not as experienced as her brother either for obvious yet unfortunate reasons. This led to their first few sessions being a bit awkward at times, but Shirou quickly gained experience with Sakura's guidance and made their little private moments more pleasurable for the both of them. On occasion he was surprisingly rough as well much to her secret pleasure and surprise given how much of gentle nature he has, however such moments were very short lived…

In a way it made her ecstatic. While she may not have truly captured her Sempai's heart just yet, she had obtained a significant lead over Rin in their competition to get the redhead's affection. It was one of the few secret sins that she held that she could truly be happy about having.

No one outside of her, Shirou, and Zouken knew of this setup they had and she was fairly certain that Shirou was not the kind of person that would ever tell anyone about his sex life or about her own condition.

"Wh-what about Sempai?" The purple haired girl asked warily. "Did something happen on his trip to England already?"

Rin shook her head in denial. "No, it's…" She hesitated. "Look, due to some things I found out about Emiya-kun a while ago I've been spending some time re-thinking about our little secret war for his attention." Her expression darkened and she glared sideways as a thought entered her mind. "… Though to be honest I doubt anything short of saying that we have feelings for him or having sex would get through his thick skull."

_No, not even sex gets the point across._ The secretively spiteful girl mentally grumbled. "Re-thinking?" Sakura asked curiously while deep inside her heart a spiteful growl rose in defiance. "What do you mean?"

The elder licked her lips warily as she looked around for the undead. "You know that Emiya-kun has a reality marble right? How the requirements to have one involve the user having a fundamentally different mindset than that of normal humans?"

"I did look up the subject a bit after the incident, yes." The younger admitted as she also scanned the area. The Matou family had a small collection of tomes on Reality Marbles in their library due to the existence of the occasional Servant in previous Heaven's Feel rituals possessing one. "What does that have to do with us?"

Rin sighed. "After Bazett-san took him back to his place from the Church and went over the details of what happened, I overheard him talking to Bazett about his distortion and that night." She looked at Sakura sadly. "Emiya-kun doesn't have a sense of self when it comes to comparing it to other people. He was fully ready to cut his head off when we were being held hostage and to be honest even if we were complete strangers at the time he probably would have done the same thing. If we left him alone he probably would have killed himself over some random group of strangers who would have eventually stabbed him in the back soon afterwards… and the odds were likely would have let them do it too."

She let her words sink into her sister's head for a few seconds before she continued. "I kept on listening and learned that for a while he was looking for someone to help keep him in check and well…" She put on a grim smile. "I think he came to the conclusion that both of us can do it."

Sakura blinked in confusion before realizing what Rin was saying. "B-both? You mean he wants both of us to be his…"

"Sheath." Rin chuckled almost sarcastically, enjoying Sakura's reaction. "Emiya-kun's a sword and he needs someone to serve as his sheath so that he doesn't rust." She laughed some more. "You should have heard who else he considered to serve as that position for a while. The idiot didn't even realize what he was saying the entire time. At one point he had actually considered that crazy old man to be his sheath for a while. Heheh…"

Sakura laughed nervously alongside Rin, but for completely different reasons. "It is funny, but I still don't see what the problem is…"

The Tohsaka's smile faded and she scratched the back of her head reluctantly. "Well… the thing is in the conversation Shirou said some things that made it clear that us being sheathes to him do more than just make sure he doesn't self destruct. Somehow our very existence affects his reality marble."

The Matou froze. "What? How can we possibly do that?"

Rin crossed her arms and frowned. "Like I said before, reality marbles are created and affected by the user's mental state. As of right now, not one but both of us hold enough of an influence over Emiya-kun that we can inadvertently affect the way he thinks for better or for worse… and there is the problem." She rubbed the bridge of her nose in a weary fashion. "If we try to push and pull him between ourselves, I'm concerned that we might accidentally alter his mind in some way. Considering the fact that it's not only technically his greatest weapon but also a reflection of his mental state, doing that would be a bad idea in the long run."

Sakura swallowed heavily as she fearfully thought of her actions doing anything that could possibly mentally scar her crush… and very deep down she secretly reveled a small amount at the knowledge that she held such a power. "What do you suggest we do then?"

The elder looked to the side evasively, not wanting to make any eye contact with her sister. "Well… to be honest the only thing I can think of at the moment is simply to share him… kind of."

Sakura blinked surprised as she ran Rin's proposition in her mind but still didn't process it. "What… what did you say?"

"I said we should share him." Rin repeated herself a bit more forcefully. "Technically it doesn't mean much right now since he's still an oblivious idiot, but I think that it also has to do with his distortion. He prioritizes other's needs so much higher than his own that I think he doesn't even recognize his own feeling sometimes. We could be sharing him and flirting with him for the next year, even together at once, and he'd probably either think that we either want something from him, that we were sick, or…" She sunk down in depression. "Or that I want to experiment on him again…"

"Sempai has told me about some of the things you've done to him over the years." Sakura commented in a disapproving tone.

"I swear I didn't know half of the things that happened to him with those experiments COULD happen!" Rin threw her hands up into the air in frustration. "And I fixed all of the changes I made to him eventually! I even managed to fix that weird reptile scaled skin issue before he had to go back to school that one time!"

"That doesn't change the fact that you did them in the first place." The younger of the two skeptically muttered before once again thinking about the topic at hand. "But… I don't disagree with what you're saying. Now that I think about it, I do think that Sempai is selfless to the point of being rather clueless at times…"

_Why should he be shared? He is already mine._ Her dark thoughts hissed back at her disapprovingly while she made no indication of such thoughts on the outside.

"That's the real problem isn't it?" Rin sighed as she put on a thoughtful pose. "Shirou's condition is part of the reason why we are attracted to him. But unfortunately it's also the reason why it's dangerous to try to pull him away from the other and nearly impossible to get him to notice our attempts in the first place." She closed her eyes tiredly. "Honestly, it's like for every reason we get to like him, we get an equal reason to want to throttle or bash him upside the head for the same thing. Equivalent exchange is such a pain in the ass sometimes."

_If only I was fortunate enough to get something that fair…_ Sakura mentally growled in the back of her head. "I know what you mean." She said instead.

"So now you see our problem. Either we share him and get used to seeing the other again or fight over him and risk breaking the prize in the process." Rin closed her eyes and crossed her arms. "Normally I'm always up for a good competition, but this time there's simply too much to risk." She opened an eye. "Well? What do you think?"

Sakura looked at her sister skeptically before turning around so that her face couldn't be seen. She couldn't make a solid decision. If Rin had in fact found out about her and Shirou's current situation, then this could all be just a ploy to try and sneak her way in… but if she was telling the truth then attempting to push her away could do some real damage to Shirou which was the last thing she wanted. "I…" She hesitantly began to speak before picking her words carefully. "I won't do anything to force you and Sempai away from one another… but that doesn't mean that I'll support your efforts either."

Rin blinked for a moment in surprise before donning a confident smirk. "Oh? Is that the way you want to play it?" She snickered as if she found the entire thing amusing. "Fine then. The neutral route it is. We will neither help nor tamper with the other's wooing of Emiya-kun unless the situation is important." She flipped her hair over her shoulder as she did whenever she felt like giving off an eloquent flair. "However the only other condition to this is that should the other be brought up in conversation with him, we have to admit that we would not mind if she was also involved. That seems fair, don't you think?"

Sakura frowned for a moment before turning again to look down an alleyway. "I don't approve of what we are doing, but if it is for Sempai's sake then I guess I can ignore it just this one time. However I expect you to stick to those rules too Tohsaka-sempai."

Rin flinched briefly before she sighed disappointedly and began to look around as well. "I guess that's it then. We're neither allies nor enemies right now…" She blinked as she saw some movement in the distance and focused prana to her eyes. "Hold on… I think we found him!" She took off leaving the bewildered Sakura behind completely confused as to the sudden change in focus.

The younger of the two stood still for a moment before her brain finally caught up to the situation and she followed her angry elder as quickly as she could. "Tohsaka-sempai! Wait for me! That might not be the only one that we missed!"

o. o. o.

On the other side of the planet at the same time:

Shirou grumbled irritably as he walked through the last section of London Heathrow Airport with his luggage. He wasn't in the greatest of moods at the moment as his flight had been delayed multiple times before it finally left, his chair in the flight was broken, he had been sitting next to a rather portly British old man who had forgotten to shower or brush the week before getting on the flight, and most importantly, he was trying to forget the fact that the last time he was in this building he had structurally analyzed so many damned things that he literally put himself into a minor coma.

It was taking all his will power to not call up the random bits of useless information he had obtained half a year ago like the fact that there was roughly twenty seven thousand five hundred and thirty eight tiles…

He shook his head furiously in order to stop himself from going down that dark path. He was supposed to go straight to the Clocktower after arriving and it wouldn't look good if he accidentally caused himself to pass out for some mundane reason before he even got there. God did he want a kitchen to cook and clean in right now.

Deciding that he would have to rely on a different method to relax his nerves, the teen began to run through all that had happened since the vampire incident, as he and the rest in Fuyuki had taken to calling it.

The first thing that came to mind was obviously the deal with Zouken and more importantly, his secret life with Sakura. If there was a point in time that Shirou had wanted to kill someone more than the first night he had spent with the crying girl in her room, he had long since forgotten it. Holding that broken girl in his arms made him for the first time in his life wished horrifically painful things to be done to someone else out of spite. The only reason why he did not go to try and kill the old man now was because he knew he would either get killed instead or cause Sakura to get killed in the process, and neither route was appealing to him. Zouken would die, but now was not the time…

He needed rather specific and temperamental help in order to make sure the job was done properly.

That being said, he now understood why so many people made such a big deal about sex. It felt… well, amazing. Of course he would never see women as tools for the act or loose himself just to experience it again, but he at least had a better understanding of why people go through such lengths sometimes to get it. Sometimes he would just lose himself in the act and delve deeper into the act, stronger, faster, so much so that he would see red and…

Want to bite Sakura's neck…

He frowned. He didn't know the exact reason yet, but whenever he got too far into the moment he would occasionally get minor vampiric impulses. He never acted on them and always managed to reign himself in, but it had happened frequently enough that he was somewhat scared for Sakura's safety every time they had another session. Thankfully he never had this sort of issue at any other time since Merem's revelation of his condition, however it did not change the fact that such impulses did make themselves known and threatened the safety of those close to him.

It made him very conflicted. On the one hand, he was helping Sakura get through her rather embarrassing but traumatizing condition. He was putting Zouken into a false state of security and thus would be in a better position to kill him when the time comes. And… well… he got to have sex.

Granted the last fact would always be at the end of the list of pro's if it was brought up at all given the way Shirou prioritizes things, but it was still a plus regardless.

On the other hand, every time they did the deed, he felt guilty for in a way forcing himself onto the girl when no doubt there was someone else she would most likely prefer to be with later on in life. He felt ashamed that he had to do such an act to someone so close to him in order to catch Zouken off guard, let alone follow the man's advice or guidance for any period of time. Finally, he felt afraid for Sakura's safety in the case that one day he did truly lose control over his impulses and drink her blood.

Then there was the fact that he was hiding this from Rin. If that girl ever found out about his current situation…

A shiver ran up his spine. There was no point in worrying about it now. He was on the other side of the planet from the two females that he cared about the most. He could dwell on such matters later.

He glanced at his medium sized bag and smiled bitterly. While he may have disliked the situation, he had to admit that what Zouken had given him in return for his services ALMOST made his mental anguish worthwhile. Having complete access to the Matou Thaumaturgical Library for two years would definitely help with his studies into some of the more rare and restricted subjects on magic that he may need to go over to turn things to his favor…

Fairy magic and artifacts would be one particular example…

In addition to his magical research and training, Shriou also managed to continue his physical exercises as well. He practiced his stances almost every night with and without his reinforcement…

However when it came to improving his sword technique, he had to give all credit to his new secret sparring partner… in addition to all the bruises on his body that still littered his body…

His thoughts were interrupted when he looked up and saw that he was nearly outside the terminal and at the location where the cars came to pick up those that just arrived. Sighing to himself, the teen began to empty his mind of irrational thoughts and went over the hundreds of lessons that Rin had hammered into him in the past few months in order to prepare for his time at the Clocktower. Protocol, decorum, how to greet a Lord versus the Vice Director, how properly thank a teacher for a lesson, etc, etc.

In her words, if he did something stupid or looked bad while he was there, it would make her look worse when she finally got her sponsorship regardless of how much more talented she was than him. Asians were not warmly welcomed in the Clocktower so if he made it any harder for her to get in with a scholarship she might not be able to get in at all..

Stepping to the main waiting area the teen looked around to see if there was someone there to pick him up. He was supposed to be driven straight to the compound where he would be shown his board for the three weeks or so he would be staying in, get cleaned up and have a quick bite to eat before he would have to meet the Vice Director in her office.

So far though he didn't see anyone he remembered, anyone with magical ability, or anyone with his name on a cheap piece of cardboard in English or any of the three written languages that the Japanese use. To be honest though he was somewhat thankful that the latter wasn't the case in English. Even though the odds were unlikely, the chance that someone would recognize the Emiya name in England was still not completely zero.

Quickly checking his cell phone in the unlikely chance that his contact was in touch with technology and had his number and noting that he had no messages, the teen decided to walk outside to see if his ride was out there. His first few steps from the inside the air conditioned building to the outside British summer heat was not unbearable, however it was rather unsavory due to the fairly high humidity and the bright sunlight that conflicted with his slightly altered body. All around him he spied locals and visitors looking for their supposed cars and family members that they did not see in who knows how long. It always impressed him as to how diverse London's general population was. Caucasians, Asians, Middle Easterners, Africans, it really put his hometown of Fuyuki, which was considered a fairly integrated and diversified populace compared to most Japanese cities, to shame.

Shirou looked around again and much to his disappointment he saw nothing that indicated to be his possible ride to the Clocktower. It wasn't that he was irritated that the cabby was late, it was merely that he had expected one of the world's oldest and most powerful organizations to be prompt when dealing with someone that had been invited by one of their most prominent members. To have such a thing happen was a bit strange in his personal opinion.

Bored and tired, the prematurely graying teen looked around to see if he missed anything or if the tv hanging from the ceiling had something interesting on to kill time with when he noticed several people standing near a rather nice looking car with the hood up exposing the engine.

Without even trying he quickly analyzed the vehicle and saw that the main electrical connection to the sparkplugs had gotten loose due to a faulty instillation and as such the motor wouldn't start until it was corrected. It also had three rivets that could do with tightening, a low amount of oil, half a tank of gas, the back tires needed a few more pounds of pressurized air pumped into them, one of the brakes would need to be replaced in a few months, and a few other minor issues were detected. Still, the issue they were having right now was the loose connection.

It was a fairly simple issue to fix even with your bare hands but the real issue with most mechanical and electronically problems like this as most engineers could attest to was trying to figure out what the hell went wrong with the device in the first place. It was part of the reason why Shirou's services were in such high demand among the motorcycle driving Yakuza back home. He could find out what went wrong with their rides in less than a fraction of the time an experienced mechanic could and he would never miss any details either.

From what he knew about the mechanical and vehicle repair industry, if the car wasn't fixed it would cost at least a few hundred pounds to tow the car, get it checked, ten minutes wasted looking for the issue, and a final quick thirty second fix in an industry that has a habit of overcharging for such miniscule tasks…

So being the good natured person with spare time that he was, the teen instantly moved closer to the area where a man in a tuxedo was hesitantly looking at the engine as if he was doing brain surgery for the first time. "Excuse me." He asked in perfect English. "Do you need help?"

The man turned around hesitantly and looked at Shirou warily. He was in his mid to late fifties with grey hair and a mustache and glasses and wore a rather expensive looking uniform. "Perhaps. The motor won't run by itself after I turn the key." He replied cautiously. "What do you know about car engines boy?"

"Well I frequently fix my neighbor's motorcycle whenever he busts it in addition to those that belong to his friends." Shirou shrugged, wisely avoiding the fact that his neighbor was a Yakuza. To be honest it wasn't much of an explanation of his abilities as a mechanic, but it delivered the point that he knew more about motor vehicles than the man he was talking to.

Grunting in reluctance, the man walked to the side to allow Shirou full access to the motor and giving him full reign to what was inside.

Wasting little time, the teen walked forward at an even pace and propped up his luggage next to him so they wouldn't get taken while he was working. "Did you check the oil?" Shirou asked casually as he unscrewed the small cap that led to the oil tank to do just that. It would look suspicious and downright abnormal if he found out what the problem was right off the bat. It would look even worse if he managed to fix the problem while he was dealing with one of the newer model cars which had more compact engine systems, but thankfully this was not the case.

"I am unaware how to conduct maintenance to vehicles." The man replied politely albeit a bit stiffly as he watched Shirou take off the cap to the oil which also had a thin metal rod connected to the underside, wipe the rod clean, stick the cap back on and then take it out again to show that the bottom portion of the rod covered in oil only.

"Hm." The boy mused casually as he noted where the marks on the piece of metal were before putting the cap back on. "Well it isn't the oil but you might want to get some more soon regardless." He began to inspect some of the seemingly random wires and tubes that traveled the device from one side to the other. "Everything seems to be well connected. No crossed or frayed cables. No leaks… maybe…" He reached down into the motor cavity itself and fiddled with the spark plugs momentarily before getting to the root of the problem. "Hm? What's this?" He asked in fake curiosity.

"Did you discover something young man?" The elder gentleman asked with some interest.

"Yeah. I think I found it. The main wire for the sparkplugs got loose. Without a strong connection the gas wouldn't ignite or in a worst case scenario it would set off at the wrong time and cause the engine to damage itself." Shirou explained as he began to move the wire to its proper place and manually twist the screw that kept it in place back into position. Since he was used to working with such objects, he managed to get it tight enough that the car would probably not have this kind of issue again for at least another year or two so long as the driver wasn't reckless. "You might want to get someone to screw this a bit tighter in the next few months or so, but other than that the car should work normally now." Shirou took himself out of the engine and smiled, not at all caring that his arms up to his elbows were somewhat smudged with the standard grime that came with working with car parts.

"Is that so?" The butler looking man mused skeptically before turning to the driver's side of the vehicle and opening it to test the boy's claims. Two seconds later the low growling of the engine laid all skepticisms to rest. "Well now. I am impressed. You have saved myself and my mistresses much time and anguish. You have our thanks."

The Emiya smiled genuinely. "It's no trouble at all. I'm just glad I was able to help. Besides it killed some time while I waited for my ride."

The elder man nodded in agreement to the boy's logic before someone behind him said something that Shirou couldn't hear. "It seems my elder mistress would like to reward you for your aid. If your stop is nearby, we would be more than welcome to drive you along the way."

Shirou shook his head. "No. Once again I am happy that I was able to aid you. That in itself was all the reward I would request. Besides it would be rude to simply blow off my ride when they made the effort to come pick me up in the first place."

"Yes it would." The man nodded in consensus before once again being distracted by the larger occupant in the vehicle and being handed something. "Ah… well it seems the mistress is quite amused by your nobility, however she still wishes to repay your service in some way." He handed Shirou a small cloth of fairly fine material that looked suspiciously like a handkerchief. "To clean yourself with. It would be unbecoming of you to enter someone else's vehicle with grime on your person, would it not?"

Shirou blinked in surprise for a moment before laughing sheepishly and taking the fabric. "Ah. I guess it wouldn't. You and your mistress have my thanks."

The butler bowed politely before getting into the driver's seat. "I hope we cross paths soon young man." His eyes narrowed slightly. "No doubt the odds of it happening are fairly high at the Clocktower."

Shirou's demeanor didn't change. He had determined that the man and the two females inside the vehicle were magi the moment he had done structural grasping on the car. "Who knows? I'm only going to be staying for a few weeks. Regardless I'd be honored to have a conversation with her should time permit during my stay. I myself am unsure of my schedule during my stay… erm…" He blinked momentarily before grimacing. "My mistake, I have completely forgotten to ask what your names are."

The man nodded his head. "It is quite all right. You may call me Sebastian and I am a butler for the Edelfelt family. Should you ever desire to converse with the lady, simply look for our family's grand name."

Shirou nodded. "I'm Shirou E…" He paused as he remembered something. "Erm… I was requested by several important figures not to tell anyone my family's name as of yet. It would gain me too much unwanted attention if it was spread out too early. If it is ok, just call me Shirou. It shouldn't be too hard to find me in the association. All you would have to do is ask for the Japanese boy with the red going gray hair. Magi from the east are not common there so it shouldn't be that hard to find me."

"No it should not…" The man nodded in agreement. "Well then young Shirou, both Mistresses and I wish you luck in your endeavors whatever they may be. Farewell."

The Emiya watched calmly as the vehicle drove away quietly, glad that he could do another good deed without much issue…

"Trying to make more connections in the tower already Shirou?" Bazett asked with an amused grin from a short distance away. "I'm surprised. Normally it takes much longer to get you to even consider doing something like that."

The Faker rolled his eyes and grabbed his bags, not surprised by the woman's presence in the slightest. "I was just helping them out Bazett-nee. You know that I don't like to get others involved in my troubles…"

"Yeah yeah." The purple haired woman sighed as she guided the boy back to the car she had rented from the association. "Just remember that regardless of what you want, sooner or later you will have to get someone to help you out in order to deal with some of your problems. It's more efficient and better for everyone to distribute the burden sometimes."

"When I think I will need help I'll ask for it." The teen snorted as he followed his sister figure to the car. "So how has the old man been doing since he came back?"

o. o. o.

Two hours later at the Association:

"Lad! Yer finally here!" Sirius McGinty laughed happily as he crushed Shirou in a hug so strong that he would have possibly done some damage to the boy's ribs had the latter not wisely managed to reinforce them in time.

"Sirius-jiji…" The boy gasped, momentarily slipping back into Japanese from the stress of being crushed. "Can't… Breathe…"

"Eh? Oh. Sorry lad." The old man chuckled nervously before dropping the teen to the ground. "Mah bad."

"Told you he was fine." Bazett smirked from the doorway of the office, enjoying Shirou's temporary moment of distress.

"It's ok." Shirou coughed as he straightened himself out and smiled weakly. "I was really worried when I heard of the designation old man. When I was first told about it, I thought that they were going to skin you alive and everything."

Sirius smirked. "Ah tey were gonna, but ah beat tem to it! When ah first found out what ah did ta meself, ah knew ah would probably get meself caught sooner or later so ah managed ta skin meself part by part till ah had a full body suit of me skin made…" He paused. "Come ta tink of it, ah tink that was around ta time when ah got circumcised…"

"Damn it old man!" Bazett roared with a beet red face. "What have we told you about too much information?"

"We really didn't need to know about that last bit." Shirou sighed as he attempted to burn out that piece of information from his mind.

"Bah! Yer both weak minded brats." The old man grumbled, not at all ashamed of what he had just done before glancing at Shirou and momentarily frowning. "Regardless, ta bastards in ta research department have been too busy studyin me old skin samples ta do anytin wit mah body yet so ah have had notin ta complain about." He walked to the desk that was in the room they were currently in and sat down in the chair behind it. Much to Shirou's surprise it resembled the old man's previous office to a T.

"Tey've been keepin me busy too. Ah'm a high rankin memba of ta Department of Spiritual Invocation but ah also do a bit o work fer ta Department of Mineralogy on ta side. Plus ah teach advanced material transmutation just ta show up ta bastards here tat tey don't know shit about ta subject." He smirked. "Ta be honest ah got more funds an access ta stuff for me research now than ah did before ta whole Louvre ting started. Ah should have let meself get sealed years ago if ah knew tis would happen! Ahahahahaha!"

Bazett rolled her eyes. "Ugh. Only you old man. Only you." She shook her head. "Anyways, Shirou is going to be staying in your quarters during his time here at the association. We would have given him to Waver, but given his connection to the Archibalds and what Kiritsugu did to the original Lord El-Melloi and their crest, that wouldn't have ended well." She looked at the clock on a nearby wall. "Shirou has to meet with Lady Barthomelloi in three hours, so I suggest you get food and cleaned up before then. I don't think I have to remind you, but being short of perfect in any way in front of her when she expects something from you will result in nothing short of misery, so please don't screw this up."

Shirou raised his hands in self defense. "Don't worry Nee-san. Rin's been pounding proper mannerisms and behavior when in a lord's presence since you and Waver-nii left. I should be all good for this meeting and whatever she wants of me. I'm not here to fight anyone so everything should be all good."

"Let's hope you're right about that." The woman frowned before sagging her shoulders in exhaustion. "I'm gonna go tell Waver that you're here. You two catch up but please pay attention to the time. I'll be back in a bit."

Shirou and Sirius said their goodbyes before waiting for her to get out of hearing distance before they turned to one another again, but this time with more serious expressions on their faces. "Yer playin a damn dangerous game lad." Sirius growled deeply. "Ta change in yer body is barely anytin, but if ta Queen finds out about it yer as good as dead. Ah doubt tat even a servant would be able ta save yer skin from tat lass if she was truly out ta get ya."

"Which is why I haven't told anyone about it." Shirou replied calmly. "The only ones who know about my condition to the fullest are you, me, and Solomon-san."

"Solomon eh?" Sirius snorted. "Ah haven't seen tat tiny little bastard in years. Ah thought he stopped workin fer ta Church years ago." He shook his head. "Bah. Mah age must be getting ta me head. Let me guess, yer condition is what he wanted ta talk about in private afta ya killed Louvre right?"

Shirou hesitated. "Kinda. He actually wanted me to…" He swallowed heavily. "Replace Louvre… as the tenth."

Sirius blinked in surprise, for once too shocked to actually say anything witty or crude. "Lad… if tis is a joke…" He whispered out, not trusting his voice at the moment.

"I turned it down." The teen rushed out quickly. "I don't drink blood or anything like that. The worst I get is a sort of dry mouth and I get affected by the lunar cycle. He just picked me cause I technically qualify as a successor with what happened."

"Bloody fuckin hell lad." Sirius swore under his breath and looked away. "As if ya didn't have enough on yer plate as it is." He glanced at Shirou again. "At least whatever yer wearin ta keep yer turned side at bay is workin like it should. Who else knows of tis?"

Shirou didn't blink. "Same as before. Only you, me, and Solomon-san. I didn't want to worry anyone else by this information and cause any possible issues. My excuse for constantly wearing the shroud is simply that I grew attached to it and that I think it's useful."

He leaned back in his chair and pressed his hands against his face, covering his eyes, and breathed out deeply. "Well… we can't change anytin regardless of what we want at ta moment. Just put it in yer secret box along wit yer reality marble an tings should be fine. No one here's even halfway as decent as we are when it comes ta structural graspin and anyone who can sense yer new condition will probably jus tink tat yer cursed or sometin. Ah've met Solomon a couple o times an from what ah can tell he's a decent bastard unlike a lot of ta rest of his kind so ya got notin ta worry about tere."

Shirou nodded warily. "Other than the fact that Solomon-san keeps sending me offerings to take the position every few months, there hasn't been any real issue with my condition."

Sirius chuckled darkly. "Sounds like ya got yerself another admirer brat."

The teen raised an eyebrow in honest confusion. "Admirer? Another? What do you mean by that?"

The room was silent for several seconds before the old man slapped one of his massive hands over his face. "Ah should have seen tat comin… ah really should have…" He muttered to himself in a depressed and ashamed tone which only confused Shirou even more.

Shaking his head the old man bent down to the small fridge he had under his desk and took out a can of beer before getting up again. "Never mind about tat bad joke lad. Get up an follow me. Ah have some tings ah wanna show, give, and tell ya before ya meet up wit tat brat Lorelei."

Shirou blinked in disbelief as he followed the old man down a hallway outside of his office. From what he's been told, the old man was in possession of a fair amount of space so he could conduct his research adequately and so he could produce more codes for those that made requests from him. Along the way Shirou spied exact copies of rooms that he had done experiments in with the old man, and to be honest he wouldn't be surprised if they were the rooms he used in reality. "Um… wouldn't talking about the Vice Director like that normally get you killed here?"

The old man smirked as he drank his alcohol. "Yeah, but ah have two tings in mah favor. First is tat ahm a sealing designate. Ahm too valuable ta blow up. Ta second is tat ahm actually ta lucky bastard tat's made most of ta Barthomelloi mystic codes fer over a hundred years now. Tey loose me, tey loose ta best source for their codes. Besides, it's not like ah badmouth the Barthomelloi bunch every chance ah get. Ahm old an blunt, but ahm not stupid."

Sirius stopped in front of a seemingly blank wall and muttered a quick spell to instantly reveal a hidden doorway. Grinning darkly, he glanced at the curious teen. "Ya've been though hell fer me lad and I know fer a fact tat it's gonna get worse fer ya in the future." He grabbed the door handle and opened the secret passageway. "Ah was originally gonna do tis about six months before ta war started, but considerin ta circumstances ah tink tat now is as good a time as any ta get ya truly prepared fer ta crap tat's gonna come flyin yer way…"

Shirou's eyes widened as the old man grinned darkly. "Welcome ta me workshop lad."

o. o. o.

One hour later in the food court:

Luviagelita Edelfelt was bored.

Sitting at her table with a halfway finished meal tray in front of her, the sixteen year old girl once more found herself scanning her surroundings for possibly the only person that had caught her interest since arriving in London, however not once did she see the Japanese boy with red going white hair. It gave him a rather exotic look if she allowed herself to be perfectly honest, though she doubted she would allow herself to be such while in the presence of all these other Lords and Ladies.

Yet the target of her interest was nowhere in sight. All she saw around her were students of the clocktower in their noble garb and gossiping about teachers, vampires, or the supposed mysterious son of the Magus Killer whose sudden existence had been going around the magus community as of late.

That last rumor warranted some attention from the Edelfelt family as a whole seeing as they were a mercenary styled aristocratic family that was often described as "the most elegant hyenas above ground." Kiritsugu had on more than one occasion either stolen a very good job away from them or had wound up working on the opposite side of an affair and taken out their charge from under their noses. Every. Single. Time. So much so that unlike other noble families who considered the man a heretic, the Edelfelts begrudgingly admitted that Kiritsugu was one of the few Asian born Magi that was worthy of their notice and respect.

It had gotten to the point that, when he was still supposedly still alive, several members of the family had on occasion gone out to look for the man in an attempt to either learn from him to see how the hell he could pull off the things he did without getting caught, or put him in his place in a duel so that he would stop stealing work from them. Obviously, neither one of those things had ever come to pass before his sudden death was made public.

For a period of time, the Edelfelts were somewhat depressed that they no longer had such a worthy opponent to compare and test themselves against on the mercenary's battlefield. They recognized his skill and while it was abhorrent in the eyes of Magi, it was masterful to those who knew what the true world was like. However like most things, the moment of silence dedicated to him was soon put behind them and life went on. Kiritsugu's name was rarely spoken about since then… until his son's existence had been revealed half a year ago…

While she maintained her air of grace that could put most of the other nobles there to shame, Luvia none the less felt out of place. Just by looking around, she could tell that she was one of the youngest people there. As of right now she was situated in a large room with multiple tables to seat those who wished to dine on the five star quality food that the association provided them. The normal age for people to begin their education in the organization was eighteen after all, and the only reason why she was here in the first place was because she was the soon to be head of the Edelfelt family and was required to begin making more contacts and connections soon as part of her responsibilities to her family.

The Clocktower, for all intents and purposes served as a sort of elite college for the magus community. Much like a normal college, the building served not only as a place of higher education and resources for those who wished to study the subject of miracle making, but it also served as one of the most efficient places to conduct advanced research as well. With the large stores of tomes, materials, artifacts, individuals, and sources of mana from one of the largest leylines in Europe, the Clocktower was one of the most ideal locations to conduct research on the planet.

Other than a few exceptions, most of the people that went here for education were at the youngest eighteen as to ensure that said individuals received proper education to be able to maintain a visually acceptable life in the eyes of the non magic related community. It was realized very early on that immersing the young completely into the world of magi without exposing them to the majority population often resulted in events that would more often than not require a vast number of people getting killed or their memories erased in order to hide their existence.

"Excuse me." A young man's tenor voice distracted her from her musings, causing her to turn to see a fairly handsome student with clean cut black hair and an expensive uniform on. All in all, he was pretty much like everyone else here. "I couldn't help but notice that you were sitting here by yourself. I was startled that someone as elegant and beautiful as someone like yourself could stand being in such a situation. Would you like some company?"

Luvia resisted the urge to roll her eyes at the sickeningly over the top attempt to try to woo her. It was not the first time that this had happened and it would not be the last, but it was annoying none the less. "I am sorry to disappoint you." She replied in a polite tone as she reached for her tea. "However I am merely waiting for my traveling companions to arrive with their meals. We have much to discuss. My most sincere apologies."

"Ah a shame." The elder teen shook his head in disappointment. "May I at least have the name of the beautiful young woman before me?"

The Edelfelt mentally sighed as she put down her tea. "But of course. I am Luviagelita Edelfelt, soon to be head of the family."

The teen raised an eyebrow. "Edelfelt? No wonder you are so majestic. Such strong nobility is befitting of someone of your stature." He bowed. "My name is…"

"Oi lad! Tere are some good tables over here! Hurry up!" A loud voice drowned the man's voice and shocking both of them out of the conversation. They quickly saw that nearby there was a massive old man with red hair and rather cheap clothing (as opposed to the ensembles there that on average cost roughly a thousand pounds), placing his tray packed full of food down and waving to someone out of their line of sight.

"Ugh…" The male grunted in clear distaste. "McGinty."

"Who?" Luvia asked rather curiously. It was not often that someone looking like THAT could just waltz around the Clocktower without a care in the world. The only ones she could think of that could get away with that behavior off the top of her head were the Second and Fifth Magicians.

"A barbarian who happens to be gifted in creating mystic codes but his mannerisms are childish at best. If he wasn't such a capable person I have little doubt that he would have been kicked out of here long ago." The teen lifted his nose into the air in disgust. "I can only pity whoever has his attention now…

The two teens paused as they saw Sirius' companion walk into sight and blinked in curiosity. He was somewhat short to average of height and dressed in a high quality white shirt, dark tie and pants, hybrid shoes that could pass as formal and casual, a large black trench coat also made of high quality thick fabrics, but most peculiar of all was the crimson scarf that he wrapped around the entirety of his head and face as if he was shielding his head from the world. The only visible part of his face was his amber eyes, the shape of which indicated that his lineage was from Asia. (A/N: Just picture Shirou in Kiritsugu's clothing with some minor color alterations and the shroud over his head so that no one can see his hair or face.)

"Can you please be a bit quieter old man?" The young man sighed, the shroud muffling his voice enough that they couldn't tell where his accent was from. "I don't want to attract any bad attention before the meeting. I have enough things to worry about already." Luvia could have sworn she heard his voice before.

The bigger of the two snorted. "And yer doin tat by wearin tat ting on yer head?"

"It was the best thing I could think of to make sure no one tell what I looked like." The teen shrugged before glancing to where Luvia and her unwanted guest were sitting and staring at him. "Can I help you?"

"Eh?" Sirius blinked as he turned to where Shirou was looking. "Hey is tat little Benjamin? Oi lad! I gave ya tat extra week ta do yer homework tat ya bailed out on, not so ya could try ta pick up another random lass of ta week!"

"Just a barbarian huh?" Luvia raised an eyebrow that the embarrassed teen. "You forgot to mention that he seems to be a professor here as well." She waved her hand dismissively. "You best be off to keep your due. It is after all unbecoming to simply ignore obligations made to your betters." She didn't even bother to watch him click his teeth in irritation and scamper off in embarrassment as she watched the two new individuals nearby with interest.

She had of course heard of the Mystic Code Crafter Sirius McGinty before. Anyone in the mercenary business who needs a solid weapon or magical amplification accessory has heard of the man and the quality of his work, and for a small period of time the Edelfelt family had been fairly content customers of his…

However the person he had come with was a mystery. He was dressed such that it was difficult to determine who he was affiliated with, and the shroud around his head only added to his unique flair. He did not however give off any sort of threatening aura despite his appearance. Quite the opposite in fact.

For a while she just observed the two males as they went through their meal. From what she could tell the younger of the two was fairly hungry and tired from the way he carried himself and ate through his meal despite his efforts to be fairly polite. The old man on the other hand did most of the talking and laughing as he plowed through his larger stack of food, showing the mannerisms of an individual that even the standard commoner today would be wary of…

"You have that smile on your face again old man." The younger of the two grumbled as he readjusted his cowl so that he could eat without it in the way. "What was so funny?"

The old man snorted as he began to cut his food. "Yer gonna love tis lad. Ya know tat homework ah was talkin ta tat rich little fuck about?"

Luvia's eyebrow twitched. It was beyond her understanding as to how a person with such supposed standing as the old man could be so crude and blunt with his words.

"Yeah? What about it?" The mystery teen asked skeptically as he finished the seasoned chicken and rice he had chosen for his meal.

Sirius began having trouble holding back his laughter. "It was ta list ta eight steps fer advanced projectin and write an in depth report describin an analyzin ta significance of three of tem."

Luvia blinked in utter confusion as to what was so amusing about such a task. To her knowledge projection was just a mundane, incomplete and inefficient study of thaumaturgy, but apparently there was more to it between the two as the younger one gaped.

"You're kidding me. You're actually teaching people tracing?" The younger of the two asked disbelievingly.

"Ah know right?" Sirius laughed as he held himself up with the table. "Mind ya ahm only teachin ta basic versions of it so tat students can perform structural graspin ta a higher level fer research, but ya'd be surprised as ta how useful yer approach ta this field is lad. Ah wasn't kiddin when ah said tat thanks ta you ta field's progressed more than it has in ta past thousand years. Ya really are ta best projectionist in recorded history."

The female's eyes flashed with curiosity. Such claims were normally empty boasts, but they were also normally done by nobles who were talking about themselves. Instead this rather loud old man was talking about his companion who didn't really seem to think much of the claim or even want it. In addition to that, the old man made it sound like what the boy did with his projections seemed to be far more innovative and revolutionary than she originally assumed.

"Considering how projection was normally done that doesn't really seem like much of an accomplishment." The younger of the two sighed before continuing with his meal. "I'd rather not talk about my magic here. Can we change the subject? How has Waver-nii been doing since he got back with you?"

Luvia frowned with slight frustration as the conversation turned away from subjects that would inform her more about this mystery individual, however she took it in stride none the less. She lost track of time as she enjoyed spying on the pair and listening in on their fairly entertaining stories. There was none of that mundane drabble that came from the other nobles here that she had heard all of her life, only ones that mixed commoner activities and chores with some small (or horrendously crude when it came to Sirius' case) twists that made things far more interesting in her personal opinion.

"Professor McGinty! Professor McGinty!" A student shouted frantically from a small distance away. "Something's happening in the DSI (Department of Spiritual Invocation)! It sounds like a someone got hold of a cursed artifact and they're going crazy!"

Sirius groaned. "Another one? Tat's the third time this month! Who ta bloody hell is in charge of locking those things away! Ah made ta locks to ta storehouse! They can't get fucking picked an they don't break!" He sagged in exhaustion before turning to Shirou. "Sorry lad. Ah have ta deal wit tis. It shouldn't take more tan half an hour an ya still have nearly triple tat before yer meetin. Ah'll be back soon." He grunted as he stood up and began stomping towards the direction of the supposed chaos. "When ah get my hands on ta blasted idiot tat's responsible for tis ah'm gonna steal his bloody lunch money fer ta next fortnight!"

"Good Luck." Shirou sighed tiredly as he turned his attention back to his lunch, somewhat glad that Sirius had left. He loved the man like a grandfather, but he enjoyed quiet serenity and peace of mind as well. Plus he was still completely exhausted from his travelling.

"Well now that was certainly interesting wouldn't you say?" A shapely girl around his age with long curly blonde hair and an elegant air approached him from a nearby table. Shirou had sworn that he was being watched earlier, and it appeared that his instincts were spot on.

He got his hopes up way too soon apparently. "Somewhat." He shrugged casually. "The more time you spend with him the more used to these things you get." He looked at her almost lazily while carefully observing taking her appearance into consideration. Her ornate blue dress and clothes were made of expensive fabric that could channel prana fairly well, but the interesting thing he noted was that her sleeves were designed to be torn off. It meant that she was at least comfortable in close ranged combat. "And you are?"

"Luviagelita Edelfelt." She smiled confidently, pretending to not notice the twitch his mouth made signifying that he recognized her name. "Who may you be oh mysterious magus? Normally coming into such an established place as this dressed as you are would warrant either concern or scorn from the general body, however you seem to have no issue with that."

Shirou hesitated momentarily before letting out a deep breath and turning to his meal. "Please refer to me by my family name, Emiya." He knew he wasn't going to be able to conceal his identity for long, but the boy Shirou was an unknown here, a potential leverage and useful fall back in this place. The son of Emiya, however, was marked, a semi-known figure. For now, he would ask to be called by his father's family name to hide his full identity from the general body.

Luvia's demeanor instantly froze as she recognized the infamous name. "E-Emiya?" She stammered in surprise and realized why the person she was talking to didn't want his face to be seen. "The rumors were true? He did have a son?"

Shirou finished the food he was chewing and swallowed. "You don't have to worry about me killing anyone while I'm here. I am not here for any job. I was merely asked to come here by some important people. To be honest I do not like violence." He continued with his meal. "If you would be so kind as to not tell anyone who I am I would appreciate it. I am not a fan of being the center of attention."

Luvia blinked a few times before smirking. "Well now isn't this a surprise. Several of my older relatives have told me stories about your father. I'm almost disappointed that you are so different from him." She looked at one of the other chairs at the table and sat down at it much to Shriou's surprise. "You'd think that someone as cold, violent and careless as him would be completely unable to properly raise a child. Many have claimed that he was a monster and a heretic just short of the apostles." She eyed him carefully, wondering how her new acquaintance would react and respond.

"You're talking about the Magus Killer." Shirou corrected Luvia, not at all surprised or bothered at what the girl had said about his father. She probably would have said far worse things if she knew the full scope of what he did. "Kiritsugu Emiya was a completely different person than the man you have heard about. Just the opposite actually." His eyes donned a depressed expression. "If there was anyone who deserved to be considered a hero for the sacrifices he made in this day and age, it was him."

The Edelfelt there stared at the boy, completely bewildered by his statement. "A hero? You actually consider that man a hero?" She looked at him skeptically. "You are aware of what he was known for correct?"

Shirou glared at her sternly, causing her to shift slightly. "More than anyone else on the planet will ever know, and that is why I can say that without a doubt he was one. He didn't care about the recognition of others or what became of him. All he cared about was the result of his actions and the lives he saved because of them. If you have a look at whatever recorded killings the association says he's done in the Middle East and Africa, you'll see that because of him several civil wars were stopped or had collapsed prematurely. If you looked carefully you'd see that every job he took resulted in more lives being saved than the ones he ended up being responsible for ending." He drank some water before continuing. "Destroy a life to save ten. Ten to save a hundred, and a hundred for a thousand. That was the simple cursed logic that was behind my father's sickening methods... and he despised every second of it."

Luvia didn't say anything as she absorbed these supposed facts as fast as she could. Everything this boy said seemed to contradict what everyone supposedly knew of the man. If what the boy in front of her said was true… she would have to do some research to make sure. "That… certainly is something different from what I have heard." She managed to get out after a small amount of time. "Why would he not ask for the Association's help if his goal was so noble?"

Shirou almost rolled his eyes. "The Association is only focused on the advancement of Thaumaturgy, not to try and quell the strife and conflict that pervades the planet's population. If they found out that there was a way to drastically increase a person's potential by sacrificing a dozen babies for each magi, they would approve it without a moment's hesitation. They don't care about making the world a better place. If dad joined them he would be forced to do jobs that only the Association approved of and likewise ignore any of the actions they did in the process. To do what he did the way he did it, he had to value all lives evenly. Science, purpose, sex, age, ideals, religion, wealth, nobility, health, history, family, power, potential. None of that mattered to him when he worked. That was what made the machine known as the Magus Killer so efficient."

"I see." Luvia frowned. "You seem quite knowledgeable about your father's exploits and that he seemed to be taking everything into consideration whenever he killed." She crossed her arms. "If that is so, then please give me an example. Explain to me the reasoning behind his shooting down an airplane in America roughly twenty years ago. It is noted to be one of his more infamous exploits."

Shirou stared at his drink. He shouldn't be surprised that he was asked about that particular mission, but he grimaced at the thought of retelling it regardless before readjusting his cowl to cover his mouth again since he had obviously lost his appetite. "Ah. That incident. Yeah I know of it. That job was among the worst in dad's life." He looked at Luvia's curious face. "You know the general story right? That there was a dead apostle on the plane that he was tasked to killing?"

Luvia nodded. "Of course. He was hired to abolish the monster, and to do so he shot down the plane. It's what makes his name stick out more than any other mercenary in recent history."

Shirou shook his head. "It depresses me, but I'm really not surprised that's the version of what people think happened. Dad really didn't like to talk about his missions to anyone, even if he was innocent or did things with good intentions… and that job in particular was one of the worst…"

The Edelfelt raised an eyebrow curiously. "Oh? Are you saying that what actually happened was different? Your father wasn't the one who shot down the plane?"

The son sighed. "No, that part was true, but there are more than a few details missing from the story that very few were aware of." He leaned back and closed his eyes. "At the time dad was working with another mercenary. A woman who was pretty much his mother in all but blood. She clothed him, took care of him, and taught him everything he knew shortly after he lost both his original parents. She and dad were both working on the job and knew the apostle was taking that flight, but dad went on ahead to cut him off just in case. She, Natalia, on the other hand went on the plane with the apostle to make sure he didn't pull something unexpected on the plane…"

Luvia frowned. "That man killed his own mother figure after all she did for him just to kill a target? I find your efforts to redeem your father's name quite questionable." If he was trying to show his father in a positive light, he was certainly taking a unique round-about method to do so.

"You misunderstand." Shirou stared at her sternly. "When he shot down the plane, it's population did not consist of a magus, a dead apostle, and two hundred normal humans. It consisted of a magus and two hundred undead." He paused as the meaning of his words registered with the blonde haired teen. "That's right. The apostle had already been killed by Natalia, but in the process the monster had turned each and every other person on the plane into mindless drones that would attack anyone in sight."

"Two hundred… undead?" Luvia swallowed heavily, slowly feeling the weight of such a situation falling on her being. Letting loose such an enormous number of monsters at once in a city such as New York would have impossibly high consequences. "How on earth did a single apostle turn that many people at once with a mercenary on board that was capable of killing him?"

Shirou closed his eyes. "Dad said that the apostle was originally some magus that focused on insect based thaumaturgy, bees or mosquitoes or something along those lines. Somehow his research gave him the ability to infect people via those insects at an incredible rate. He had been killed mid flight, but by then it had already been too late to save the normal passengers there."

He leaned back in his chair. "Natalia was attempting to land the plane after she had locked herself in the cockpit and was talking to dad on the radio. She told him the situation and what she was trying to do, planning on taking out as many undead as she and dad could when she got out… but given the conversation I think that both of them knew that it was a stupid thing to do. Without really saying anything or hinting at it, they knew what was really going to happen and after a little bit when she was coming over the Hudson River to land… you know the rest."

There was a small period of silence before Shirou became uncomfortable and thought something was wrong, opening his eyes to make sure that everything was ok. Much to his surprise, he was greeted with the vision of his new acquaintance trying her hardest not to cry as if she had just heard a depressing love story. "Erm… is something wrong?"

"I… I…" Luvia stuttered with big watery eyes. "I had no idea that your father was such a selfless nobleman." She gushed in adoration finally. She may be a noble with a mercenary background, but she also happened to be somewhat of a lover of dramatic stories.

"…What?"

"To have go through such a conversation and do what he did… and then continue through with his goals and life. Such dedication to his principles is the utmost of nobility!" She continued emotionally. Her voice rose as she spoke praise to the old family rival, and soon to be paragon.

Shirou was uncertain if she was talking to him or just talking for exposition's sake at the moment. He had heard that nobles in the association occasionally do it but he had never seen it happen until now. Kiritsugu Emiya was known as a lot of things, but nobleman was certainly not one of the terms used frequently… or at all as far as Shirou knew. Still it would be rude to interrupt her so he just kept quiet and let her get it out of her system.

Thankfully he had experience with Rin doing something similar to this. His friend back home would often go on long elaborate rants whenever he did something irrational or stupid from her point of view.

The two females, both Rin and Luvia, seemed to share the same confident and commanding aura of nobility and knowledge. So much so that he was fairly certain that if the two ever met one another, they would either get along perfectly, or try to maim one another on sight. Either way the mere thought of those two in the same room sent massive chills down his spine. Regardless he was nearly certain that the two would interact perfectly with one another… like fire and dynamite.

"After what you have told me I am virtually obligated to inform my family members back home of the true depths that Sir Emiya possessed. No doubt when they hear of my revelations his name will be recorded among the greatest individuals that our family members could possibly hope to compare ourselves with on the battlefield." Luvia continued with conviction, not at all noticing that Shirou had somewhat of a glazed and disinterested look in his eyes. She turned to him with a passionate gaze. "No doubt as his son you yourself have done significant deeds worthy of his name."

Shirou blinked in surprise as Luvia suddenly turned to him with an expression that clearly showed her desire to know of his own exploits. He hesitated, not knowing how to explain to the girl that he did not go around the world and kill various people and groups that threatened the greater good and that the only person he did kill happened to be the tenth dead apostle ancestor. "Um…"

"Ah." Luvia gasped as she seemed to realize something that Shirou did not. "Of course. How rude of me. No doubt you would want to keep your exploits secret so to better protect yourself." She nodded her head in apologies. "I am sorry that I had inquired into such private and sensitive information. It was very unbecoming of me to do so."

Shirou waved his hands in front of him in protest while quietly thankful that she managed to come up with an excuse for him not to talk before he could. "No. No. That's quite all right. You were just curious and let the moment get to you. You don't have to apologize for that."

"I agree with the foreigner." A third voice chipped in, causing the two teens to see the student from before walking up to them. "There is no need to ever apologize with barbaric rabble such as him, especially ones that are dressed in such mundane attire." He turned to Luvia. "Please excuse me for my horrid display earlier. Most of the fault obviously lays with McGinty, however I too am to blame for not doing his crude tasks." He shook his head and laughed poshly. "I am still baffled as to how anyone could find projection of all studies to be useful."

Luvia glanced at Shirou who by all means looked as if he couldn't care less what the man was saying as he leaned back, looked at his elder and remained quiet. "Hm. Yes. While I do believe that projection is a rather mundane art, I don't believe it is useless." She replied. "Obviously if it is as you said, no one would have documented the field in the first place. There are pros and cons to all forms of miracle making." She reached into one of her pockets and took out a gem. "For example, my family's jewel magic is rather potent, however it is fiscally risky to all but the most financially able. Unless one was capable of creating gems that had spiritual influences, pursuing this path would be near unthinkable."

If anyone could have seen past Shirou's shroud right now, they would have clearly noticed that he was trying to look as inconspicuous as possible.

The elder scoffed. "You truly are a generous person lady Edelfelt. To compare something as wasteful as projection to your noble art of gem magic speaks volumes of your kindness."

"If you look down so much on the field, then why do you study it then?" Luvia countered with a hint of annoyance.

Benjamin raised his head proudly. "I am merely taking it to enhance my ability to analyze work so that I can better fill my father's high level position in the Department of Mineralogy. While structural grasping is a mundane ability with few actual uses, I can see the benefit to having a higher skill in its use. With little effort I am able to see how potent the magic in objects are in addition to their age and their making."

Shirou rolled his eyes. He had managed to do that when he was nine. Bragging about such an accomplishment seemed childish to him.

Luvia didn't miss this action of Shirou's which told her all she needed about how "grand" this boast was. "I see." She mused in a tone that made it difficult to tell if she was contemplating his declaration seriously or just irritated of his talking. She held out the red jewel that she had displayed earlier. "If that's the case, can you please tell me what you know about this?"

The teen smirked before looking at the stone. "But of course." He stilled his breathing. "My sight is flawless." He muttered a rather obnoxious aria before looking at the gem for at least ten seconds. "I see that this ruby is several thousand years old and… it possesses… roughly eighty units of prana…" He smiled proudly. "It is rather tedious, but I see the uses in this ability."

"And you my friend?" Luvia ignored the teen for a surprised Shirou. "What can you tell me about it?"

Shirou was about to ask why she was asking him to do the exact same thing when he saw the glint in her eyes that reminded him of Rin whenever she was about to embarrass someone. Sighing to himself he decided to humor her since going against her wishes would probably just make things worse for him in the long run. Glancing at the jewel for a moment without saying anything, he had found everything he needed.

"It was created over a period of roughly forty thousand two hundred and eight years in an extremely dry and hot climate, most likely somewhere in the middle east. The spirit that tainted it was obviously one of a fire nature and spent approximately seven hundred years in the presence of the stone. After it was mined it was reshaped two times, seventy four cuts the initial time and forty two the latter. The second set of cuts after it had been chipped slightly in its initial redesigned form. Current weight is thirty four grams and possesses two minor structural imperfections several millimeters below its current center. It has been in the possession of at least three main owners after its second crafting, the first of which was murdered by the second, and the third being your family Lady Edelfelt. As for the amount of prana it currently possesses, it has eighty four and a quarter units, however it has been used to restore a user's reserves of energy or fuel a long lasting spell four times in its existence as a mystic code."

Shirou stopped reciting what he knew of the stone and looked up to see both of the other Magi looking at him dumbstruck. "Did I say something odd?" He tilted his head to the side confused. Had the shroud not been around his mouth he would have sounded innocent, however since it was his muffled voice inadvertently took on a more condescending tone.

"That… is most impressive." Luvia blinked owlishly. "I can certainly see why advanced structural grasping would be so useful. Even I did not know that it had been used that many times for previous research. You didn't even need to use an aria to perform the analysis either."

"Really?" Shirou blinked. Normally Waver would have berated him for not delving even deeper into the stone and forcing himself to know what spells it had been used for and the genders of those who had owned it. At first he wasn't able to perform such in depth readings on anything but sword and shield like objects, but after a long amount of time he had managed to cover that gap to the point that the only difference between scanning anything (physical) related to his reality marble and not was the fact that the former's information was instantly stuck in his mind's world permanently while data that wasn't in that category was merely forgotten eventually like everything else. "It seemed like a fairly average reading."

"Humph." The eldest one there snorted. "I am not impressed. Granted how skilled you are with this boorish spell, I assume that you are less than practiced in other more practical fields of thaumaturgy. I would even hazard to guess that this is one of the few spells you can perform correctly."

"Yeah. He's right." Shirou yawned. He was really tired right now from the trip, time change, and jet lag. Sitting around doing nothing didn't help much either. He would have tried to get the people in the cafeteria to let him in so he could help out with the dishes so he could wake up a bit, but that would risk him ruining his clothes right before meeting with the queen. "I'm at best average in most fields of thaumaturgy."

The male noble glared at Shirou brushing off the seemingly insulting fact as if he couldn't care less. "You are starting to irritate me foreigner. I do not appreciate being in the presence of those who do not know their place here, especially immature and uncultured individuals who do not even acknowledge the presence of their betters."

Shirou blinked dully at the male before turning to Luvia curiously. "Have I done something wrong? All I have done so far is agree with him and do as you requested of me." He went back over Rin's lessons in his head and tried to find out how he might have insulted the man but was drawing a blank.

The blonde girl laughed politely and resumed sitting with perfect posture. "No. No you have not my friend. I am guessing that our acquaintance here is merely frustrated that you greatly outperformed him in utilizing a seemingly basic spell and the fact that you are not disturbed by others recognizing your apparent limitations."

"Why are you so willing to be near this immature excuse for a magus?" The student asked Luvia bewildered. "He has admitted himself that he is at best moderate in ability, and his pedigree and resources are obviously of substandard quality if he chose to dress in such mundane attire here."

"He interests me." Luvia smiled politely before drinking some of the tea she had brought from her own table earlier. "Well… at least he does more than you do."

Shirou swore in his head as he saw the look Luvia had on her face. He knew that look. Bad things happened whenever someone had that look. It was the look that Rin had whenever she felt that she was in absolute control of everything and everyone around her… right before everything and everyone around her get screwed over by her plans or blown up by an experiment.

He raised his hands in surrender. "Um, can we not fight please? I'm certain that if we simply talk things out we can get through this without violence… or distorting the laws of physics… or playing with one another's minds."

The nobles stared at him skeptically for several seconds in silence, giving Shirou the faint hope that his request had calmed them down. "Who are you to tell us what to do you slanted eyed coward?" Benjamin growled, smashing said hopes into the ground. "Just because you are unable to perform anything substantial and we pity you doesn't mean' we'll grant you your meager requests whenever you ask for them."

Luvia on the other hand stared at Shirou for a moment. "A question my new friend… other than your relationship with your sire, is there a sufficient reason why you inherited his moniker?"

Shirou's eyes widened momentarily as he realized what she was asking him. Looking away with some irritation, he sighed dejected. "I would have preferred it if I had remained unknown."

"I see." Luvia nodded, understanding completely what Shirou had just said before turning to the Clocktower student and pointed her right hand at him like a gun much to both of the male's surprise. "It would be best if you left us now." She said coldly. "While I have little doubt that my friend here would be more than enough to reprimand you for your behavior, I am more than irritated enough to take that responsibility for myself." A large hazy black orb formed on her extended pointer finger less than a meter from the second male's head. "Please leave."

"Hey…" Shirou weakly tried to diffuse the situation even though he was being ignored. He recognized Luvia's spell as Gandr, a curse that Rin often chose as her primary offensive spell. Normally he tried to stay out of heated arguments, but normally heated arguments didn't involve people pointing balls of concentrated misfortune at one another. "We can talk this out…"

"You dare point a curse at me?" The student growled, more affronted that Luvia was threatening him than scared that she was a hair trigger away from cursing him in the face. "I guess the rumors about your family being hyenas weren't mere talk. You are just as bad as the outsider." He straightened himself and reached for the handle of a sword on his hip. "Do you want a duel that badly dog? I will not go easy on you simply because you are younger than me."

"Stop. Please." Shirou raised his voice a bit more louder and sterner, but was still ignored. He noticed that people nearby eating lunch had become aware of the rising tension at the table and were paying attention to what was happening. "People are watching."

Luvia smirked as she allowed her opponent to draw what appeared to be a rapier as it would be unbecoming to harm an unarmed opponent. "You sound like you can put up a fight against me. I wonder if you've ever seen risked your life in a bout before."

"You do not have to fight." The Emiya spoke in a dark and firm tone.

The elder noble ignored Shirou as he began to channel prana into his weapon, making it glow a faint green. "Shows what you know girl. I've been on seven dead apostle hunts." He took a step back and put himself in a fencing position. "Though I doubt you'll be as much of a challenge…"

Luvia's previous elegant smirk was slowly growing into something more hungry and ecstatic. Those who knew of the Edelfelt family were aware that those with their blood were truly at home on the battlefield. "You probably were stuck cleaning up the undead. You don't have any experience in your body at all you uncultured novice…"

Shink. Shink. Shink. Shink. Shink.

"I said no fighting." Shirou growled from his seat as everyone stared at the five massive greatswords that were impaled into the ground between the two surprised nobles. "If you want to kill one another so badly, then do so in one of the dueling grounds, not here where there are innocents that could be caught in the crossfire. I had assumed that since both of you are nobles you would have better self control than this, however it seems I was wrong."

_Swords?_ Luvia blinked in confusion as she turned Shirou warily. _It seems as if the rumors about his capabilities may not be all hot air after all. His eyes aren't showing confidence like most fighters. They are merely showing that he is paying attention to us and some minor irritation. He's experienced…_

"You are quite right." The female laughed lightly and politely before calming down and returning to her controlled and relaxed posture. "It was unseemly to let my temper get the better of me. You have my thanks."

Shirou didn't change his demeanor as he glared at Luvia and Benjamin, causing the former to momentarily flinch. "Since Luvia had politely defended me and requested to be left alone despite your advances, I will fight on her behalf as thanks if she should allow me to. However the time of which we would fight would have to be determined later. My schedule during my stay here has yet to be made."

"A likely excuse." The student snorted before putting his weapon away, not even bothering to pay attention to the swords that were embedded into the ground right in front of him. "Even if she had allowed you to fight, I doubt you would come up with some reason to cower away from me. Who is the unfortunate lord that requested your meager presence here anyway? It was most likely that barbarian McGinty."

"You think too highly of yourself Stanwell." A cold female voice stated calmly from a small distance away from a direction that only Shirou would have seen without issue who at the moment, was frozen in place like a deer staring at the headlights of an oncoming car. Walking calmly towards the group, Lorelei Barthomelloi approached with an air around her that was practically saturated with nobility. "I did not think that your family had achieved a position high enough to have the luxury to pity mine."

Shirou felt sorry for his fellow teens as their faces turned ash white when they recognized who she was. "V-Vice Director…" The identified Stanwell stammered, clearly not expecting someone as prominent as Lorelei to step into their small argument. "I'm afraid I don't understand what you are talking about."

Lorelei's eyes glinted with minor irritation before looking at Shirou. "I see you still have yet to part with that shroud Emiya. I do hope that you do not intend to wear it in such an uncouth manner during our meetings."

Shirou didn't blink as he maintained eye contact with her and quickly regained his own air of calm. After talking to her once before and practicing with Rin, he could now carry himself like a moderately trained professional so long as he was focused. The fact that his face was covered actually helped as it prevented his facial expressions from being seen.

"It has its uses my lady, and you are aware of how my normal appearance would obtain me. Given my family history, it is not difficult to determine why I wish to keep myself anonymous here in the Association. For those I trust I have no issue removing it, but otherwise I would request that I keep it as is while in public." He bowed his head and closed his eyes apologetically. "I express my regret for not containing this incident before it got to this point. I had hoped that I could have spent my stay here at the Clocktower without incident."

"Your manners have improved since last I saw you if nothing else." Lorelei looked at him analytically before turning her attention to the swords still embedded into the ground. "After our encounter I sent some of my followers to research your field of study. So far you remain unparalleled despite our library's extensive history." She touched the closest weapon and in an instant it was dispelled much to everyone else's surprise. "Had I not known what this was, even I would have assumed that your products were originals. Be honored."

Shirou nodded his head politely while silently dispelling the remaining swords he had produced at once. Normally he would have brushed off his skills as something not all that impressive, but Rin had spent a good month and a half beating the idea into his skull that if a noble on Lorelei's level complimented him he should accept it and then shut up about the subject. "That and more Lady Barthomelloi."

Luvia remained quiet as the two conversed. She was absolutely stunned speechless. Not once would she have guessed that the Magus Killer's son was acquaintances with the Vice Director of the Clocktower. There were rumors that he traveled around the world killing bounties for a living, there were rumors that he was a practitioner of every forbidden magic ever known, there was even a rumor that he single handedly killed a Dead Apostle Ancestor, but none hinted at something like this.

"Edelfelt. Stanwell. The both of you have shamed your house names with your behavior." Lorelei sternly chided the other two as she turned her attention back to them. "Regardless of whose fault it was, attempting to conduct a duel in a non combat area is extremely frowned upon here. At first I was going to force you two to duel in the grounds as you wished until I deemed otherwise, however since Emiya here has politely claimed Edelfelt's position it will be between you two instead."

All three teens blinked in confusion before the eldest suddenly realized that he had been given an opportunity to show off in front of the Barthomelloi head. "It would be an honor my lady." He brazenly stated, not at all concerned that Shirou might be able to pose a threat and not recognizing the Emiya name in the slightest.

Shirou raised his hands in mock defense. "I only offered to fight if Miss Edelfelt wanted me to. I would prefer not to get into a conflict, however I am not opposed to it either so long as things do not get out of hand."

Luvia smiled confidently. "While I am certain that I can handle myself against this person, I am curious as to how you would fare and how you handle your magic."

"Why am I not surprised?" The Emiya grumbled under his breath before he turned to Lorelei. "So when do you wish for this to happen?"

The Queen's mouth twitched as if she was about to smile but thought better of it. "Now."

"Come again?" Shirou blinked, voicing what the other two teens were thinking.

"I was going to meet with you in an hour and a half, but this rather convenient duel can be used to accelerate my schedule a small bit. We will speak of your obligations during your stay here after said bout." The brown haired woman stated before turning around and walked to one of the nearby hallways. "I suggest you come and not try my patience."

"Humph." The Stanwell smirked, obviously confident in the outcome of the fight. "I will not blame you if you run away fool. It is after all almost impossible to regain status after losing face in front of the Queen. Go back home to your rice picking kind and no one will think the less of you."

Shirou blinked tiredly as he watched the other male go ahead of him with a strut in his step, no doubt already preparing his victory speech when after he won the supposedly easy fight. The redhead sighed as he stood up and quickly took his food trays to the cafeteria, stopped to longingly look inside the washroom and kitchen for a few seconds, and ran back so that he wouldn't get lost.

Luvia eyed Shirou as he oddly put in the effort to clean after himself before going to fight. The supposed killing expert's behavior was simply odd at times. Didn't he know that the workers of the building cleaned up after them? Why would he put in the effort to do such a mundane and useless thing? Did he not care that his performance was being witnessed by the Queen? Why was he even fighting for her in the first place? It couldn't have simply been because she somewhat stood up for him…

She shook her head and followed Shirou outside of the room. She would find out the answers to most of her questions soon enough anyways. While it may be a bit rude to leave her travelling companions uninformed, she determined that the oncoming duel would be quite interesting to watch…

o. o. o.

Half an Hour Later:

The dull fight that just occurred couldn't be called a duel. It was too fast and uneventful to be called that. For the few that had managed to watch the spar all they would have seen was an eighteen year old man fire off some moderately strong wind based mysteries from his rapier, which was quickly determined by everyone to be some sort of wind amplification based mystic code, at a young man in a coat and red cowl who ran at enhanced human speeds even by magus standards, miss every time, and then get beaten bare handedly by said physically enhanced young man until he couldn't stand anymore.

Heck, when the elder fighter attempted to stab the younger with his weapon, the poor tool had snapped as soon as the pressure of the attack came into contact with Emiya's coat. Luvia couldn't tell if the coat was naturally strong or if it was just reinforced to a high degree, but none the less it was disappointing all the same.

Looking around, Luvia once again inspected the round underground room slash cave that was designed for duels. There were several hundred bounded fields surrounding it to prevent shockwaves, curses, and other such things from damaging the spectator's areas embedded into the walls of the cavern or revealing its existence to the normal world. All in all she estimated the fighting grounds were about fifty meters in diameter and there were enough seats for roughly a few thousand people even though there were at most a few dozen present. The observing population however had been slowly increasing as word had no doubt been spreading about a duel worthy of the Vice Director's attention reached more and more ears.

"You have gotten better." Lorelei stated from her elevated seat to Shirou as several men took away the downed Noble to get treated for some bruises and a minor concussion. "You didn't even need any weapons to defeat him." Her eyes flashed knowingly. "What was interesting was that you seemed to act as if you knew what his skill set was before the fight even began. You were not concerned in the slightest when he attacked you with his code."

Shirou looked back at Lorelei. While he normally practiced using swords in his close combat training with Bazett, he did on rare occasions learn some very basic unarmed moves from her as well. In addition to that, when he and Rin had originally began to hang out with one another, she would sometimes give him some small martial arts tips and facts in her attempts to make herself seem more competent than he was.

Another minor boost in his favor was the coat that Sirius gave him. It was supposedly modeled after the one his father used back when he "worked", but it was slightly modified to be a perfect instrument of defense when reinforcement magic was applied to it. The materials used in its making, in addition to its slightly thicker design and its outer magic resistant layer, made it ideal for Shirou's abilities. When he boosted its capabilities, it performed as if he had at least half a dozen magic resistant kevlar vests on him at once, only much more fashionable and comfortable to wear.

But for the most part the reason why Shirou managed to take out his opponent bare handed so easily was because the poor fool was just really slow and couldn't take a hit, even if he had used some reinforcement to fortify his body. The only reason why the Faker had given the noble a concussion was because nobles had a tendency of being stubborn idiots and sore losers. Even if you broke their arms and legs, if they could still speak, there was a chance that they could cast some sort of last resort and potentially suicidal spell when your back was tuned.

"To be honest Lady Barthomelloi, he wasn't that experienced. His magic may have been rather potent, but it was all rather simple to dodge." He turned towards the exit. "Now since this issue has been taken care of, I assume that we will go to your office to speak about my stay here?"

"Not quite Emiya." The Queen stated, causing everyone to suddenly get chills run down their spine. "As I said before, having you here now would make things go much faster for my schedule."

Shirou's eyes narrowed. He was getting the feeling he normally had whenever Rin was about to tell him that she needed his help for another experiment. And considering who was doing the requesting now there was no hope of simply walking away from it. "Against my better judgment, I'm going to ask why that's the case."

He was answered by the sound of a large door opening behind him, revealing a fairly disheveled and dirty Caucasian man with long, ratty, curly black hair streaming from his head over most of his face and more than a comfortable amount from the rest of his body, dressed in rags and breathing haggardly. None of that mattered to Shirou however…

… Because he was a Dead Apostle.

"This former Lord had recently turned himself into a blood drinking abomination in an attempt to stave off time to perform more research. Even worse he foolishly believed that he could get away with such deeds inside the Clocktower. He was apprehended soon after his transformation, but not before killing seven enforcers here." Lorelei stated calmly despite the shocked looks she was receiving from most of the lords and ladies there, Luvia included. "Normally such fools are either killed on sight or dissected and experimented on for such heresy, however he has proven rather resilient, his test results are mundane at best, and his mind has deteriorated to the lesser of his kind."

She looked directly at Shirou. "Show me that your victory over the tenth was no fluke."

Luvia's eyes widened in shock as she looked at her new associate as if he had just performed the fifth magic. "Impossible…" She whispered. "The rumors were true?"

Shirou's blood ran cold as the undead man looked up at him with deranged red eyes. There was no rationality in them, only rage and hunger. There was little doubt that Lorelei must have prevented the unfortunate demon from feeding on even a drop of blood since he had been captured, and the endless thirst had eventually rendered him insane to the point that he was little more than a human shaped beast. One that was currently eyeing him as his first meal in months.

There was no chance of saving him.

"Trace on!" Shirou commanded as he rapidly produced several dozen blades in mid air and impaled them into the ground between himself and his new opponent. "Tohsaka would kill me if she found out this happened the day I got here." He muttered tiredly as a bow materialized in one hand and a dark red spiraled long sword appeared in the other. Notching the sword in the bow, he took a starting position and looked around warily, all the while feeding a fair amount of prana into the projectile.

A sudden inhuman shriek of rage from the other side of the field of blades snapped him out of his musings as opponent jumped over the entire area. The man's very pale face was now visible for Shirou to see with his hair flying behind him, complete with elongated fangs, cracking skin, and… six more eyes on his forehead.

"Consume, blade of immolation." Shirou frowned as he in seemingly one movement drew, aimed and released his arrow at his airborne target. The moment the sword took flight, it had transformed into a massive stream of intense red flames lead by the white hot tip of the blade itself. In an instant the vampire had been pierced through by the tip of the attack and in the next the rest of the flames had engulfed him and blasted him away back in the direction he had come from, slamming his frame into the bounded fields surrounding the fighting area before falling to the earth again.

Shirou blinked in surprise as he realized how powerful the attack was before dispelling the swords that he had made previously. While he had used fire element swords as arrows before, the one he had used was among the higher quality ones that Sirius had shown him inside his workshop barely an hour ago. In fact while the number of weapons he could make had skyrocketed after exiting the room, most of the new weapons he got were best used as enhanced arrows or good for spamming over a wide area.

Still, he doubted that things would be that easy.

"Impressive." Lorelei commented. "However if the former Lord Morokov had been so simple to put down, then he would not have been able to kill seven of the enforcers…"

Shirou didn't say anything as his opponent's still burning frame slowly pulled itself up, hissing and making odd noises with increasing volume like he wasn't even supposed to look human. With a large pulse of energy, the undead man had extinguished the flames on his person and charged at Shirou once more with non human speed, his skin slowly repairing itself as he did so.

_He's recovering like Louvre did, by reversing time on his body…_ The teen frowned as he analyzed his opponent's being. _I thought that only higher leveled Apostles could do that… how could this guy do it so soon after turning himself?_

He was snapped out of his thoughts when the man slashed out one of his arms and in the process produced dozens of thin white strings from his skin and crossing the distance between the two rapidly.

The teen clicked his teeth in irritation as he instantly jumped up and away to avoid the attack and quickly analyzed the string. _Silk… and it can conduct prana extremely well too…_ He quickly determined as he tried to ignore the slash marks in the ground the attack had made behind him. … _It has enough prana focused in them at a high enough frequency to alter how they impact, cut into objects, and how they move. Combined with those extra eyes, I'm guessing that the guy focused most of his research on spiders… it's too dangerous to try to fight him up close…_

Dozens of average looking blades appeared out of thin air around Shirou and flew at the Dead Apostle each with the speed of a professional baseball pitcher's fastball. For most humans and magi this attack would be impossible to avoid without some sort of major physical enhancement and as such would need to be blocked, however the former lord thought otherwise as he jumped and slashed his impromptu whips wildly to avoid and deflect the attacks, which gave Shirou time to put some more distance between the two.

Skidding to a stop, Shirou remade his bow and this time a blue spiraled sword that was already notched. _Now how will you deal with an attack that you can't deflect or dodge?_ He narrowed his eyes as he attempted to force out any major defensive spells out of his opponent in order to make sure that he wasn't caught off guard when he went in for the kill. Despite the tense situation, he waited so that his opponent saw what he was doing and realized what was going to happen.

It was pretty easy to tell when that happened as the archer's eyes saw all eight of his opponent's dilate at once at the sight of the bow.

"Shatter. Helix Blade."

Dozens of blue lights shot from Shirou's bow at once, all flying in irregular patterns and all converging upon the vampire rapidly from all angles. No amount of dodging or slashing would prevent the target from avoiding this attack as they converged on the wild man from all sides and slammed into the area with enough force to kick up a massive cloud of dust.

"Ta bloody hell is goin on?" A familiar deep voice panted from behind Luvia, causing her to see Sirius standing between her and the exit with a woman and a man in their early twenties right behind him. "Ah thought ta lad was just beatin ta crap out of some snot?"

"Apparently not." The younger male commented darkly. With his red coat and golden scarf hanging over his shoulders, Luvia wouldn't have been surprised if he was a Lord of some sort. He looked down at the fight to see dust clearing to reveal a dome of silk covered with the shattered remains of the blue swords that impaled it. "Some kind of organic material…" He observed.

"It's silk lad." Sirius corrected with a frown. "Ah tink tat ta lad is fightin Morokov. He's ta only bloke ah know of tat could do sometin like tat."

"Morokov?" The lord blinked in surprise. "But I thought that he was killed months ago."

"No." Bazett scowled. "He was just put away. I was part of the group that put him down. His recovering ability was extremely potent despite being just turned at the time, and that wasn't including his other spells." She put on a careful expression. "If Sh… I mean Emiya uses his ace he shouldn't have much of a problem though…"

"Tat's probably not gonna happen." Sirius corrected. "Yah know as well as ah do tat tat weapon is a last resort, especially in here of all places." He sighed and walked to a nearby chair just as the dome began to shift its form. "Besides, ah don't tink ta lad needs it fer tis fight anyways. Ta lad's been learnin ta fight like Kiritsugu, an ah can tell ya tat ta bastard never used his code unless he thought tat he had no other option."

_The Magus Killer had a mystic code?_ Luvia blinked in surprise as she listened in on the conversation before the fight drew her attention again. _Does that mean that his son has it now?_

"Trace. On. Cartridge. Set. Safety. Off. Target. Lock." Shirou muttered his spell rapidly as he felt his circuits buzzing with energy. While it was within his ability, shooting off multiple copies of any mystic code at once always took more energy than he was comfortable with.

"Set." At least thirty copies of Maiya appeared above and around him, their blades pointed at the lump of silk that was no doubt going to turn into some form of offensive machination within the next few seconds. "Fire."

In less than two seconds all thirty blades had impaled the silk at various angles despite the significant defense it had provided earlier, prompting the man inside to let out another immensely loud shriek of pain and rage. The dome then began to move and shift wildly, but unlike before where each thread seemed to move in perfect harmony with the others, now the materials seemed to be confused and entangled with one another.

"Clever." Bazett mused as he watched. "Very clever. Since silk is a biological material, Maiya's effectiveness is increased."

"Indeed." Waver nodded. "Instead of trying to overpower the defense or try to get around it, he instead made it work for him. Morokov won't be able to move or attack properly as he is."

"Told ya." Sirius snorted. "Ta lad takes afta his old man an…" He paused as he apparently saw something happen in the arena and immediately stood up. "SHIT! LAD! BE CAREFUL! TAT DOME ISN'T A SHIELD! IT'S A COCOON!"

Shirou's eyes widened momentarily in shock as he scanned the supposed silk prison and saw that whatever was inside was mutating at an accelerated rate… and it was getting bigger by the second. By the looks of things he didn't have the luxury of time if he wanted to make sure that the remainder of the fight was at his tempo. "Cartridge shift! Accelerate manufacturing process! Trace! Accel!"

Dozens of copies of the sister blade of Maiya bolted through the air at the shifting dome and penetrated it on contact. The dome which Shirou determined could withstand immense pressure and attacks from both magical and physical sources, was unable to resist the phenomena known as severing while enforced by the curse of Angra Mainyu and enhanced by the altered speeds granted from the butchered Emiya clan crest. Each and every blade sunk deep into the contents of the heap of strings, severing and splitting apart everything it came into contact with.

Shirou on the other hand had collapsed onto one knee and gripped his chest in pain. He had to rush that last spell a bit in order to get it off in time and now he was suffering the consequences. His mind was slightly disoriented, his eyesight occasionally blurred, and his heartbeat was beating somewhat erratically, compounding with the pain of his crest burning just above it. He didn't know if he would experience any feedbacks from his most recent spell or when, but in order to prevent the transformation from happening he had to take that risk. Still he did not look away just yet. His opponent could reverse time and if he didn't finish things soon he would be in deep trouble later.

Muttering a much slower incantation, he stood up with two modified copies of Maiya in hand, designed to bind its targets to the current timeline and rushed forward to his opponent who was still recovering from being chopped into many pieces. Even though he was slightly exhausted and disoriented, he had still made it to his opponent within three seconds. Without even slowing down he shallowly leapt over the disoriented pile of silk and slashed at the largest lumps there, making sure he drew blood in the process, and landed on the other side of the pile before running away again. While it may have been a bit overly cautious, Shirou still didn't want to risk getting caught in the strong material by accident or in case it was a trap.

What he didn't expect however were dozens of small spiders to suddenly appear from the silk lump and chase after him as soon as he landed.

The Faker almost moaned in frustration at the appearance of the familiars before dispelling his swords again and producing a normal copy of the flaming red sword he had shot as an arrow earlier and held it in two hands. Without hesitation he swung the blade and produced a sloppy but fairly strong wave of fire that incinerated the small creatures.

He normally tried to avoid using his elemental based weapons like this since it was extremely wasteful in terms of prana on his part, but he had no choice. He had no other way to deal with swarm like enemies. Blades were effective against armors, large opponents, and other swords, but they were near useless against countless tiny opponents that could hit you at all angles at once. It was one of the main reasons why he didn't dare to try to kill Zouken… for now at least.

"Well at least one problem's been dealt with." Waver sighed as he watched Shirou take out the minor annoyances without much issue, knowing that the boy just stopped the vampire from being able to restore his body ever again.

Bazett nodded. "True, but he must be getting tired at this point. He's made a fair number of weapons and shot off two fully charged elemental swords."

"Ta lad's got a fairly large high quality circuit a moderately large od capacity." Sirius commented. "Duelin grounds have a bunch of mana furnaces around tem so tat all ta combatants can fight to their fullest without havin ta worry about restraint." He looked down at the fight again. "Ah've trained ta lad ta be as efficient as possible wit his od ta mana balance usage since ta beginning so ah think tat he can last a bit longer…" He paused before looking around. "Ahm more worried about what happens afta ta fight."

Waver and Bazett looked around and saw what Sirius meant. Over the course of the death match, more and more members of the Clocktower had arrived to see what was so important that had the Queen's attention. While most duels normally attracted the attention of around a hundred nobles at a time at the most, there was closer to three hundred individuals watching now and more coming in.

They had attempted to hide Shirou's existence from the rest of the Association for years, however it seems as if their efforts had been rendered useless as of now. Shirou was now known to everyone and it wouldn't take long for others to attempt to drag him into their own petty plans.

"What now?" Bazett asked worriedly. "We can't protect him anymore."

"We can't." Waver frowned before looking at Lorelei who didn't seem to notice their existence. "But she can."

"Um, Lad? Tat may be just a wee tad bit of a stretch yer suggestin." Sirius laughed nervously. After learning of Shirou's condition, he felt that the less time the boy spent with the Queen of the Clocktower, the higher chance he would have of living long enough to perform in the grail war.

"What choice do we have left?" Waver grit his teeth as he watched a spider the size of a small truck leap out of the pile of silk and spit more strands like bullets at Shirou who in turn managed to run away in time to avoid getting impaled. It didn't take much to guess that the new spider was a magically mutated Morokov. "I have nowhere near enough pull in the Association to keep him out of things, and the Archibald family, who gave me my rank mind you, despises the Emiya family name with a burning passion after Kiritsugu destroyed their crest. If anything I'm a liability at this point."

He didn't pay much attention as the spider somehow made a massive magic circle in front of itself with its silk and began to focus an absurd amount of energy into it.

"Bazett is just an enforcer, granted a strong one, but she still has no real position of political power other than the fact that she's a Fraga. As for you Sirius? You're a sealing designate. You are literally owned by the Association now and its only because you have some connections and make the best codes in the past century that you aren't being dissected right now."

"Well tere's tat an because ah skinned mahself ahead of time…" The old man added casually as Shirou produced Rho Aias to defend himself against the massive surge of prana that was shot at him. Given the fact that the shield was something special to look at, the old man was fairly certain that the kid just earned some more interest in the eyes of the more shallow nobles here. "Huh. Ya know ah tink ah'm gonna go down tere after tis fight is done an see if ah can take some of tat silk fer meself. It looks like it can channel prana better even better tan ether clumps an its toughness ain't sometin ta scoff at either…"

"Sirius. Focus." Waver frowned as Shirou dispelled his shield and once more notched his bow, this time with a green and silver colored twisted blade. He barely had time to register the sword's appearance before it disappeared in an instant, having plowed through the giant spider's head and body before anyone had even realized that it had been fired in the first place. Half a second later the sonic boom created by the arrow reached everyone's ears and literally tore the spider's body apart from the inside out starting from the hole the arrow made.

Combining a wind element sword arrow with acceleration properties always did have a rather violent aftershock effect. Especially when the sound barrier was broken.

Following at the arrow's trajectory, Waver saw that it had impacted the bounded fields surrounding the field with enough speed and power to overwhelm at least several dozen or more of them. Granted there were at least two hundred fields on average layered around the dueling grounds but to break that many with sheer penetrative force was still impressive, which in turn would of course gain Shirou even more unwanted attention down the line.

"Unless you have a better option, leaving him under lady Barthomelloi's influence is the safest bet we have for now. Hopefully as time goes on he can gain a bit more pull here politically as the sixth head of the Emiya family, plus with his abilities I wouldn't doubt that he could eventually gain a fairly high seat in a few of the departments here, but until then he's a sitting duck." The Lord sighed before taking out a cigar and lighting it wearily. "We don't have a lot of options at this point. Luckily the way things are going we won't have to do much in order to make that happen."

Sirius snorted as he watched Shirou collapse to one knee and pant heavily. Waver probably knew it already but the odds were likely that the Vice Director meant for this to happen. By taking Shirou away to the dueling grounds in front of the cafeteria while he was gone, she effectively pulled everyone's attention in her direction and in turn Shirou's and put him on full display for all the lords here to see. Had this been a private incident there was a chance that the boy could have remained independent long enough for his teachers to erect some sort of political wall themselves around the boy, but now there was no time.

In a sense, Shirou was a cut of prime beef, and right now he was in the middle of a den of wolves. In order to prevent him from being torn apart between all the other wolves, they had no choice but to ensure that he remained in the hands of the head wolf… who just so happened to be the meanest bitch in the den that pointed out that he was there in the first place.

Clever girl.

Sirius sighed depressed as he watched several enforcers walk onto the field to make sure that the Apostle was dead and that Shirou was all right. This was going to be a long two years.

"There you are Luviagelita!" A young female voice stated irritably, causing the addressed person to turn around surprised. "We were looking for you! Where have you been?"

"The young mistress and I were most distraught when we heard what happened." Sebastian walked forward with his companion and looked down at the arena. "I am ashamed that I was unable to perform my duties to the family and left you unattended for so long."

Luvia sighed. "Do not worry yourself over something so minor Sebastian. Had you not done so who knows what little Marjatta would have done. Besides because of your absence I managed to meet a very interesting person and lean some even more interesting things." She watched as Shirou was helped up by one of the enforcers there and walked to the exit. "I do believe that my stay for the next month will be very informative indeed."

The younger female frowned and crossed her arms, causing many people to notice her. She was fairly young at around fourteen years old with moderately long blonde hair tied into a high ponytail. While still in puberty it was fairly apparent that she would grow to become a beauty in her later years. Her ornate dress was littered with black and golden frills with some minor blue fabrics woven into it, unlike her elder counterparts which had the opposite scheme. She also wore a fair amount of jewelry on her neck, ears and hands. "I care not about your superfluous habits sister. You wasted my time by looking for you and I expect you to compensate me for this."

Luvia sighed tiredly at her younger sibling's demanding and spoiled claim. She would play along with it for now, but should she continue with this behavior later on it would only cause the family name to be marred. "Fine my dear sister. I will do just that when time permits. For now you will have to wait as we have several meetings to attend. It would be unbecoming of us to skip them just to sate some meager personal desires." She glanced at Waver, Sirius and Bazett momentarily before turning to walk away.

"Unless of course those desires would happen to benefit the family significantly…"

o. o. o.

A/N:

Once again, betad by Maximorph1

Ore. Mother. Fucking. Scales.

Yes. Major twist number two to the war has just been made and it will make things all the more sweeter. If you don't know that I'm talking about, look it up on the type moon wiki. This ENTIRE chapter's purpose was to lead up to the exposure to the OC Marjatta Edelfelt, younger sister of Luviagetta Edelfelt, and to just get it over with, otherwise I would have split it up into two parts since it's so long. How the sisters get caught up in the scheme of things is still going to be hidden until I say so, but be rest assured, this will lead to some horrible things happening when things finally start picking up in Fuyuki.

Other than that, Shirou's new look, yeah, personally I like the use of the coat's use with reinforcement and the shroud to cover his head, but otherwise I don't like the suit bit. It doesn't match his personality. What he's dressed in now will probably just only be used while he's in the Clocktower.

What I DO like is the fact that since his face is covered, half the things he says and thinks will be interpreted by the vast majority of the Clocktower as either mysterious, have hidden meanings, or threatening when in reality he's just trying to be honest and straightforward. It's my way of screwing with a mysterious society by throwing in an obliviously straightforward guy and make it so that they don't KNOW he's actually being straight forward and not hiding anything, and I find it hilarious.

For anyone who thinks that I might have overdone it with giving Shirou Sirius' current collection, please keep in mind that most of the objects there wouldn't even scratch a servant unless it was fired from his bow while accelerated. Most of the tools he saw in there are just much more powerful versions of weapons he's already seen before and some other ones that are useful in unique circumstances. All in all its not that much of an upgrade in the long run.

For anyone that thinks that Shirou's too op now cause of this fight, that is not the case. He is just very well equipped compared to most other mages. There are many stronger mages than him in the association, it just so happens though that Shirou has the capability to be the most diversified combat wise and handle the widest amount of situations.

I also slipped in a few hints of things that will affect the war in as well. Some are obvious, others are a bit more subtle.

Still waiting for fan art though I have been told that some people are working on some interesting bits as we speak. The next chapter won't be this long thankfully, I just wanted to get this bit over with.

So FFD broke the 1k cherry with gusto and went a full hundred past it. Damn that's good. Thank you everyone for reviewing and let's see if we can break the 2k mark just as hard.

That's all for now folks! Review! Worship the log! Fate Zero season 2 is coming out next month! And Review again!


	19. Chapter 19

Chapter 19: Recognition

I do not own Fate/Stay Night and stuffs:

o. o. o.

Shirou groaned as he pulled his stiff and aching body up from the bed that he had woken up in just moments beforehand. His arms and chest were heavy from his fight against that dead apostle and his legs more so considering how much he had been forced to run. His chest of course throbbed the most painfully given how much he had abused the tiny crest that he had inherited from his father and as such he expected to have some minor time interpretation episodes for the next few days.

He would have added the fact that his mouth was a bit dry to the list, but since his transformation it had always been like that and he was used to it. So he didn't pay it much mind and focused on other issues.

Looking down at himself, he saw that he was in western sleepwear, something that was growing in popularity back home in Japan, instead of the suit and coat that he had remembered wearing before passing out while being half carried by Lorelei's guards. The clothes that he wore in the Clocktower he could live without, granted he find something else to wear in public, however the fact that his shroud was not among the items on his person was of slightly more concern.

While he did not necessarily need it to control his impulses, it certainly made his new state more manageable to deal with when he was performing activities that might agitate his condition, such as cooking with plenty of juicy meat… or when he was having sex with Sakura. He would have to look for it as soon as he figured out his location and current situation.

He looked around to see that he was in a room that he had never been in before, and that was putting it lightly. The bed he was in was ordained with carvings as was the trinkets that littered the walls around him.

He could tell that each object was old upon sight by analyzing their histories. A small tuner that kept perfect pitch, a doll made of magical material that molded it into the shape of its owner several centuries ago, a clock that kept time to the millisecond for the past fifty years… and every single one unnerved him.

An attempt to structurally grasp the building he was in left him with a massive headache as he found himself in a large underground complex with massive amounts of mana running through it, which he shouldn't be surprised about since a majority of the Clocktower was underground and not in the tower that it was named after. He didn't get the full scale of the complex he was in, but he did have a fairly good mental map of his current section. At least now if he tried to leave he wouldn't accidentally open the wrong door and find himself facing a closet.

His chest throbbed in pain again, distracting him from his musings. Among all his time based augmented spells, Trace Accel was the most taxing to his crest as it blasted out multiple weapons as soon as they were made at inhumane speeds per blade. Overclock altered his internal world, as opposed to objects in Gaia's realm, to increase his processing and output of swords, so the strain for that spell on his crest was nearly non-existent due to the lack of temporal resistance. In the middle was his standard accelerating spells that were focused on single objects. They were simple, to the point, and only required some focus to use.

He technically knew how to make a time altered bounded field on his body to change his body's speed, but with only three circuits he knew better than to attempt to do something like that and expect to live.

Gritting his teeth in mild irritation as his heart pulsed in protest, the boy did a brief self checkup to make sure that all his organs were still there. He was in the Magus Association after all. It wasn't unheard of for a person to pass out with all his circuits and wake up with…

Five more?

"What the hell?" The Faker muttered in confusion as he inspected his magic crest once more to find that it had nearly tripled in size to a more respectable eight lines that interacted with the rest of his body and soul. The throbbing in his chest he found was not just from the spiritual pain of overusing his original three circuits, but from the physical pain of the grafting process that was standard when adding more of the tools to the human body.

However what seemed to be even more absurd about the situation was the fact that the additional circuits meshed perfectly with the ones he had from before.

Size. Purpose. Quality.

All the parameters matched up to a T. To Shirou's knowledge there was no possible explanation for two crests to match one another this perfectly…

Unless… unless both parts were originally from the same whole…

His rapidly flying thoughts were suddenly interrupted when the door to his right, the one that led to the rest of the compound as opposed to the one on his left that lead to a sizeable bathroom, opened to reveal a woman in European maid's clothes and carrying a tray that held a rather expensive looking empty china cup and several containers of liquid that each looked more expensive than his entire outfit.

If he wasn't so preoccupied with the fact that someone just gave him a massive gift, he would have been fairly flustered at the woman's appearance. Despite the fact that her attire was extraordinarily modest and unremarkable in any real way, the brunette herself was still more than a bit attractive.

"Lady Barthomelloi has been informed that you have woken up." The unknown maid stated, not at all surprised that he was conscious. "The container with flowers has tea with several unique herbs mixed in for nutrition. The one with gems contains the solution that is often drunk after a grafting procedure. The door to your left contains a bathroom and shower. Your clothes are in the process of being cleaned and will be delivered to you in fifteen minutes. The lady will be expecting you in half a hour in her office down the hallway. Please use this time to make yourself presentable. The lady does not like to be kept waiting. I suggest you hold any questions you have for her unless there is something you desire to inquire of me."

Shirou opened and closed his mouth several times as he tried to get his still stunned mind working at full capacity again. "Um… at the moment I only have two questions for you." He answered honestly. "First of all… what's your name? I can't thank you properly for what you've done for me if I don't know it."

The woman bowed politely, not at all caught off guard by the statement. "You honor me with your concern. Please call me Miranda. I am one of the maids that cater and service to Lady Barthomelloi and her guests here at the Clocktower."

"That makes sense…" The teen nodded in agreement as he became more conscious. "I was supposed to meet with her when I got here before that dueling mess started." He sighed and dropped his head. A normal person would have been more surprised at all this happening to them so quickly, but after his encounter with Louvre and the six hours after he woke up from that encounter, he could confidently say that he could manage most curveballs that life would throw at him with a fairly level mind.

Of course there were some events that would still cause him to be nervous. Events such as…

"Your time is rather short. What was the second thing you wished to ask me Sir Emiya?" The maid asked curiously yet at the same time professionally, cutting off Shirou's thoughts in doing so.

"Um…" The boy fumbled on his words as he looked down upon himself again and blushed slightly. "How… or who… exactly changed me when I was unconscious?"

o. o. o.

"You're almost late." Lorelei stated in a factual tone as she went over some paperwork behind her desk as Shirou was walked into the room by the maid in his full attire.

"My apologies." Shirou bowed politely. "I had a small issue regarding my crest that unfortunately consumed a small amount of time."

He looked around the room and mentally noted that the office was pretty much what he had expected it to look like given who works in it: perfect. Every piece of furniture, every pen, paper file cabinet and device needed for the job the woman did was positioned, placed, and organized near flawlessly either on her desk or somewhere else in the room. The pictures and portraits of what appeared to be older members of the Barthomelloi family littered the walls and shelves of the fairly larger than average office, with a large portrait of some sort of crest behind where she sat that the teen assumed had some sort of significance to the woman's family.

Granted he figured that there would have been a fair amount more room here if the woman had relied on modern technology to store away the vast majority of her files, however he knew better than to make such suggestions to a woman whose entire family represented the definition of how a "proper" Lord of the Association should act.

Then there was the sheer number of spells running in and around the room. One glance was all it took for Shirou to tell that there was no way in hell he, or anyone else for that matter would be able to get away with anything inside this place, let alone understand what half of the bounded fields here did for that matter.

"Noted." The woman sitting in the elaborate leather chair nodded before turning to the maid wordlessly.

"Sir Emiya has partaken of the crest draught, however he refused to partake of the tea." The servant reported professionally.

"It would be more than easy for the combination of the two drinks to produce one or a form of drought to put me off guard." Shirou explained himself calmly. "My father had employed such a method in the past to take out several of his targets, as did several other Magi of notable worth when dealing with potential rivals."

"And you assume that I would do something similar?" The Barthomelloi asked skeptically.

"I would prefer not to take chances when dealing with a person who just recently set me up against a mentally unstable Dead Apostle without informing me beforehand so I could prepare." Shirou replied honestly.

While most magi wouldn't dream of talking like this to the Queen of all people, Shirou on the other hand had some more leeway. He was not a member of the Association. He was not trying to gain prestige or power. He was at the moment a freelancer raised by one of the best Assassins ever known. He was a fighter and dare he say it, a killer. As such he was speaking from that standpoint. So long as he did not speak with blatant rudeness, he could get away with speaking his mind for a decent period.

The room was silent for several seconds at the maid looked at him in surprise for speaking to her boss in such a way… before the Queen let out a very brief snort of amusement. "It seems that you have more than knowledge of some interesting spells inside your head after all Emiya. While your logic is false in this case, you are quite correct in your choice to avoid partaking of both drinks none the less." She looked at the maid. "You may leave now. I have many private things to discuss with Sir Emiya."

The woman paused as she glanced at Shirou skeptically for a fraction of a second before bowing. "By your leave my Lady."

And with that the room was left empty save for the two Magus sitting on the opposite sides of an oak desk looking at one another warily and expectantly, as if trying to figure out what was going through the other's mind.

"Where is your shroud?" The woman demanded after several moments of silence.

"It is still on my person. You stated earlier that you were somewhat displeased with my public wearing of it." The teen answered truthfully. Telling her that it had been turned into an undershirt was probably not the best thing to do considering that the shroud was a fairly valuable holy relic from the Church… or maybe it was a good thing. He wasn't sure since he didn't know exactly how the woman in front of him viewed the Church, but he thought it was best to not take any chances.

Lorelei nodded acceptingly before looking down at the papers in front of her. "Shirou Emiya, adopted son of Kiritsugu Emiya, also known as the Magus Killer, and defacto sixth head of the Emiya lineage. Country of Origin. Japan. Age. Sixteen. Hair color. Red going grey prematurely. Eyes. Brown. Od levels. One hundred and sixty seven units. Number of circuits. Twenty seven A, borderline A+ ranked natural with three, now eight, B ranked from the Emiya clan crest. Total estimated maximum output at a given time. Eight hundred and seventy two units. Element. Sword. Origin." She looked up at him as Shirou's face paled considerably. "Sword."

"This won't end well will it?" The identified incarnation asked as calmly as he could manage. He was not honestly that surprised that she had found out about his strong ties to swords. If the woman had sent people to undress him while he was unconscious and give him a healthy part of his adopted grandfather's crest, then there shouldn't have been much surprise that she had people looking into his body to see how he worked in the mean time.

Had he not been concerned about his future, he would have paid more attention to his abnormally high Od, or inner energy, levels. The normal magus' was around twenty and Rin's he knew for a fact was getting close to around five hundred, but that massive difference was due to Rin's very well founded genetic background in addition to all the physical exercise she did when she wasn't experimenting. The standard Magi normally relied on magic for most things in life whenever they could help it, which included keeping in shape to look appealing for the other nobles in their society. This in turn stagnated or impaired their natural reserves over time, though it did keep them well practiced and varied in their art as well.

The last time he checked, his limits were only around the mid eighties. It was probably that high in the first place due to him constantly pushing himself to his limits with his projection and physical training much like how he strengthened his circuits from projecting Avalon… but it shouldn't have doubled in such a short amount of time…

Unless he put into account that the last time he checked his Od levels was before the Louvre incident and he was turned into a partial Dead Apostle. The undead beings were known to have absurd levels of energy in addition to their heightened physical abilities which was why they were so dangerous in the first place. While the teen so far had yet to experience any physical enhancements, at least not while the moon wasn't full, he apparently had gained the internal reserves more fitting of one in his situation. It was still well within human capabilities to possess, but it was still certainly worth something to take note of.

"It depends." The Queen stated as she put away Shirou's bio and looked at him professionally. "While you would no doubt be an interesting specimen for research, you have also proven yourself to be a rather useful and potential tool as well, not to mention the fact that any possible children you might sire would be likely to possess exceptional magical potential. Your future will depend on how you answer the next few questions I will ask." Her eyes narrowed slightly. "Rest assured, if you attempt to lie or withhold information from me, I will react in an appropriate manner."

Shirou somehow doubted that the Barthomelloi's definition of appropriate matched his own, however he wisely kept that thought to himself. "Yes ma'am." He replied while trying his hardest not to show how scared he was at the moment.

"Why did your father adopt you and what did he focus on when he taught you your magic?" The woman started off her interrogation sternly.

The teen felt somewhat relieved that she was at least starting off with easy questions. "Dad adopted me because he rescued me from the aftereffects of the fourth grail war in Fuyuki City. He felt a connection to me because I was the only one he saved in that event. Since my parents died in the events and I lost my memories of myself from before the fire, he adopted me as his own. As for magic, he simply trained me in most of the basics after I bugged him to teach me for a about a year. To be honest he wasn't that good of a teacher, which is why he brought in Si… I mean McGinty and Lord El-Melloi the second. They helped me with most of my education before and after dad died, though dad did teach me how to use my crest…"

"Speaking of your crest, can you tell me how is it that you only came to possess three of the circuits?" Lorelei asked neutrally. "According to reports, your father obtained twenty percent of his sire's crest due to the fact that the latter was a sealing designate. Even though it was small, its size should have amounted to what you have now instead of that pathetic number."

Shirou did not look away and ignored the flaring pain in his chest as he was reminded that he had just received an addition to his crest. Under most circumstances, most Magus would do everything in their power to try to protect and preserve their family crests, even give up their lives. As such it was understandable for the woman to be curious to know what happened to the original circuits that his father possessed.

"During the end of the fourth grail war, dad was cursed heavily. The magic invaded not only his body, but his circuits as well. It was what eventually led to my father's premature death. The three I received from him were all that remained from the crest he had, and it was too dangerous for him to add any of his remaining circuits to it at the time. Since there were so few circuits to transfer, my body did not need to undergo that much strain or risk to adapt to them despite the fact that I was adopted." He paused. "While we are on the topic of my crest Lady Barthomelloi…"

"Should I allow you to continue your life, you will consider it a sort of reward for killing Louvre and identifying a weakness to that rather troubling artifact that is in Solomon's possession." Lorelei answered without hesitation, knowing exactly what Shirou was about to ask. "While examining your body, my doctors noticed that on occasion your internal time flow would sporadically slow down or speed up, originating from the overuse and instability of your crest. Given your potential usefulness, I determined that it was unseemly to have such a weakness and addressed it."

Shirou nodded in understanding. Even though he had received the original crest from his father nearly a decade ago, he was still in the middle of puberty and as such could still handle the transplantation process with some degree of success, even if he wasn't a blood born Emiya. Had he been two or three years older, the procedure would not nearly have gone so smoothly. Even so, he had a feeling that the woman in front of him had called in a few favors to make sure that the crest transplantation went as smoothly as possible given his circumstances. "You honor me. I had not expected in my wildest dreams to be given a section of the original Emiya crest upon my stay here…"

"Do not flatter yourself boy." The Queen interrupted the boy's thanking of her. "You are still under my scrutiny for the time being." Her eyes narrowed. "For example, I am somewhat curious as to why you have a noble phantasm inside your body… and an exceptionally powerful and significant one at that."

Shirou mentally sighed. He was not surprised at all that the woman's doctors had found Avalon. For whatever reason they had left it alone, but the fact that they knew about it did not leave him with a particularly warm and fuzzy feeling. "It was a gift from the Einzbern's to my father to use as a tool and catalyst to summon his servant for the fourth Holy Grail War. It grants minor healing properties when it is not around King Arthur and implanted in another as a conceptual item, which Father used to heal me when he originally found me in the destruction of the war. He did not see a need to remove it from me after that."

"I see." Lorelei mused. "That is interesting to know. Are there any other effects on your body that you are aware of?"

Shirou nodded. "I have a very minor healing factor that at best doubles the natural speed at which I recover from injuries if I channel some prana into it, and I rarely get sick. I cannot however use its main intended function and enter the holy land of Avalon. That power is only available when its original owner is present… however I believe that since it has been in my body for so long, I may be the only other person capable of using it if he is around."

The elder nodded. "Understandable. I would have been somewhat disappointed in the original makers if anyone could use it at any time." She paused and looked at him skeptically. "You are holding something back. What else can you do with the holy scabbard?"

Shirou winced and relented, ashamed that he could not hold back this last piece of information from the woman. "As I said before, I have had the artifact in my body for nearly a decade. Because of this my body instinctively knows the artifact to the smallest detail. As such…" He paused.

"Go on." The woman stated commandingly.

"As such." He sighed. "I am capable of projecting perfect copies of it... or rather it is the only object I am capable of projecting perfect copies of. The Mace of Odo was not the first noble phantasm I had managed to trace, Avalon was."

The room was silent for several moments. "A perfect copy?" Lorelei asked, for once caught off guard.

"Yes. As I have said, it's the only object I can make perfectly." Shirou admitted.

"Through projection." She stated, as if listing off the facts more to herself than anyone else.

"Through tracing to be specific, and only because every cell in my body has constantly been exposed to it for an extremely long period of time. If you taught another person tracing and he had a conceptual object embedded into his body for nearly a decade, I have little doubt that he would be able to do the same thing." The boy sighed, knowing that this could end up very badly for him. "The magic in the copy is the same as well, however due to how its magic works I am unable to truly utilize its high level mysteries. The best I can do is understand it's mechanics to the best of my abilities… though I have been doing some research into artifacts and miracles made by the Fae as of late to try and learn more of their craft. It unfortunately has been slow going so far…"

"And exactly how long would these perfect copies last?" The woman asked, her mind now going into overdrive at having multiple replicas of extremely high level fairy magic available for research.

"Given how significant of a presence Avalon is in Gaia's realm, I can make them last about a week, give or take a day or two." Shirou answered truthfully. "The more there are though, the less they'll last as Gaia realizes that something is off with the existence known as Avalon. If I was copying something mundane, like a chair or a desk, even without being perfect I could make them last for years on end so long as they were non significant existences, but Avalon can only go for a week."

The vice director breathed out heavily through her nose and leaned back into her chair. "I am beginning to assume that your father placed the artifact inside you as some sort of experiment."

The teen shook his head in denial, knowing that this was not what his father had intended for him. "I am afraid you are incorrect. My father did not care much for the standard practices for magi and only learned of them in order to take advantage of them for his work. He…"

"Do not lecture me on what I already know." Lorelei interrupted coldly. "I have done my research. Your father was a heretic Emiya. He practiced magic for the results, not for the study. While there are those who do lean towards that path here, none shattered the rules of engagement, dignity, or of the magic world in general like your father did. The only ones he did manage to keep were the ones that regarded the secrecy of our craft, which happened to coincide with his methods in general. Otherwise, we would have hunted him down long before he would have succumbed to his curse, if not the Church."

The woman leaned forward on her desk and stared at Shirou with the sharpest eyes the boy had ever seen. "We know much about your father, however despite the fact that I have questioned McGinty, Lord El-Melloi, and the Fraga woman, we still do not know much about you. Tell me, what plans do you have for yourself regarding our craft and our world in the future? Do you plan to truly take up your father's mantle and be nothing more than a freelancing embarrassment?"

Shirou swallowed heavily as he attempted to not buckle under the woman's gaze. He didn't feel any prana coming from her, indicating that she wasn't using any form of mystic eyes on him at the moment be it the eyes of whisper, binding, compulsion, or any other type like that, but somehow he doubted that she needed to use them even if she did have them. Regardless, he didn't want to anger her to the point that she actually felt the need to use them if she did indeed have such a thing.

"I…" He started off slowly. "I'm not really sure. Outside of the task my father has asked me to do, if I manage to survive doing it… my plans for the future are fairly open." He thought harder about the question and tried harder to not let the woman's irritated glare get to him. "If things go well for me here, I guess I'm hoping that I can use my abilities to help out the Association on occasion, both inside and outside the compounds while focusing my time on trying to have a family." He paused as he thought out what he was going to say next. "Since my structural grasping can delve into the mysteries of enchanted objects and artifacts fairly quickly, I thought I could start off using that to aid some of the other researchers here. In addition to that I do have some experiments and theories that I am testing out on the side when I'm not training, ones that I was hoping that I could manage to figure out here with the right instruction and aid…"

"And what kind of experiments would those be?" Lorelei demanded in a dead even tone. Clearly she was prodding him to see that if he wasn't all just hired muscle and could prove to be an adequate scientist as well.

Shirou paused for a moment before responding clearly. "Adjusting and molding temporal definitions and spectrums in physical objects and the applications of said objects after aforementioned alterations."

Rin had ran him ragged getting him to describe his research in such a manner if asked instead of his standard description of "altering the time space of projected objects in mid construction". Once more he had to remind himself that he owed her big time for forcing him through all those etiquette lessons…

The Queen was quiet for several seconds before nodding slowly. "Hybridizing your personal craft of advanced projection with your clan's crest in order for you to become a craftsman of an object's time-space… no, it would be more accurate to say that you are attempting to use the fabric of time and space as an actual material for constructing new objects. Considering your limited range of spells, it is an adequate new field of study you have created. Have much progress have you made?"

The Emiya shifted in his seat uncomfortably as a certain memory came to mind. "Some. I was hoping I could gain some tutelage and advice in some related fields before I tried experimenting again, otherwise I might not be so lucky as to have only my arm cut off by accident."

A brief flicker of the woman's mouth was all that anyone would have seen that indicated that Lorelei was somewhat amused by the boy's comment. "Altering an object's time space such that it would remain intact but notably separate from Gaia's domain. An appraisable feat."

Shirou bit his tongue, barely holding back a comment that made a connection between his "notable feats" and events that have either nearly killed him, maimed him, or caused people vastly more dangerous than he is to try and influence him. Instead he merely nodded his head in gratitude. "I believe the finished product of the spell would be something that would interest you and other members of the Clocktower. I would greatly appreciate it if you would hold your praises until I have completed it so that you can see what the true results of my work would yield."

"I intend to." The woman nodded. "It appears that even though the standard Magus society doesn't appeal to you, you do at least see the logic in our pursuit of knowledge instead of focusing your time running around the world childishly for foolish reasons like your father did. That in itself is a positive sign for you."

Shirou grit his teeth in minor irritation as the woman mocked his father's lifestyle. He normally could handle people insulting Kiritsugu because of what he did, but calling the man's dreams of peace _childish_ and degrading his reasons for doing so on the other hand was very close to crossing the line. How could any sane person believe that the desire for a world without needless conflict was childish? That trying to end all the pain and suffering that an all too large number of people experience day in and day out wasn't worth fighting for?

Lorelei didn't seem to notice Shirou's irritation as she continued, taking out a manila envelope in the process. "Regardless, your work furthering the study of projection alone has been noted by myself and should be rewarded appropriately regardless of your lineage."

The Emiya hesitantly grabbed the parcel, not knowing if he was about to receive a sealing designation, a free pass into the Association, or a monetary check for all his hard work. A brief structural grasping that lasted no longer than a fraction of a second indicated that there were no spells inside the container and the only thing inside was a piece of paper.

Glancing at the woman and seeing that she didn't seem like she was about to talk any time soon, he slowly opened the letter and took out its contents and read the paper inside. Slowly but distinctively, his eyes widened in shock as he comprehended what he was being told before looking at the woman again. "Th-this is…"

"Congratulations are in order Emiya." Lorelei Barthomelloi stated calmly. "It has been a long time since someone has achieved a magic worthy of a noble color that is not related to mystic eyes."

Shirou looked back at the letter in his hands and scanned at it once more to make sure that his mind wasn't playing tricks on him, or that there wasn't some sort of spell over the piece of paper that told him some sort of secret underlying message.

Noble Colors. The latter of two color systems applied in the magic world, it is a special classification system used to grade special abilities such as sorcery traits. In practice, however, it relates mostly with mystic eyes. Powerful eyes, normally demonic, shine gold, while those with powers that reaches the realm of gods have a multi-colored glow such as the case of jewel and rainbow. The aforementioned colors were unheard of to be accessed by humans and were said to be only possessed by those who descended from gods, demons, the Types, or were possessed by the Types themselves… however that did not mean that there were lower ranked classifications that could not be applied to human achieved powers.

"S-s-s-silver?" The teen stuttered in surprise, knowing that many magi in the Association would literally kill for such an honor. Kill, maim, pillage, loot, vivisect, and many other horrible things for such a distinction. Dozens of generations of magi could and have wasted their lives away trying to gain such recognition or even half of what he had just been awarded.

"You have not only effectively bypassed the fundamental laws of equivalent exchange with an incomplete and previously thought useless branch of spells, but you have proven that you are potentially capable of virtually any form of thaumaturgy through this method, including that of inhuman origin such as the Fairies if our discussion about your secret scabbard is accurate. Putting those facts into consideration, I believe that such a classification for your ability is appropriate." The vice chairman stated simply.

"Had your methods been proven to be unique only to you, then you would have received a sealing designation instead of a noble color. However since McGinty and Lord El-Melloi have long since explained to me the advanced methods of your craft and proven that virtually anyone can perform it, that is not the case. You just so happen to be able to perform it to a higher level than others due to the way your circuits are made towards material transmutation and your interesting status as an incarnation."

Shirou swallowed heavily and made a mental note to cook a massive feast for Waver and Sirius the next time he saw them as thanks for just barely managing to prevent him from being dissected. Beef, lobster, ham, turkey, and many other meals were going to be needed to express how grateful he was to the two men… though Sirius' meals would need that extra dozen layers of bacon on his plates just to get the point across.

"As it stands I have already been searching the Clocktower's populace for other magi who are focused towards that branch of magic and have physical object based elements or origins to see if we can produce similar miracles to those you have made, however I have yet to find anyone that possesses those qualifications." The woman concluded professionally.

Her message was clear. Shirou was bloody lucky. His power was impressive, great, and damn near revolutionary, however it was _understandable_ and _technically_ performable by anyone. The only reason why people couldn't replicate it as well as he could was simply because they didn't have the right qualifications, which were in themselves nothing special save for the matching element and origin, but that could easily be worked around in this case. As such even if a majority of the magus population knew how to use tracing, they would not be able to use it to the degree that Shirou could, and as such it would not impair his greatest skill…

If there was a spell that could create gold out of thin air and only one magus knew of it, he could create ten ounces every time he performed it. However if more people knew of the spell, that ten ounces created would be split up evenly between each mage that could perform it, reducing the miracle's efficiency. It was one of the main reasons why most magi tried their damned hardest to keep the majority of their research a secret from the rest of the world.

With Tracing, Shirou didn't have to worry about this problem as no one other than him had the right combined tools, or in this case circuits, experience, elements and origins, to perform the miracles he could make, to the degree he made them. The only person that even came close to meeting those qualifications in Shirou's mind was Sirius, but even the old blacksmith didn't believe he could ever do what the Faker did with projections.

While his reality marble was tied heavily to this branch of spells, in the end all the inner world actually did was store and record any and all melee based tools in his head permanently. Tracing merely helped pull said tools from his inner world to the outer one.

As such it could not be accurately said that a person needed to be distorted in order to perform Shirou's version of projection. All they really needed to do was perfectly scan the object that they wanted to copy with an enhanced version of structural grasping and use the eight steps to produce their own version. It was the ease of use on this part that separated the teen from everyone else. All Unlimited Blade Works did was allow Shirou to make, store, and pull up perfect blueprints of swords and go straight to the tracing step.

As such the Emiya had metaphorically struck gold. Tracing was revolutionary to the point that it was borderline true magic. The kicker was that it was simultaneously performable and technically unavailable to the vast majority of the magus community. This being the case, if everyone at the Clocktower know about the branch of spells, he would instantly receive recognition for his work without worrying about people trying to copy it…

Countering it on the other hand was still a subject of concern, however that was only if knowledge of his use of the spell spread out too far. If it was only known to a select few high ranking members of the Association, then he should be fine… at least he hoped that would be the case.

"I'll take your silence as acceptance of your current situation and position." Lorelei stated, snapping Shirou back to reality. "I will be blunt Emiya. As it stands, you are indebted to me. Had I been another member of the tower, you would have been either executed for your father's past actions, dissected for study, or you would have simply disappeared. One of the families that is connected to mine, the Archibald family, in particular is rather adamant on erasing your father's lineage from the history books."

Shirou held back a wince as he remembered what his father had done to the master of Lancer, his fiancé, and Lancer himself in the fourth war. Throw in the fact that Kiritsugu had pretty much totaled the family's magic crest in the process and the teen would admit that he couldn't really blame the them for being as pissed as they probably were at his father… and him in relation. He didn't even want to think about what the family would have resorted to in their quest for revenge if Waver hadn't conveniently come to the family's rescue several years ago, which in turn lead to the man being a Lord in the first place.

"I however can tell that you are a useful tool." The Queen continued. "You are a powerful weapon against not only the filth known as Dead Apostles, but against other magi as well. Your research will provide useful samples for various departments here. Your name in itself has significant potential use in our world, and I intend to use all of that to their fullest."

Shirou was getting the sinking feeling in his stomach he always got whenever Rin had some kind of scheme planned for him, only magnified by about a dozen times at the very least. "What do you have in mind?" He asked, though not trusting his own voice at the moment.

Lorelei looked at him dead in the eyes. "You will be my servant."

Shirou blinked several times as he tried to comprehend what the woman just told him. "… Can you elaborate please? I'm afraid I don't completely understand what you mean by that." Somehow he doubted the Queen of the Clocktower wanted a study buddy like Rin did.

"I want you to be my voice, my enforcer, my executioner, my dog if you will." She explained. "When people see you walk around the Clocktower, they will know that my rules are being held up and that there will be dire consequences for breaking them."

The teen swallowed dryly as he tried to understand what the woman was saying. "But… aren't there magi here that are trained to do that already? I have heard that you yourself have half a hundred trained fighters that answer only to you. Why do you need me as well?"

"The Chelon Canticle Brigade is only used for significant threats such as dealing with the Ancestors, and are seen as a separate branch of Enforcers." Lorelei elaborated. "I do not use them often as it would be unseemly of me to use vital assets for such mundane tasks, and they themselves have to keep their identities secret as to make their work more manageable. You on the other hand I have no qualms about using in such a manner, and will be my public enforcement. People fear you for good reason, and should you act in my name they will without doubt perform on their best behavior when in your presence. I admit that several individuals here have been pushing their boundaries and liberties as of late and I require someone of significant social stature and notoriety to push them back into their place in my absence, or else." She ended her plans on a note that left no arguments for Shirou to question, and the boy wouldn't be surprised if the magi nearby that she was referring to suddenly got unexplained chills just now.

"And you believe that I can do that." Shirou stated. It wasn't a question in the woman's mind, but a fact. Far be it for her to assume that he only somewhat knew how to carry himself around other nobles or that he knew a fraction of the rules in the Clocktower at best, let alone the entire Association.

"You killed a Dead Apostle Ancestor, a feat that so far only belonged to myself and… Kaleidoscope within the Association." Lorelei stated factually, though the boy heard the distinctive sneer when she brought up the user of the second magic… probably because the man was a vampire himself. "People know that, and so they will be wary of you. Granted they would have been more concerned had you used that black sword of yours against Morokov and proved to everyone that you can permanently damage a person's circuits, however there will be more opportunities in the future…"

"No." Shirou stated bluntly, getting a look from the woman that promised imminent death if he did not explain himself within the immediate future. "Among the few things I will not budge on is the free use of that weapon. It is not only a matter of hiding my mysteries… it is simply the fact that that using that sword on others terrifies and sickens me. I consider it an absolute last resort."

"You did not seem to have much issue killing Morokov, or using it against Louvre." Lorelei pointed out calmly.

"Louvre was a special case and Morokov was already beyond saving." Shirou replied. "What that sword does…" He shivered. "It goes beyond merely destroying a magus' circuits…"

"… The soul." The noblewoman deduced quickly from what Shirou had hinted. It did not surprise him that she had come to that conclusion so quickly. Being the Vice Chairman of the Clocktower did not require to be only of extremely noble blood, but to have the magic and intelligence to back it up as well.

"I see, no wonder Louvre was so distraught and bewildered after you used it. His mind probably couldn't even process information fluently by the end…" She looked at the boy again. "Very well. You may decide when it is appropriate to use that weapon. Weapons and spells that affect the soul as badly and quickly as yours must be kept unknown in case we have urgent need for them in the future and must catch the target off guard. We will simply say that you are capable of performing the miracle that was used to destroy the Archibald's crest. That in itself should be enough for people to obey your commands."

Shirou attempted to control his breathing as he followed what the woman was telling him. A thousand ideas, situations, scenarios, and possibilities ran through his head at once as he tried to figure out what to do or say next. When it came to negotiations, he was normally better on the receiving end of the deal. Spending years hanging out and casually talking with Rin had, if nothing else, enhanced his ability to keep his mouth shut when it came to the minor things that could be used against him. "How often will I have to be here?" He asked. "I am still a student and other responsibilities to manage."

"I have considered those facts and while I would prefer that you stay here for the remainder of your education I realize that it would be unreasonable for one such as yourself." Lorelei nodded. "As such I will request that you come for a period of two weeks several times a year during your breaks as to ensure that you complete your public education. I understand that the Asian school system has a different calendar than the one here, so most of the populace would not be able to predict your arrival as they do not care much for knowing anything that happens on your side of the planet."

Well at least there was one thing about this deal that actually worked in his favor. The boy remained quiet as he attempted to think about his situation before realizing that he was in way over his head. If he spent any more time being on the receiving end of this conversation he would probably end up being taken advantage of.

The Clocktower was a source of nearly limitless resources. If he didn't try and get the most out of it now, he may never get another opportunity to get what he needed to save Illya…

Breathing slowly and closing his eyes, the teen calmed himself down and emptied himself of his emotions. If there was any time to forget that he was about to confront one of the most dangerous women on the planet and remember Rin's lessons on negotiation, now was the time…

He thought about his conversation so far and went through it almost as if he was performing structural grasping. He thought about what he had received. The manner in which he was given these things. What they meant….

Correction, what they indicated to members of the Clocktower, and then to himself. What he represented. Who he was. What he wanted. What Barthomelloi wanted. The means of transaction for their deal. What was on the table. What wasn't. What could be safely removed. Factoring in the pride of those involved…

"Well Emiya?" The Vice Director asked somewhat annoyed as Shirou seemed to have fallen asleep after being quiet for several minutes. "Are we at a consensus?"

Knowing that he would not be able to pull this off if he used any other method in his arsenal, the Magus Killer resolved to resort to one of the tactics that he would never be comfortable with as it went against virtually everything he personally valued in life…

He forced himself to think and act like Rin. Conniving, cunning, and above all else greedy beyond known reason, Rin.

"If I do agree to this…" Shirou began slowly, not believing that the words were coming out of his mouth as he opened his eyes. "What benefits would I get in return for my services?"

Lorelei frowned as the conversation turned into a direction that she was clearly not very fond of. "I would assume that your prolonged existence and freedom would be more than satisfactory payment."

"Why would I want to get paid in something that I would naturally need for doing this task in the first place?" The Faker asked skeptically, remembering how his friend could turn any conversation or deal to her favor with relative ease. He didn't want to push his luck against the Vice Director, but he didn't want to just roll over without putting up some sort of fight. "Equivalent exchange is one of the fundamental rules of our craft so far, and so far I'm not seeing it."

"You are playing a very dangerous game Emiya." Lorelei frowned dangerously as the room's temperature lowered to match her mood. "If you think you can worm conditions out of me for your paltry services, you are either very sure of yourself or very foolish."

Shirou mentally agreed with the latter, but he didn't stop his act. It was already too late to turn back. "You said it yourself. My name carries power and influence here regardless of how insignificant you personally believe it to be. Obviously it doesn't hold a candle next to yours, but it is something useful that you cannot simply take away without significantly reducing its value. As for what I desire in exchange for my services, I believe that you would find them to be more than affordable financially and well within the rules of the Association."

"Rules and finances aside, you are risking much by pushing your limits boy." Lorelei frowned. "Do you take me for some commoner that will simply abide by other's wishes whenever I desire something from them?"

"No, however I could ask you something similar." Shirou replied, channeling Tohsaka's essence in earnest now. "Do you take me for some common lord that wags his tail at the slightest chance of getting a promotion? I was raised by a man who could not care less about such things. A heretic, by your own words. Positions of power. Wealth. Prestige. None of those things matter to me. While I do admit that a workshop and some finances would help with my research, I could just as easily do that at home at a slower pace and not be bothered by it in the slightest."

"So you chose to possibly scorn me after I have gifted you with a Noble Color and a portion of your cursed family's crest?" Lorelei glared at the boy with a warning tone.

"I asked for neither of those things." Shirou pointed out. "You chose to do those things for me on your own leisure without my knowing. Also might I point out that they have nothing to do with our current argument of my possible employment? You said it yourself. The crest is an award for Louvre, and the Noble Color is simply because you recognized my magic to qualify for its classification."

He leaned back on his chair and crossed his arms. "While I do admit that the addition crest is quite useful, I believe you mentioned that you gave it to me not out of the goodness of your heart, but because you saw a potential flaw in me that you deemed both treatable and counteractive to your future plans had it been left unaddressed. Having such a glaring problem in your future prized representative would be unseemly for someone of your political stature, so you took measures in a manner that would appear to look like a gift and enhance my potential."

"As for the Noble Color classification…" He paused and closed his eyes for several moments. "In the end, such an action only benefits you. I normally prefer to not draw attention to myself if I can help it, both physically and socially. It is what I am comfortable with, and it is how my father worked. If people found out about how highly valued my magic was, and subsequently found that I was working for you, it would show off to everyone that you have your hands on not only the second Magus Killer, who has killed a Dead Apostle Ancestor, but also one of the first noble color magic bearing humans in who knows how long. This would in turn make more people fear me, and in turn solidify your hold in the Association." He opened his eyes. "Save for making it easier to have people fear me, which I am not fond of mind you, I see no true benefit for myself in getting this."

"You do realize that I am feared for a reason boy." The Barthomelloi warned. "Many would not be surprised if I simply used my power, wealth, or resources to force you into the position."

"True." Shirou nodded, clearly understanding the underlying threat. "However in a way it would be more effective to get me to work for you willingly without force. The general public would no doubt be more afraid of a capable individual with a violent past who _wants_ to work under his boss than one who clearly doesn't. The former gives the impression that you cannot get in between the dog and his master, while the latter gives others the idea that it is possible to sow discord between the two, which would eventually weaken lower their total social stature and overall effectiveness."

The room was quiet as the two miracle workers stared at one another fiercely for what seemed like hours. The tension was palpable and had anyone walked into the room they would have immediately tried to get out as quickly as possible to escape from such an environment…

"It seems as if I have misjudged you Emiya." The Queen stated coldly. "You seem to have more talent for adapting to the magical society than I originally assumed."

"You could say that I inherited it from my father." Shirou replied just as calmly. "Exceptionally few people knew what he was truly like as well, and as such many made false assumptions based on their personal standards."

"I will keep that in mind." Lorelei stiffly responded. "You have made your arguments. Leave. I will come to my decision of what to do with you by the end of the day."

Shirou stood up before bowing deeply. "I thank you very much for your time." He politely said before calmly walking out the door, closing it right behind him…

And began to dry heave despite the fact that the maid that escorted him there was standing right next to him. He was in such disarray that he had accidentally dropped the document indicating of Tracing's Noble Color status on the floor next to him.

"I take it that your meeting did not go well." The maid named Miranda stated bluntly as she watch the teen hunch over and place his hands on his knees to keep himself up.

"More like… I did something… completely suicidal." The teen gasped between breaths. "I almost… lost composure… at the end… that woman… is terrifying. I'd rather… fight Louvre again… than do that again."

"Coming from the person who has inherited the title of the Magus Killer, that certainly means something significant, although it is not at all unexpected." The maid mused.

Shirou glanced at the woman between breaths as he regained control over himself. "Right… about that. Could you by chance… not tell anyone about…"

"The doctors who worked on you, in addition to myself were put under orders to not reveal any information we have learned about you during your stay under the lady's supervision. Your concerns on the matter are unfounded." The maid answered Shirou's worries with one of the few non threatening answers he had gotten all day. "I was to lead you to McGinty's chambers when your conversation with the Lady was finished. Is that still necessary or do you have any other destination in mind?"

Shirou shook his head as he channeled prana into his shroud to wrap itself around his head. "No, Sirius' place is good. I don't think I can manage to go anywhere else right now, or at the very least I don't have access to the places I want to go…"

As he was guided through the underground maze that made up the Clocktower, Shirou made one important decision.

If the Queen let him make demands for his services, the first thing he was going to ask for unlimited access to the kitchens of the place. No arguments. No questions. If he was going to be stressed out of his mind while being here, they could at least let him cook as much as he damn well pleased in a magically enhanced kitchen with limitless five star supplies.

o. o. o.

In some uncharted territory:

Merem sat comfortably in a small shrine alone. There were no scented candles, oils, or perfumes there to mask the scent of the decrepit building slowly falling apart due to age, however the vampire did not mind in the slightest. He somewhat preferred it looking like this rather than when it was well kept and in the condition it remained when he was still human and hung from the rafters by the local villagers like a worm…

Despite the fact that his right arm was off managing his public work with the Church, the vampire had little to no issue with the fact that he was missing it…

"So he refused again I see." The immortal smiled amused as one of the rats surrounding him reported his latest information. "No, don't be ashamed. I would be more surprised if he agreed so quickly. It would take a while for him to come to terms to his current situation. Very few that make the complete jump from human to our kind by force manage to become accustomed to the transition so quickly."

"… Oh?" He mused as another rat talked to him. "He's already been brought to the Clocktower to visit? I hope that Barthomelloi doesn't catch onto his condition. It would be a shame if he was killed before his potential was realized…"

The Church member smiled gently as he noted that the rats there suddenly began to shiver in fear as they sensed death approaching. "Don't worry. He's my friend. He won't attack without saying he would first." He looked up to see a large crow with blood red eyes was looking down upon him from the rafters of the shrine.

"_The White Wing is rather irritated that you have supposedly filled up the position of the tenth." _The black creature spoke in its animalistic language. _"The fact that you will not inform anyone of his identity is not being accepted well by the others…"_

The young priest snorted. "They can complain all they want. The one I am proposing has great potential, far more than Louvre did, but identifying him now would be detrimental to his growth." He tilted his head to the side. "On a side note, since when did you start delivering messages for that blind old man? I thought you disliked him as much as I did."

"_He saw it fit to have me pass the message to you as a means of convenience since he believed that I would be able to get more information out of you. I must admit, this situation you have created has gained my interest as well." _The bird grunted in irritation that the fact was pointed out._ "Potential can only take one so far. White Wing is less than pleased that he cannot fill the power gap with another one of his followers who are already established among our kind."_

"White Wing can complain all he wants." Merem smiled, insulting the self proclaimed King of the Ancestors. The consequences of such actions didn't matter to him since he was already labeled a traitor to the Ancestors for working with the Church. "That old fashioned fool has made false assumptions on many things and he will continue to do so."

"_You are risking much by irritating so many of the others. The identities of the Ancestors are supposed to be known by everyone." _The crow stated irritated.

"Oh believe me, should he take up the position and allow his identity to be revealed, there would be more than a few people that would be surprised. We are not the only ones that would be thrown off by his identity." The priest chuckled.

The crow didn't even try to hide its anger as its wings flapped once. _"You mean to tell me that not only do we not know of this man, but he was foolish enough to deny such a position? What sort of individual did you choose to be considered our equal?"_

The teen looked up at the crow and sighed. "The Ash of Miracles."

The bird blinked and tilted its head to the side. _"… I do not recognize that name."_

"You shouldn't. I only recently determined that to be his title. After all, it would be rather odd to simply know that there is a tenth but have nothing to call him by, so I took the responsibility to at least give him a fitting name to be referred as." The blue eyed vampire commented.

"_How generous of you…"_ The bird snorted with sarcasm though did not deny that what the priest did was not without some merit.

"I talked to him face to face once. He is exceptionally young, even for a human, yet he is fascinating as well. More so than most of our kind… and honest. Very honest." Merem elaborated. "One of the most interesting things about him though, was that he possessed and was practicing the use of his reality marble even before he was turned." He leaned back and closed his eyes. "In many ways he reminds me of myself. Killed and born from human foolishness… and stripped of that which could make you human in the process leaving only something with human form left in the remains…"

"… _A human with a reality marble that was turned?" _The crow blinked in minor surprise. _"… It seems your claims of his potential were not without reason… if he was capable of using it before being converted… something like this has never happened before…"_

"Technically he is still more human than Apostle." Merem corrected. "A halfbreed is more altered than he is, but he does count as one of us none the less. As for his refusal for the position, that was simply due to the fact that he still has yet to get used to his condition and the fact that he cannot adequately protect his territory. Unlike many other members of our kind, he puts practicality before position… a rare trait these days I'm afraid. As I stated that he has potential. I never said that he has reached an appropriate level as of yet."

The room was silent as the crow pondered the vampire's words. _"There will be many mixed reactions from this. If he is as human as you claim he is, what makes you think that he will not use his position to attempt to hunt us down like Enhance?"_

Merem chuckled at the mention of the banished nineteenth Ancestor, who had recently been going around trying to kill other Apostle's and their entire clans. Unlike himself, who is merely working for the Church and holds no true grudge against vampire kind, Enhance has proven himself to be relentless in hunting down the other Apostles for the sake of exterminating them, which was why he was stripped of his rank in the first place.

"No, not this one. If anything, he would try to play the role of the peacekeeper without anyone asking. He is the kind of person that would attempt to keep the number of casualties to a minimum if he couldn't save everyone, and in the mean time try to convince us to stop our actions in the first place." He paused as he remembered something Shirou had once told him about Kiritsugu. "Balancing all life upon the scales of fate without discrimination, and tilting them so that the losses would be at the minimum. That would most likely be the route you would see him take should you encounter him, if he cannot find a way to stop everyone from dying that is."

"_A foolish and simple mindset. He will not live long." _The crow cawed in disgust. To attempt to save everyone in the world was only a feat that could possibly be done by his lord, and he knew for a fact that such a sickening task was beneath the god in man shaped form. _"At best he will be a neutral party for the upcoming events. How great of a threat does he pose?"_

Merem tapped a finger on his chin and thought hard. "Hmm. Well… to be honest as of right now he is only a minor threat to most of us, so long as we are careful at least. In terms of power he's the weakest out all of us, but… how do I put this… he has the means to end many of us rather efficiently if we let our guards down… if not permanently maim us before his defeat. In fact I am fairly certain that he is already capable of truly killing Strout given the right opening."

"_He is capable of ending the Invincible Black Knight?" _The crow asked, for once hinting curiosity instead of condemnation and for good reason. The sixth Ancestor was rumored to be immortal in all meanings of the word due to a time curse. Being even barely capable of killing him was no minor feat. Granted the one behind the crow's eyes was one of the few that could also accomplish such a thing, however that was irrelevant for this conversation. _"I am beginning to understand why you hold the boy in such high regard…"_

"As I said. He has significant potential." Merem shrugged. "Given a few decades or so, he should reach a level that would make him be worthy of at least being considered one of our equals, if not the number he has been assigned to. Until he is both strong enough and is willing to recognize himself as one of our kind, I will not tell anyone who he is. I will not betray my friend."

The room was silent for a few seconds as the priest's smile grew somewhat wider. "Ah how comforting to have another friend. Though he does not worship Crimson Moon like we do for obvious reasons, I still find his presence rather enjoyable. In a similar way that I consider you a good friend because we both serve Crimson Moon, I also consider him a friend as well because he idolizes the man who rescued him the same way I to our God."

He giggled like a small child. "How exciting. Rarely have I had so many people that I could truly consider friends in my travels before that I did not have a hand in creating. The members at the Church are at best acquaintances, and only a handful of the other Ancestors and Apostles can be considered a bit more than that at the most. Why I almost feel my physical age, only this time as if I was brought up as a normal human."

"_Your fleeting shallow amusements do not interest me, and neither does your inappropriately shaped worship of our lord." _The crow cawed irritably while leaking out a silent black killing intent that cause the rats around Merem to shiver or run away violently. The young looking priest however did not look worried in the slightest _"It seems regardless of how much time has passed since we first met, my desire to tear you to shreds will not fade… however there has yet to be a reasonable time for me to do it."_ Its wings began to flap more as it prepared to leave. _"I shall inform the others of this Ash of Miracles, for if any reason for them to leave me be about the subject. Be warned that this will not be the last time you will be asked to reveal his identity to the others…"_

Merem sighed as the bird's massive wings beat down hard upon the air as it took off into the night from the abandoned shrine in the middle of nowhere. "It is such a shame that when we do eventually fight one of us will have to die. I much would have preferred if we simply stopped at the last moment when death was within grasp so we could both support Crimson Moon when he finally returns." He shook his head and began to walk outside, his business inside the shrine having been accomplished. "Oh well, if one of us is to die, at least it is by the hands of a friend in mutual agreement."

He smiled and looked up at the sky. "I wonder, would you agree with me on that Shirou?"

o. o. o.

The Clocktower:

"Sister, remind me again why we are going towards the residence of a known barbaric Sealing Designate?" Marjatta Edelfelt pouted as she followed her sister down one of the many corridors that littered the Clocktower underground compounds.

"Must I repeat myself?" Luvia sighed. "The Sealing Designate and renowned mystic code crafter Sirius McGinty was the man I saw partaking lunch with the Magus Killer before I spoke to the mystery man myself. Given how informally I witnessed them address one another, it can be assumed that they are close. As such, if anyone easily accessible will be willing and able to tell us about the whereabouts of Mr. Emiya, it would be him."

"I still don't know why you are so interested in that savage." Marjatta snorted. "Even if he is the legacy of that man Emiyai or whatever his name is, I highly doubt that anything he could say would be of true worth to those who actually have noble blood such as ourselves."

Luvia mentally groaned. It was a well known fact that many nobles disliked those from the east and considered them savages, however that fact went double for members of her family. That was mostly due to the fact that two of her ancestors participated in the third Holy Grail War in Fuyuki. Long story short, the events in said war did not leave them with a good impression of the Japanese.

The heir to the family name was not certain why she did not carry such a hatred towards Easterners like her kin did, however she was somewhat certain that it had to do with her personal preferences in others. She enjoyed the fact that she could sympathize with the common people, and was rather intrigued at times at how they, for the most part, got along rather well despite their varying pasts and backgrounds. Even Americans, who as of late have been rather wary of those from the middle east due to those terrorist attacks in New York, were as a whole more tolerant of the other religions and personal views than a majority of the rest of the world's population.

To be able to act and cooperate with others without letting one's judgments impair the overall end results… such an efficient idea was beautiful in the eyes of Luvia. It was a shame that a majority of the magical world was not willing to consider such a concept.

"I would not be too sure sister." The elder countered. "During my short conversation with Emiya, I discovered many very interesting things about both him and his father. So much that I intend to find out more about both of them."

"Oh please do not tell me that you have fallen for him like you did for that dirty mechanic boy at the airport." The younger groaned. "Your taste in the opposite sex will never cease to bewilder me."

"I have fallen for neither of them!" Luvia snapped irritably. "They merely interest me! A magus that is intimately familiar with non magical technology and the second Magus Killer simply possess qualities that are not common and I merely wanted to investigate them!"

"Whatever you believe sister." Marjatta rolled her eyes, clearly not believing her claims.

Luvia would have countered her sibling's remark had yell of absolute terror not interrupted her from down the hallway. "What the?" She frowned as a young male yelling in what she recognized as an eastern language was heard.

"Ah am glad tat ta lass isn't gonna kill ya lad!" Roared a very loud and familiar man from the same direction. "Cause now ah know tat, ah won't get inta trouble fer beatin ta shit outta ya fer doin tat stupid stunt!"

"Well at least I know we're going in the right direction now." Luvia laughed somewhat hesitantly as the sound of something large crashing into something breakable was clearly heard, followed by some more frantic foreign speaking.

"Ah don't care tat tis was ta only time ya could get yerself ta negotiate wit ta lass!" Sirius's voice yelled even louder, indicating that the pair was closer than they were before. "If ya had screwed up even a little bit ten all ta effort tat Wava, mahself and yer old man put inta trainin and preparing ya would have gone up in smoke fasta than ya can say Ta Fuckin Blue!"

"Well if that man is anything, he is at least straightforward and to the point." Marjatta deadpanned as some more crashing and screams of fear were heard. "I am almost curious as to what poor unfortunate fool has irritated the barbarian to this degree."

She didn't have to wait long to find out as another crash echoed throughout the hallways and a familiar figure with his head encased in red cloth flew through the air in front of them before slamming into the wall with enough force to have it cave in a bit. Much to the females' surprise, the teen managed to pick himself out of the wall with some effort and a hiss of pain before apparently seeing something that the girls obviously didn't, screamed in fear, and bolted with more speed than they thought he would be capable of after taking such a blow towards their direction. Moments later, a Sirius McGinty covered in glowing runes rammed into the spot he was just in with enough force to feel the impact from the observer's position.

Skidding to a halt right near to the females, the mystery teen winced in pain from his wounds before noticing that he was not alone anymore. "Sirius-jiji! Chotto! Chotto!" The teen waved his arms frantically in an attempt to get the large man to hold his violent charging for a moment and pointed to the very confused Edelfelt sisters standing nearby.

"Why ta bloody hell would I stop now?" The old man yelled as he turned menacingly towards the teen and saw him pointing to the girls and instantly deflated, causing the runes on his skin to dim dramatically till his body once again resembled something that humanity could naturally produce. "Ah. Good reason… ya lucky bastard. We'll finish tis later ya daft idiot."

Luvia didn't know what her fellow teen was muttering as he slumped over and caught his breath, but she was fairly certain that he was either expressing relief… or cursing the old man that nearly killed him. Her Japanese was nonexistent and her translation spell was a bit rusty so she couldn't tell the difference. "Well then… this is certainly not how I was expecting to see you again Emiya."

The Magus Killer let out a brief laugh before standing up. "Hai… ore…" He paused as he realized he was still speaking in Japanese before clicking his tongue in irritation. "Er… Sorry, I slip into my native language when I get a bit frantic." He apologized sheepishly before wincing at his injuries and momentarily grabbed his chest. "I don't think I need to tell you this, but a lot's happened in the short time we haven't seen each other Lady Edelfelt."

"I can tell." The elder female mused as she glanced at the hole in the wall that the two males made. "Dare I ask why the man you spend so much time with has come at you so violently that he has harmed you more than the Dead Apostle you killed yesterday?"

"Ya can ask lass, but fer yer sanity's sake yer best not knowin." Sirius growled as he glared at Shirou. "Ta lad did sometin very stupid recently tat almost left him in a worse position tan death. Since we just got word tat he isn't screwed, ah took it upon meself ta pound it inta him tat he shouldn't do sometin tat retarded again." He grinned sadistically and began to crack his knuckles, each one loud enough to make it sound like he was breaking his bones. "Oh ta tings ahm' gonna put ya through lad. By ta time ahm done ah wouldn't be surprised if ya managed ta finally do absolute reinforcement by pure fear an reflex. Heheheheh…"

"You certainly know how to pick them sister." Marjatta rolled her eyes as she noticed how much the male next to her was shivering. "THIS is supposed to be the son of the Magus Killer? The boy who single handedly killed that man Morokov or whatever yesterday?"

"In my defense… I'd rather fight the vampire again than go up against the old man." Shirou feebly argued while slowly backing away from the disturbingly eager Irishman.

"Sir McGinty, while I have no doubt that your plans with Mr. Emiya are well thought out and elaborate, could you perhaps postpone them?" Luvia asked with authority. "I want to continue the conversation I was having with him before we were interrupted yesterday, and seeing as you did not seem so worried about harming him, I am under the assumption that both of you currently have time to spare."

Sirius paused and dropped his imitation of a sadistic serial murderer before glancing at Luvia with some irritation. "Humph. Lass. Ah don't know who ya are or what family ya come from, but let me give ya some advice. Just because yer request sounds reasonable and ya come some rich, old and uptight family doesn't mean tat just anyone will just roll over fer ya when ya ask fer sometin, especially when those yer askin are in ta middle of sometin important tat doesn't involve you."

"Now see here you brute." Marjatta stepped forward with a high and mighty attitude that was fairly common in the Clocktower. "We are the heirs of the Edelfelt family and as such we have far more power, history, and money than you do. Should we ask for it, we could have you executed for your crude remarks."

Sirius looked at the girl for a few seconds before turning to Shirou. "Oi lad, you know tis runt?"

"R-r-runt!" Marjatta stammered in disbelief and anger. True she was a bit on the short side and she was a bit underdeveloped compared to her sister, however she was still praised by many members of her family for being a stunning woman in the making. "How DARE you speak to me in such a way commoner? When I am done with your punishment I swear you will…"

"Runt?" Luvia managed to breathe out as well, although in her case it was in a attempt to hold back her laughter while her sister ranted at a giant man who clearly wasn't paying attention to what the girl a third of his height was saying. While it was beneath her to make such comments to her sibling even when they were well deserved, it did not mean that she did not enjoy that brand of crass humor whenever it was used against those who needed it every once in a while.

"Jijiiiii…" Shirou groaned in frustration, interrupting the scene as he shook his head tiredly before wincing and grabbing his chest in pain again. "I think… I need some more of the potion."

"Hm?" The old man glanced at his charge and raised an eyebrow, not paying any attention to the young female pointing at him from a few feet to his left. "Ah right. Ah forgot about tat. Damn. Now ah'll feel like a prick if ah beat ta livin shit outta ya while yer still recoverin." He sighed and shook his head in an exasperated manner before walking up to the teen, pushing Marjatta out of the way in the process like she was a small child. "Come on lad. We both know it'll just get worse if ya put it off, even if tat shit does taste like wet cats."

"Stop ignoring me!" Marjatta yelled rather childishly to almost no effect at all.

"Yeah…" The teen nodded before turning to the girls again. "I'll be here for a few weeks, so we still have time to talk. I'll be busy for most of the time, but I'm sure I can try to match my lunch schedule with yours if you want."

"Oh?" Luvia put on a playful knowing smile, wrongfully assuming that Shirou was making an attempt to woo her by asking her out to multiple lunches… and completely missing the look on Sirius' face that pretty much screamed frustration and the phrase 'not again'. "Well I am fairly certain that I can adjust my schedule accordingly…"

"Ah won't say it." Sirius shook his head and talked to himself as he looked away. "Ah'm not gonna say anytin. Nope. Not tis time. She's a big lass. She can find out all on her own."

"What on earth are you babbling on about you decrepit drunk?" Marjatta panted, having ranted for so long that she actually lost her breath in the process.

"First of all, ahm not tat drunk." Sirius corrected offhandedly. "But ta answer yer question…" He paused, then shook his head again. "Nope. Never mind. Ah'm not gonna say anything."

"I demand you to tell me!" The youngest one there commanded, only to once again be ignored by everyone there.

o. o. o.

In the Matou residence:

Zouken's chuckle sounded like wet rocks shifting as he watched amusedly while Sakura went through another session with his worms. His plans regarding the Emiya boy were yielding more benefits than he expected, some far earlier than others…

The girl in front of him was strong which was to be expected considering her pedigree, however she was not unmalleable, nor perfect. His original plans for her had been indeed varied. He could have taken his time and allowed her to gradually turn into the black grail over the course of decades as she slowly accumulated prana while possibly having her continue the Matou family, if only in name. He could have taken a gamble and sent her into the grail war to win despite the fact that her education was not geared towards combative magic. He could have even forced her to go insane and use her alternate side to speed up the process in the war by attacking and absorbing civilians…

But all of those options held risks that he would prefer to deal without. Too little time. Too much risk of attention. Human error. As he noted before, the girl was strong. So much so that had he continued his standard treatment of her with Shinji, he suspected that there was a chance that she would lock up her heart and soul to the point that he would not be able to control her other side, or worse, she would have killed herself before serving her purpose…

Then came the Emiya boy.

In one fell swoop the oblivious teen had improved nearly all his worries regarding Sakura and the premature war that was developing soon. True his disgrace of a descendant Shinji had died, but in his place he had received a far greater tool. The boy had stunning combat potential, as had been proven when he went up against the Dead Apostle half a year ago, and that potential would grow even more as time went on. Such a resource should never be wasted, and while he knew that the Clocktower would make use of this hidden gem, the worm user had ensured that he would be the last to utilize his abilities…

Which would be in two years if everything went according to plan.

In the mean time, the old man would enjoy the fact that the assassin's son was doing a fine job keeping his project alive, healthy, sane…

… and full of enough psychological cracks that he was certain that should something go wrong in the war he could assume control over her other side at almost any time he wanted. It amazed Zouken that he did not think to do such a thing sooner. While he certainly did not suspect that the Emiya boy had as much potential as he did as a fighter, he at least should have remembered that nothing could wreak havoc on a teenager's psyche and state of mind more than young love.

Young, foolish, senseless, reckless, pointless, stupid love.

Hope was what the boy wanted to give to that thing he called a granddaughter, hope is what he managed to give to her… and hope was what would ensure his victory in the end.

It was rather simple. His granddaughter would be constantly exposed to both heaven and hell. Much like any metal or plastic that was repeatedly heated and cooled, expanded and contracted, it would eventually crack or break given enough time only instead of some precious metal being constantly altered, it would be Sakura's mental defenses…

All he had to do to ensure that the boy's influence would not prevent his grand scheme was to slip in a few occasional words of observation…

"You are progressing nicely Sakura." The old man commented as he walked through the catacombs under his home, paying no attention to the countless worms that covered the stone flooring to the point that it looked like he was walking on a living wet carpet. "So much so in fact that I believe that I decided that it wouldn't be detrimental to allow you a few days rest before your next session."

Approaching the naked teenage girl in front of him the man noted that she was fairly appealing in a physical sense. Given a couple of more years she would no doubt become fairly developed in the ways that most young males are attracted to these days. None of this really mattered to him, but it was comforting to know that it was another reason for the Emiya boy to stay with her, at least until the war.

"Th-thank you Grandfather." Sakura stuttered weakly as she somehow managed to stand despite having virtually every part of her body violated by the small creatures on the ground for nearly three hours. Doing so was another testament to both her mental and magical strength. Most people, magi or not, would have trouble retaining consciousness at this point, let alone manage to stand.

"No thanks are needed." The old man smiled kindly, belying the sick individual that was wearing it. "You have earned it." He paused, never removing the smile off of his face. "That and it would be detrimental to push you too hard without your friend here to take the edge off of things."

The centuries old man savored the knowledge he gained from the worms in her body telling him that her stress levels momentarily spiked despite the fact that the girl did not physically move in the slightest.

"You are most considerate." She emotionlessly replied, bowing politely in thanks despite the exhausted condition she was in.

"Think nothing of it." The worm user gently chuckled before turning around and walking back to the stairs again. "That boy truly is something special isn't he? Already he has been noticed by the Association, and has been brought over to be evaluated even though he is from the East. So much is happening so quickly around him… I do hope he fares well."

"What…" Sakura's weak voice spoke out above the faint squirming of the worms in the room, the curiousness and fear hidden deep underneath was like music to Zouken's ears. "What do you mean by that Grandfather? Why would Emiya-kun have trouble in the Association?"

The old man turned around and looked at her confused. "You mean you didn't know?" He asked bewildered. "The man that adopted the boy, Kiritsugu Emiya, was famous for being an assassin before he retired and disappeared from the public eye. He was so talented in his profession, many in our world dubbed him, the Magus Killer." He smiled dryly and turned away. "To earn a name like that… I have little doubt that the boy will inherit many old grudges in the near future."

"To announce his heritage to the Association while he's there…would be almost akin to throwing a wounded sheep in the middle of a lion's den."

Sakura's eyes were wide with fear as Zouken's point was driven home.

Another wet chuckle as smooth as grinding stones escaped the old man's throat as he turned around and climbed up the stairs. "Well… upon thinking about it, I wouldn't go as far as to believe that. The boy did manage to defeat that powerful Apostle those months ago. Still I would not prefer to be in his shoes as of now. The Association has two kinds of people in it. Those who use and those who are used… and unfortunately those of the latter group do not last long."

The room went quiet again save for the sounds of Zouken's cane gently tapping on the stone steps he was travelling up and the wet sound of worms on the ground. Neither being there capable of human speech said anything.

Just as the old man reached the main exit he turned around. "Just to let you know though… I believe that the boy will do fairly well in the Association, and will last a very, very long time..."

It would be another hour before Sakura left the basement.

o. o. o.

Clocktower:

Shirou sighed contently as he continued with cleaning the cafeteria dishes for the third hour straight with a smile on his face. After what seemed like weeks, when it had only been a few days, he had finally managed to get a grasp on life in the Clocktower. Granted the jobs he did were not that well received by a good portion of the magus community, but he took what he could get at the moment.

For right now, the seemingly harmless and lucky errand boy from Asia known as Shirou was merely doing his job as a dishwasher for the breakfast rush. No one asked him much due to a combination of racism against Asians and the fact that he held pretty much the lowest position in the kitchens, but the red headed boy didn't mind in the slightest. Plus he was doing a damn good job at what he was doing. In fact he almost glowed with content, much to the confusion of the other cafeteria staff around him.

Technically, Shirou couldn't perform his duties as the Magus Killer in the tower even if he wanted to. Until the addition to his crest had set to a certain point it would be extremely dangerous to perform any thaumaturgy. If he did attempt to do any form of time magic as of now, he could very well end up blowing up his heart. To his knowledge he still had half a week before he could attempt to do anything with his crest again, but even then he didn't feel like he would ever use it for more than what he was doing before.

Theoretically he could now accelerate his body like his father used to be able to do with his crest, but he wasn't comfortable enough with the after effects to use that innate bounded field that often…

Then again, he wasn't really at peace with the idea of turning his body parts into solid meshes of tiny blades either, but at least that branch of spells wasn't guaranteed to rupture his organs, splinter his bones, and tear apart his veins upon use… it was only fairly likely to happen.

Pausing for a moment, the sword user recalled how he got into his current position in the first place. After he and the Edelfelts had talked a bit more about his father in Sirius' chambers, and then left, he had gone back to the task he had been unofficially assigned by Lorelei…

Meaning pretty much the woman sent her maid over and told him, if not exactly in those words, that he was to begin working as soon as he was ready and to send over his requests to be evaluated and wait for her approval. In short, she would let him make his requests and was compromising, but at the same time make it look like she was in control of the entire event regardless of what happened in the end.

So, once everyone had gathered, (and Waver, Sirius, and Bazett each had their turn wailing on Shirou for nearly having the Barthomelloi, known for having one of the biggest sticks up her ass known to Mage kind, snap and kill him) the group had compiled a list of demands for Shirou to hand in.

There were several additions added to what Shirou had originally planned to request and personally didn't care much about receiving or not, however Waver pointed out that it was good to over extend himself so that he could have more material to barter and wager with in the end.

Among the first things on (Shirou's) list, and approved of was, of course, access to the kitchens and the ability to aid the kitchen staff as a grunt. Granted, he had to work from the bottom up with washing dishes like any other scrub, however he did not mind this fact in the slightest. He did have to work there as Shirou and not as "Emiya", however this could technically be used in his favor to walk around the compound without gaining any attention to himself so long as he was careful.

On the other side of the coin, Shirou did not for example, gain unlimited access to inspect any significant magical artifacts that the Clocktower possessed in its stores. He did not gain unrestricted access to the bios and information of the Tower's general populace either.

Despite the fact that both requests technically would have made his job easier, the teen admittedly didn't care one way or another if he got them or not. He had no interest in becoming more powerful, having more weapons, or being able to hurt people like his father did. Besides, the response letter that he received from Lorelei stated that while both requests were denied, he would be given some leeway in terms of restrictions in both areas if it was related to maintaining the security of the tower.

Other requests that were granted on the other hand included Rin's full sponsorship into the Tower within the next three years under a highly ranked noble, and sponsorship for himself as well including both a moderate workshop and funds for his research. Hopefully the scholarship would keep the Tohsaka from killing him after she found out Shirou had dared to stand up against the Queen. The workshop and the funds were far less than what Sirius and Waver had originally requested in his name, however the teen was personally uncomfortable with the amount he was being given even with the reduction. It was not like his magic needed many ingredients or holy objects to use in the first place.

The last of his requests that was granted however was something that the Faker had tacked on when he was delivering the letter away from the others. He had put down that this, above all else had to be granted for his services, and thankfully had been agreed to in full despite its risky contents.

Now all he had to do was wait for the Barthomelloi's men to find the woman…

All in all though, what Shirou got was far more than he had expected or believed he had deserved or needed. Ignoring the fact that the letter detailing what he got for his services clearly stated that if he ever told anyone that he had pulled off what he just did, slacked off on his responsibilities, or humiliated the Queen in any way she would slap a sealing designation on him so fast that no number of copies of Kiritsugu would save him, he was pretty much set.

"Hey new guy. Shoto or whatever. Come here for a sec. Some of the guys and I wanna ask you a few things." One of the other guys working in the cafeteria called out to Shirou suddenly, snapping him out of his minor daze.

Looking around and seeing that there wasn't much need for him to work at the moment, the teen shrugged and put down the plate he was working on and approached the fellow food workers. "What's up? Something wrong?" He asked curiously.

An unremarkable man snorted and crossed his arms. Unlike the students that came from highly wealthy families, many of the other students that attended the institution needed to earn their finances to pay for their tuition. They could be teachers aids, custodians, assistants, or in this case, cafeteria workers. "We were just wondering. You're Asian right? Chinese or Korean or whatever. There's not many guys like you here, so we were thinking if you've ever talked to that Magus Killer guy that showed up recently. You know, meet up and joke about comics or rice or whatever the hell your kind normally talks about."

Shirou sighed dejectedly. He should have assumed that he would be asked this sooner or later, but at least they weren't asking him if he WAS the Magus Killer. "No. I haven't talked to him." He replied honestly. He might be a bit distorted, but he wasn't crazy enough to talk to himself frequently. "Even if I did find him, I doubt we would have much in common. I know a lot about cooking, cars, and a bit about magic, but not much more about killing people than any other Magus."

Killing people was easy. Hit them with the sharp end of the sword. He didn't need much more than that. Now fighting, that was another story completely.

"Cars?" Raised one of the other chef's eyebrows. This one was a rather large man in his mid to late fifties with a beer belly, ratty brown hair, and massive hairy arms that looked like they could kill a man with a single blow. From what Shirou could tell from his limited time in the kitchens lately, this guy was the head chef and supposedly focused his studies on food based thaumaturgy… something that the teen was quite interested in learning about in the near future if he could help it. "Why the heck would you want to know about those things?"

The red head shrugged. "They're useful. People like talking about them. Plus I'm good at analyzing physical structures so people take them and motorcycles to me on occasion so I can fix them. It helps with my finances and it's a good way to practice structural grasping on complicated and intricate objects."

"You know a bit about car mechanics?" A black man in a waiter's outfit asked. "What's the most expensive one you've screwed around with?"

Shirou blinked for a moment before thinking hard. "Um… I think it was the engine of a BMW, but I forgot what its model was. As for motorcycles, I've had to fix my neighbor's Yamaha more than a few times because he occasionally gets a bit carried away with it."

The big chef whistled, clearly impressed. "Not bad kid. You don't look older than seventeen yet you're already tinkering with beasts like those as if it was nothing. German cars in particular are a bit of a bitch to fix if you don't examine everything right. You might be working in the wrong part of the Tower. I'm fairly certain that you could earn a fair amount in the transportation sector if you told them this. They got drivers and guys who claim to know how a car's motor works there, but no real mechanics for obvious reasons."

The Japanese native laughed sheepishly and scratched the back of his head. "Thanks for the suggestion, but I'd rather be here. Cooking and cleaning up afterwards helps calm down my nerves whenever I've had a rough day. I don't really need much more money at this point."

"You serious?" Snorted a rather scraggily looking cook from the side. Judging from his pale fair skin and rather irritated demeanor, it was safe to assume that he was probably from a fairly old, noble, and not so wealthy background. "You actually enjoy doing these servant level tasks? Why? Save for cleaning up your workshops, there shouldn't be any need to do such a thing."

Shirou shrugged. "I just do. There's nothing wrong with that, and in the end it means that I can cook myself some good meals when I'm home alone and save some money. I'm pretty good with both eastern and western dishes if what my friends back home have told me is true." He paused before smiling sheepishly. "Actually a few of them will try to do anything they can in order to get a free meal out of me."

"Is that so?" The head chef mused as he looked at Shirou analytically. While most people would assume that the man was thinking about possibly utilizing the cooking talents, Shirou noted that there was something else in the man's gaze that was looking at something else. "Well then kid, if you're as good as you say then I'll have to put your food where your mouth is some day. If you're good enough, I might even bump you up to cook whenever we decide to serve Oriental food." He snorted in bitter amusement. "It's funny. Most of the people here distrust Asians with a passion, but every once in a while one of the nobles here has a fit because no one here can whip up a decent dumpling or make sushi to save their life. I've almost been fired myself a couple of times because of it back in my younger days, but the best I can do are only the basics. Fried rice and all that crap."

"Well, I'm only a bit practiced when it comes to Chinese, but I can teach everyone some fairly simple Japanese, Korean, and Filipino dishes if I have the time." The teen suggested. "They won't look that elaborate, but I know a few good spice combinations that go with dark meats that should get their attention. The trick with most Eastern dishes is the right balance of spices and side ingredients. From our point of view, Western dishes have too much meat and bread, and too little of everything else. I think that's why it's sometimes hard for people who start cooking from your side of the world to get used to our recipes. We normally use a lot of ingredients."

"Great, more annoying dishes to learn." Grunted the scrawny noble as he turned around to his post in the kitchens again. "I thought this job was going to be simple, but apparently someone forgot to tell me that such meager tasks are meant for meager people who couldn't handle the advanced classes for a reason. Feh."

"Ignore Raymond. That brat's here only because he got in trouble researching some minor forbidden curses a few months back. Personally I wish they just stuck him with janitorial duty, but he got stuck here instead." The large head chef sighed before looking at the rest of the small group. "Back to work guys. Things are gonna pick up again soon with the early lunch crowd." He turned back to Shirou and donned a wry grin. "You'd better leave soon kid." He spoke in a quieter tone while making sure that none of the other staff was listening in on him. "You no doubt have another session with that old drunk Sirius to deal with soon."

Shirou's eyes widened in surprise and fear as he realized the large man in front of him knew who he was.

"Heheh." The big man grinned. "Don't worry. McGinty and I go way back and he's told me quite a bit about you over the years whenever we got proper smashed. He's taken quite a liking to you. I owe my job and life to him. Hell, he made practically all the custom equipment that we use in this kitchen. I won't sell you out like virtually everyone else in this place."

"Th-thanks." The teen fumbled over his words while attempting to lower his heart rate below the red. He was honestly terrified of the possibility of already having people find out what he looked like so soon after arriving at the Clocktower. He wanted to at least keep that secret until after the Grail war, or hopefully until he graduated from High School.

Having uptight rich westerners attempt to kill him during the school year would absolutely destroy his grades and any hope in getting accepted into a good non magical college.

Plus it would piss Rin off since it would all take place on her property and as such she would be held responsible for cleaning up the mess, which of course she would push onto Shirou. He didn't mind the cleaning up part, it would be technically his fault after all.

Between an angry Rin and a small group of vengeance driven magi, he felt safer going up against the magi.

The chef patted the boy on the shoulder in a uncle nephew manner before walking to his post. "I'll be expecting you to show off your cooking skills soon. Try to live until then at least, and don't disappoint my expectations of your work. Depending on how well you do, you might end up with some more useful allies in the tower." He grinned. "What was it that you taught Sirius? Oh yeah, never mess with the people handling your food."

The Magus Killer laughed lightly. "Truer words have never been spoken." He bowed deeply. "Thanks for your help. I'll try not to disappoint you with my cooking."

o. o. o.

As he walked down the hallway that lead from the cafeteria to the area where Sirius' quarters were, Shirou mulled over his current situation. All in all he felt pretty good. True, he was now pretty much Barthomelloi's bitch, but considering what he got in return for his services and the political backup he got as well, the title was a double edged sword he was willing to bear. He would have preferred it if he was unknown, but it was not something he could work around, and he had already managed to get some time inside the kitchens surrounded by all those wonderful ingredients and smells.

The red headed boy smiled dreamily in a blissful daze. He could definitely get used to working in the Tower for a few weeks every few months. His could learn a fair amount about both cooking and magic which could help make his future exploits to help others much easier. He could get some more contacts as well whenever he had to go do a job. With enough time he may even gain some good friends here…

All these happy and comforting thoughts of Shirou's disappeared and were forgotten within moments however as he turned a corner and walked past a moderately large group of people walking in the other direction.

The center of the group consisted of two middle aged men with pepper black hair and tall well built frames…

The outer ring of the group however consisted of nothing but fairly young and attractive men and women… all with red eyes and white hair.

o. o. o.

A/N:

Ugh. Done. Took forever to write this. I had to delete and remake a good half of this chapter cause I didn't like the way it turned out.

So here I showed a bit more of Shirou's differing personality compared to his FSN self. FFD Shirou is a bit more assertive and willing to be a bit selfish at times, but only in the cases where the profits are things that he thinks would greatly aiding in his task of helping others.

Unlike Kiritsugu and his FSN self, FFD Shirou sees the merit in studying thaumaturgy in a more magi like manner. This is because he knows that his field of study and magic can greatly enhance the efficiency of his performance in the field and improve what he can do.

For example, Kiritsugu only used his magic crest to the bare minimum of his ability and imagination, on his body, in order to enhance his physical abilities, but nothing else. Had he studied it more, I am certain he could have made a spell to drastically enhance his bullet's speeds and say make them move faster than Kayneth's mystic code could react. Plus he had access to earth and fire based thaumaturgy, but he rarely, or never used those as well.

FFD Shirou on the other hand of course finds many if not most ways of thinking in the Mage's Association disagreeable and sickening, much like his FSN counterpart, however he is less likely to have a fit and speak his mind about the subject thanks to Rin's, Kiritsugu's, Waver's and Sirius' early influence on his education. He is more tolerant of viewpoints that don't agree with his own and while he can still lose his temper fairly easily, it is nowhere near as bad or irrational as his FSN self was.

For those who are still complaining about the lack of Rin and her less than glowing performance so far, please understand this: in FSN Shirou was a hopeless idiot. Someone had to play the role of the person who actually knew what was going on and could plan accordingly otherwise no one would understand what was happening until the end of the story, hence Rin.

Here, where Shirou is actually competent, the need for Rin to constantly hold Shirou's hand is all but gone. Because of this and because she has spent so much time with Shriou so far, I believe that Rin's hold on her maturity would significantly lessen as a whole now that she isn't worried about a hopeless idiot that she has feelings for foolishly or accidentally killing himself.

Granted, now she's worried about a fairly talented and unique idiot that she has feelings for foolishly or accidentally killing himself, but in this case Shirou can handle himself perfectly well in most cases since she knows what he is capable of.

As such, she is a bit more flippant and loose with what she says because she doesn't have to play the role of the responsible adult guiding a helpless child. She's playing the responsible friend smacking some sense into a clueless but equal friend.

Ok. Now that that's over with, onto other things.

This chapter is dedicated to my sis, whose birthday is tomorrow. Fate Zero season two is amazing, as expected.

For those who haven't heard yet, I finally got some fanart which you can see on the third fang deviantart group page and looking in the collections folder. There are only two so far, but they're both from the guy that did that amazing Hill of Swords fanart for Gabriel Blessing with Shirou and Louise. Hopefully there will be more in the upcoming weeks.

So that's it for now guys. There may be a delay in the next chap because I got finals coming soon for grad school.

Review! Worship the Log! Never Ever piss of a Barthomelloi! And Review again!


	20. Chapter 20

Chapter 20: Pre and Post Maintenance

I do not own Fate/Stay Night and stuffs:

o. o. o.

With Waver:

He sat in a very formal, yet somehow empty looking meeting room. The floors were made of a dark blue stone and the walls were covered with an intricate gold and blue pattern that flaunted the owner's wealth and taste in elaborate decorations. There were several large and expensive looking oil paintings on the walls, showing pictures of people that were all related in some manner and all holding relatively the same presumptuous pose for the painter to take.

Save for a few hardwood chairs, side tables, some minor pieces of decorating furniture around the edge of the room, and the few people inside, the place was fairly empty…

Lord El-Melloi II knew that this was going to happen eventually. Ever since Shirou had been discovered by Lorelei and it was determined that the Magus Killer was going to make an appearance at the Clocktower, the young lord had been preparing for this eventual meeting that would determine his future both occupationally and physically.

Part of these preparations oddly enough did involve the lit cigar in his mouth.

"I believe that you are aware of the reason behind this meeting Lord El-Melloi." The first of the three people in front of him asked coldly, an old man with glasses with the top of his head devoid of hair, making it look like he was wearing a short white furry crown.

"I should hope so." Waver replied politely. "It would be extremely embarrassing and unbecoming of the position you gave me if I misinterpreted the situation and prepared erroneously."

"It would not be the first major mistake you have made." The second person stated. She was a middle aged woman with blonde going grey hair tied up in a bun, dressed in a blue business suit that had less wrinkles than her face. "We must admit, we had assumed that you had learned from your past mistakes and would have the foresight to avoid associating with such undeserving drabble."

"Undeserving perhaps, but I saw potential benefits in maintaining contact with them regardless." Waver admitted. He was now playing the game of politics, where everything spoken was either a half truth or a full blown lie.

The old man of the group snorted. "What sort of benefits could you gain from a crude drunk and the spawn of a Heretic?"

Waver didn't blink. "I avoided potentially ending up like my predecessor and losing my crest for starters."

The reaction was instantaneous as all three individuals glared bullets at him at once. Had Waver been a less experienced dealing with killing intent, he may have flinched, but compared to standing less than a meter away from Gilgamesh and getting nearly killed by the legendary sword Excalibur, these three were as intimidating as flies. "Please keep in mind that the main cause for Lord Kayneth's demise and near loss of our family crest was due to your immature actions, Lord El-Melloi." The woman stated stiffly, as if barely holding herself back from cursing him to oblivion.

"No." Waver corrected. "After spending time with the original Magus Killer and putting that information together with my experiences during the war, I can confidently say that the results would have not changed in the slightest. Your crest would most likely still have been lost and my predecessor would have still lost his life." He took the cigar in his mouth and jolted some of the ashes off onto the tray next to him. "Do not misunderstand though, I am to this day still quite surprised that I managed to survive the ritual. The fact that I am here and Kayneth is not is something I would expect would happen."

"You mean to say that you expected him to live and yourself to die?" The eldest of the group stated almost curiously.

"No." The young lord repeated himself as he put the cigar back into his mouth. "After taking things into consideration, I believe that the most likely scenario would have been that we both perish. I was too inexperienced and oblivious, and the previous Lord El-Melloi was too unaware and ignorant."

"Please watch what you say. You sound as if Kayneth, hailed as a genius even by our family, had overlooked something basic when he entered the War." The business woman frowned.

"I did." Waver confirmed. "My predecessor approached the war as if all the participants would all willingly follow the rules of standard engagement. That the standard guidelines of dueling and nobility would be followed." He breathed in deeply and sighed, letting the cigar smoke fill and exit his lungs. "He vastly underestimated the competition and what they were willing to do in order to win."

"Such a result would not have happened had you not stolen the relic of Alexander the Great in the first place." Argued the elderly man tersely.

"No it wouldn't. Rider stated that he would have disliked working under Lord Kayneth when they first met. Given their personalities, I would not have been surprised if my predecessor would have died even sooner had I not done what I did. While I was lead around by my servant's whims a good portion of the time, Rider and I got along fairly well which I believe is the sole reason why I am alive today. In addition to that, I must remind you that there was a point in the war where Emiya's servant had nearly killed both Rider and I without aid from her master." Waver explained himself professionally. "The Einzbern's servant and representative were both superior and more suited for fighting in the war. No more. No less."

"Why did you not inform us of this when we first arranged your position?" The middle aged woman asked sternly, easily brushing aside Waver's analysis as she could neither argue against it, nor find any profit in doing so. "With you indebted to us, it was only proper that you should have done so. As far as I can tell, there was no reason for you to maintain your relationship with the mage killer. No benefits or position would come out of it."

"It would defeat the purpose of keeping the boy secret in the first place." Waver pointed out casually. "I admit I have grown attached to him as a sort of secret student, however I must indicate that if I wanted to get the best results out of him and his research, the best route to take would have been to just let him grow on his own with as little outside influence as possible. I believe you have heard of the results. Morokov's and Louvre's deaths at his hands are apparently among the biggest news going around as of late."

"Enough. It does not matter now. What is done is done." The third person sitting in front of Waver spoke up for the first time since the meeting began, gaining the attention of everyone else there. "It would have been interesting to have the Magus Killer's son under our influence, however that opportunity has passed us." They turned to look at the young platinum blonde haired girl in a blue dress, barely in her teens and yet holding herself up nobly. While she was technically the lowest ranking member in terms of political power, she was in reality the next in line to inherit the head position of the Archibald family.

She was also the one responsible for making Waver a lord in the first place.

"Regardless, we did not come here to discuss the events of nearly a decade ago. We are here to discuss your fraternization with the Magus Killer, his next of kin, and your decision to not inform us of it." She looked at Waver with calm but stern blue eyes. "Now if you would please explain to us how this association of yours came to pass…"

Waver nodded. "As you wish." The young lord explained how he met Kiritsugu and Sirius roughly five years ago, how he asked them for help while not telling them of the contents of the deal itself, of Shirou and his education while still leaving some key details out, and of what he got in terms of benefits from the situation.

She looked at the Lord. "You have been surprisingly vague about various details regarding the deal you made with the Emiya, their mysteries, and their reasons for wanting your aid. Would you be so kind as to elaborate as to why that is?"

Waver nodded. "It is simple. I am not allowed to."

"By whom?" The eldest male there glared. "Surely you are not placing this deal of yours above your responsibilities to the Archibald family are you?"

"Of course not." The Lord denied. "I am placing the orders of Lady Barthomelloi above said responsibilities."

The three Archibalds stiffened momentarily at this declaration, much to Waver's secret pleasure. The Archibald family was in extremely good relations with the significantly more influential Barthomelloi family. The thought of directly going against orders going against the latter's decisions never gave people good feelings, and that went double for the Archibalds seeing as doing so would drastically reduce their political pull.

"Please… elaborate." The businesswoman asked, though a bit more on edge than she was previously.

"It is no secret that the young Emiya is now under the direct command of Lady Barthomelloi." Waver started off slowly, making sure that he didn't leave any holes in his explanation that could be poked and prodded later. "However before she even laid eyes on him, if you remember, she had taken a small interest in me after my failed attempt to rescue the sealing designate Sirius McGinty, and kill the late Dead Apostle Ancestor Louvre. I was the one who first revealed Emiya's existence to the Association, admittedly due to a slip of the tongue. In addition to that, due to a brief conversation with McGinty during the failed rescue operations, I found that the target, Louvre, was going after the boy in order to get McGinty to make more mystic codes for him."

Waver breathed out some more smoke. "Louvre, while still not as powerful as the others, was still deemed as a Dead Apostle Ancestor. As such Lady Barthomelloi came to me personally to see what had happened. I, of course, did so in addition to informing her of where I believed he would appear next. Seeing an opportunity to kill another vampire, she followed my advice and traveled to where the infamous battle occurred."

He licked his dry lips. "During the trip there, she interrogated me about the boy, and the conversation ended up much like this one, where I refused to divulge information for the same reasons. Before she came to a final decision, she chose to wait until after seeing the boy fight the vampire and talking to him in person in order to see what the best choice to make was. Long story short, she wanted his services, and I was ordered to not divulge any sensitive information on him that might be used to reduce his value."

He looked at the three in front of him while holding his own proud posture. Many would assume that he was being defiant, but anyone that knew the man would know that he was simply stating truths that could not be changed in his mind. "As of right now, only myself, McGinty, the Enforcer Bazett McRemitz, Lady Barthomelloi, Emiya himself, and you three know this much about him. If this is spread out and I am asked by the Vice Director if I told anyone this, I am obviously obligated to tell her the truth."

"It would after all be unbecoming of a Lord of the Archibald family to outright lie to the head of the Barthomelloi family." He concluded with the faintest hint of amusement in his voice.

The room was silent as both sides stared at one another emotionlessly as if measuring their options and the risks involved.

"It seems you still possess that reckless wild streak that prompts you to make foolish decisions Lord El-Melloi." The young girl there stated calmly.

"I like to believe that I have at least learned enough to plan my steps more efficiently when in dangerous grounds my lady." Waver bowed his head briefly.

"Such recklessness can be a burden." The elder male stated coldly. "Fools that are not careful can end up hurting themselves with their own experiments. We have all no doubt witnessed accidents that have resulted in the practitioner's body nowhere to be found…"

Waver sighed aridly, easily ignoring the thinly veiled threat. "Well then I guess I will have to be more careful for both our sakes. It would be extremely unsightly for us if I were to harm myself by accident when I have been recently speaking to the Vice Director about several issues going around the Tower."

"The… I was not aware that your exposure to Lady Barthomelloi had extended past the subject of the Emiya boy." The business woman momentarily fumbled over her words, for once completely caught off guard by Waver's statement.

"I admit I was surprised myself." The Lord shrugged. "However soon after the Emiya incident, I discovered that my work and past was occasionally being examined by the Lady's attendants. After that I had some occasional meetings with her, mostly regarding my work and research of course, however sometimes it focused on the management and structure of the Tower itself. Given that these meetings have yet to stop, I am under the impression that she at the least somewhat considers my input worthwhile."

"I somehow doubt that someone of your stature has managed to capture even the smallest attention of someone as high borne as the head of the Barthomelloi." The eldest one there snorted disbelievingly.

Waver inhaled his cigar and exhaled a large stream of smoke before he looked pointedly at them. "I am ashamed." Waver sighed. "To think that the family that put my abilities to such regards as to give me a Lordship would doubt my word on such a matter. Why if I were to be removed from my position or to disappear suddenly, I would be aghast as to think of how the Lady would interpret not only my competency, but the fact that it may also be reflected upon the noble Archibald family as well." He shrugged lightly. "After I worked so hard to push the Archibald name into several events too…"

"What are you talking about?" The middle aged woman asked stiffly, not liking where this was going.

Waver resisted the urge to chuckle. Now the tables were turned and he was in control. "Well… I may have suggested someone of young Marcus' description slightly before he was asked to participate on that black magic summoning sealing designate trial three months ago… and I also have reason to believe that Lady Sophia may be being considered for a fairly respectable position in the Department of Spiritual Summoning…"

"Are you insinuating that the Vice Director is a gossip?" The youngest one there asked with a hint of distain in her voice.

Waver snorted. "Come now. We all know that she is above such things. I am merely stating that on occasion we discuss the commonly known current issues and events and exchange perspectives on how they would, should, and can be approached." He breathed out some smoke. "If you wish for my honest opinion, I believe that she occasionally asks for my input because I have a different viewpoint regarding these matters compared to most standard nobles, and as such she can use me to obtain new options on future plans… though to be blunt I have rarely witnessed my ideas come into action."

"That I have little trouble believing." Scoffed the oldest one there before leveling his eyes on Waver. "It seems we are at a bit of an impasse Lord El-Melloi. Your relationship with the Emiya blood has more than irritated us, and yet you have proven yourself to be indispensable given your… limited contact with the Vice Director."

"I like to think that my hard work, intelligence, good looks, and sense of wit had a part to play in this as well." Waver added with a hint of amusement.

The other three in the room did not share that amusement given the looks of disdain they were giving him.

Realizing that he may have overstepped himself that time, the outnumbered man coughed sheepishly. Personally he blamed that slip of the tongue on Rider and Sirius. "Moving on. Since obviously we are at an impasse on my future due to my situation and I had predicted that we would arrive at such a position, I had fortunately come up with a compromise that I believe will satisfy all parties involved. Of course there would of course be room for negotiations…"

o. o. o.

With Shirou:

"Is something the matter Emiya?" Luvia asked curiously as she sat across the cafeteria table from her new friend who was once more looking over his copy of Moderate Level Environmental Alteration and Influence Principles. "You seem a bit… unnerved. Do not tell me that your…" She hesitated as she thought of an appropriate word to describe the very crude Irishman that the teen was close to without seeming too rude. "… blunt, teacher is still harassing you."

Shirou paused as he stopped looking around for what seemed like the hundredth time in the past ten minutes. The lunch in front of him was barely touched. "Huh? Oh, um, no I'm not worried about the old man. He normally keeps my training to low populated areas." He looked around again somewhat apprehensively before focusing on the page in front of him again. "I just want to make sure that if some certain individuals arrive I'm not caught off guard." He paused before narrowing his eyes. "Huh… is it really that simple? Why didn't I see this before?"

"Oh?" The blonde teen raised an eyebrow. "You mean to tell me that the deadly Magus Killer is afraid of people here?" Honestly, if Luvia didn't know him already, she could have sworn that the guy was a flower loving pacifist. It wasn't that she really minded the boy's visually apparent paranoia. Because he seemed to be looking at everyone nearby every fifteen seconds, pretty much everyone in the cafeteria had decided that it would be safer to not try to get close enough to listen onto their conversation lest they incur the mythological and apparently nonexistent rage of the Magus Killer.

The ironic thing was that Lorelei wasn't going to announce his position as her "security representative" for another few days so that the proper paperwork went through and Shirou fully recovered. One could only imagine how bad it would be once that fiasco reached full stride…

Shirou gave her a deadpanned look. "First of all, no human is truly fearless. If you ever came across someone like that, then I would not doubt that he or she would be in possession of a reality marble with the most dangerous environment ever conceived, or they are a week away from committing suicide. Second, I will have you know that there are plenty of people here that I am terrified of and would never wish to engage in combat. On the top of that list is obviously the Vice Director." He shivered at the memory of his encounters with the woman.

"Indeed." Luvia nodded understandingly as she drank some tea. "The head of the Barthomelloi family is reputed to be among the most capable and gifted magi in the world today. No doubt that she could kill you easily without as much as a scratch."

Shirou nodded absently, not bothering to tell his newfound friend that contrary to her beliefs, he could permanently cripple a few of her highly valued circuits before dying. If he was desperate enough to use his father's rather unsavory tactics, he was fairly certain that he could boost the outcome to at best a mutual kill. If he was lucky.

Shirou didn't fear death… but that didn't mean that he wanted to die. He still very much enjoyed breathing and eating and cooking thank you very much.

"Moving on." Luvia sighed as she fanned herself and looked at the book in front of her. "I am somewhat curious. That book is for second year students, however it is not normally a field that many would focus on upon entering…"

"Most of the magic I use is unconventional in general." The masked boy replied without looking up from his page. "I came across a class teaching a subject that I needed more knowledge on in order to finish an experiment of mine and managed to slip in without getting noticed. This was the book for said class. I had a look at the beginner's version, however I found that I had done enough research on the particular subject to skip it."

"Oh?" The Edelfelt raised a curious eyebrow and smirked. "Well that's a surprise. Who knew that the Magus Killer had time to experiment and make new miracles in addition to training your combat abilities?"

"Who said they weren't related?" Shirou sighed, once again noting that his intelligence was being underestimated. He turned the page and continued with the subject. "I'm fairly certain that I can finally complete the base steps of my experiments in the next few days. Mastering them of course would take much longer. If my guess is right, I can further branch out from there." He paused. "In fact I think I might have just solved the biggest problem I had with the basics of my latest mystery… and if it's as simple as I think it is…" His eyes narrowed as he read the section intently. "… So that was what I was doing wrong… I had to set an overlaying conversion and then calculate the…" He muttered under his breath to himself.

Finally he would be able to have a solid defensive spell other than Rho Aias. The seven layered bounded field was a fantastic shield, however the fact that he had to stay still to cast it and that its condition was linked to his physical state were liabilities that he didn't want to expose himself to repeatedly or let others become aware of.

"Not to be rude, but I happen to have overheard a conversation you had with McGinty when we first met." The noble commented. "I am surprised that you are capable of such feats with mere projection magic. I doubt that anyone in the Tower that doesn't already know of it has suspected that all your weapons are mere imitations."

Shirou frowned and looked over his book. "I know it's a bit late to ask at this point, but I would appreciate it if you didn't tell anyone."

Holding a hand to her heart and looking at him hurt, the girl put on a dramatic demeanor. "I am shocked. Do you really think so little of me as to betray your trust?"

The Faker gave her a tired look. "Given my current reputation and how things are normally done here, I'm not ruling out the possibility of it happening."

The noblewoman dropped her dramatic pose and smirked before reaching for her tea. "A wise decision… but unnecessary. My pride as an Edelfelt demands me to defeat you only by means of direct combat while you are at your best given your reputation. Anything less would drag my honor through the mud."

"Pride, huh." Shirou sighed as he scanned the area around him again before looking at his book. "A word of advice if we ever do end up fighting against one another… don't expect me to fight with something excessive like that."

"Is that a threat Emiya?" The teen's eyes flashed warily.

He chuckled lightly. "To be honest I would prefer if I didn't have to fight you at all if I could help it. You're a good person and I don't really see a reason for us to try to kill one another."

"Stop complimenting me." The girl hid her blush by drinking more tea until she regained her composure. "You didn't answer my question."

"I was just stating a fact." Shirou sighed without looking up. "It seems that one of the traits that I share with my father is that we have no pride in ourselves or in what we do. If you expect me to fight by the rules that Magi tend to follow, you'll lose. I don't care about appearances or how others see me."

"… No pride… that is rather depressing." The girl looked at him in an almost pitying manner. For most nobles, having pride in their accomplishments and in their family was nearly the same as having a heartbeat. To not have any pride at all did not only sound unnatural to her, but also depressing. "I'll keep that in mind, but you should be wary of it regardless. Having a good reputation would make things easier for you in the long run."

"True, but having a good rep here would mean doing things that I would rather do without. I am not that fond of Magus culture as a whole. The idea of pursuing research no matter who or what is sacrificed honestly disgusts me."

"Really?" Luvia raised an eyebrow. "If that is so, then why are you here in the first place?"

"Simple." Shirou snorted. "You try saying no to the Vice Director."

The female paled dramatically as she realized what her friend was saying. "… Point made."

"I thought it would." The Emiya grumbled as he glanced at his book once more before raising his free hand to his side. "Let's see… Trace on. Alter status. Analyzing system with global origin. Set geographic coordinate system standard. Overlay with caster origin coordinate system. Produce conversion matrixes. Install and incorporate matrixes. Establish sufficient caster origin based range. Remove caster origin axis' and coordinates from outputs. Incorporate global variables. Set."

His eyes narrowed as he projected a fairly average and unimpressive looking sword in mid air with its point towards the ground and watched it hover in place. "Well its working so far…" He muttered as he looked at the weapon from several angles.

"Is that your new spell?" Luvia questioned, rather unimpressed. "It doesn't seem that different than what you normally do."

"It's technically two thirds of the new spell." Shirou admitted as he poked the weapon testingly, only for it to remain in place. "The last third is the tricky part, but I already technically mastered it a while ago. I made the mistake of focusing on the first and last parts before finding out that I needed to create it in a different coordinate system. I ended up cutting off my arm by accident because of it. If I had been a bit more off I would have lost my head instead." He began to push harder against it and watch as it slowly shifted in mid air. "So far, so good. It's stability is a bit less than what I had intended, but that's just because I'm not completely used to incorporating this new system…"

"Hoh?" The noble mused. "So you do not mind if you nearly die, but you dislike it when others are involved? How noble of you Emiya."

"Magi walk the path of death." The masked teen shrugged as he continued his examination of the floating weapon. "It's their decision to do so and I don't look down on them for choosing that path. I do on the other hand find it sickening and stupid to involve and force the innocent in their experiments. It's an irresponsible and childish thing to do and honestly I somehow wonder how things are managed here if people actually follow the logic that says that such a thing is completely acceptable."

"I agree completely." Luvia nodded approvingly. "There are far too many nobles these days who have become desperate for power, wealth and prestige that they have lost their grace and original drive to exceed in the first place." She puffed her fairly developed chest out in pride. "They waste too much of their time trying to improve their magic when they should be improving themselves, which is far more efficient if you ask me. What the elder masses are doing these days just reeks of desperation in inadequacy."

"Heh." Shirou smiled as he leaned back into his chair. "Finally. That's one of the first things I've heard from anyone since I got here that I can get behind without hesitation. It's technically not how I would put it, but I agree with it all the same." With a silent command, the floating sword next to him shattered silently into dust that did not cut anything.

"I am glad you agree with me." Luvia returned the smile with her own. "However, do you think it is wise to experiment in open view of everyone here?"

"Everything I was doing was fairly basic stuff. If other people did find out what I was doing just now, they probably would have just brushed it off and kept on walking." The Emiya shrugged as he scanned the room once more. "Even the completed version would end up looking very unimpressive to most people unless you knew exactly what it did, and to find that out I would either have to tell you, or you would need to have advanced structural grasping abilities."

"Well that does sound very convenient for someone like yourself." Luvia nodded in understanding, albeit she was also a bit disappointed as well. "You do seem like the type to put application and efficiency over appearance after all."

"I wouldn't be my father's son if I didn't." Shirou casually replied before looking around to his right.

"… I have been quiet so far, but now this is getting rather tiresome with you looking around like that. Are you concerned that you are going to get attacked by the general populace or is there someone here that has you worried for your safety?" The noble finally asked, clearly concerned about the Emiya's uncomfortable situation and seemingly unaware that he was somewhat tuning her out.

"Einzbern." The teen replied absently, finally putting his book down in the process. "Let's just say that my father did not exactly leave them with a good impression and that I wouldn't be surprised if it carried down to how they view me."

"Einzbern?" Luvia raised an eyebrow. "I admit that they are a rather well founded family and they do make rather formidable homunculi, however I don't think that they are so much of a threat that you would have to be on edge during your stay here, at least not compared to some of the other families that your father has angered in the past…"

"I saw two of their members walking with roughly half a dozen fighter based homunculi about a week ago and to my knowledge they haven't left yet." Shirou stated calmly, driving the point across. Einzberns did not qualify as a great threat by themselves, but their homunculi were another story completely. Even the weaker combat focused homunculi were rumored to be as efficient as a hundred standard magi in terms of battle. Granted Shirou could take out a standard Magi with his bare hands and some reinforcement, but the gap in danger was still significant enough to cause some worry. "And to be clear about this, they REALLY hate my father."

"Ah…" The noble blanched, getting the idea that Shirou was stressing. "I see your point. Well then, I shall do you a service and inform you when I see any member of that family or any of their products nearby."

Shirou glanced at Luvia and only just barely caught himself from being a bit blunt with his next correction. "Thank you… but on a side note, can you please not refer to the homunculi as products or objects, or at least not around me? Though they may be artificially created, I happen to know that some are fully capable of having personalities and feelings. It makes me uncomfortable calling something that looks, acts, and thinks like a human an object."

"Oh?" Luvia blinked. "Now that is a surprise. Most would have assumed that someone of your reputation would have just agreed that they were tools and leave it at that. Who knew that you were such a bleeding heart? Do you try to make friends with any being that looks and talks like a human?"

The Magus Killer scanned the room again. "No, though I am on somewhat good terms with an Apostle Ancestor."

Luvia, who was in the middle of drinking some more tea at that statement, appropriately choked on the drink and spent more than a few minutes trying to regain control of her lungs. "Wh-what?" She gasped, not at all caring about proper decorum or appearance for once. "You are actually friends with one of those monstrosities?"

"What? He's actually a pretty nice and reasonable person if you just treat him like a normal guy." Shirou stated as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. "I've only talked to him face to face once, but he's pretty pleasant to talk to." He froze for a moment as he saw someone walk by in the distance before relaxing again. "False alarm. Silver hair, but normal colored eyes…"

"A-Amazing…" The noble muttered to herself. "To think that you would be so fearless as to become acquaintances with a Dead Apostle Ancestor…"

"It isn't that big of a deal. Isn't Kaleidoscope supposedly one as well?" Shirou asked confused. He knew the man's reputation was rather… unsavory to many, but the fact still stood that he was a vampire. "It would be weird if he wasn't friends with a couple of people in the Association considering he's a Wizard Marshal."

"Y-yes, but… even you should know that Lord Zelretch is a rather eccentric person that few are fond of here…" Luvia argued, still trying to regain her bearings.

"Old Man Sirius is a good friend of his." The Magus Killer replied offhandedly as he scanned the room again. "He's told me a few stories about a few pranks they've pulled on the nobility here. They haven't talked for a few decades, but from what I can gather the guy just has a bit of a sadistic and cruel sense of humor that leans towards the childish side. Considering the general standard personality of the magical population, I wouldn't be surprised if he gets along better with the non magical community than he does with the magical."

"You… really do live in a completely different world don't you?" The teen girl commented out loud, more to herself than to her friend before pausing and seeing something past his shoulder. "It would be best if you calmed yourself. It appears you are being approached."

Shirou raised a confused eyebrow and briefly turned around to see what Luvia was pointing out before his blood went cold and he turned back. "Thanks for the warning." He muttered with narrowed eyes as his shroud magically wrapped itself around his mouth so that he could hide more of his facial features and expressions.

"So you are supposedly the latest in the line of traitors and disappointments?" A tall blonde man snorted as he strolled past the pair's table and looked down upon Shirou with disgust. Following close behind him were three silver haired, red eyed men that were so similar looking that they almost would have passed off as triplets, each one holding a close ranged weapon made from high density metals that by all means should not be able to be wielded by normal humans...

Shirou determined that Natalia could easily cut through them if needed, but he was fairly certain that he never had weapons that heavy recorded in Unlimited Blade Works before. He would have to do some experiments later to see how efficient and accurate they were when fired off as bullets… but right now he was more concerned about what he learned from the tool's history. If what he was seeing was correct, then it would be best if he didn't pick a fight with any of their current wielders unless he wanted to do a fair bit of damage to the general area.

"Do I know you?" The masked teen asked politely, pretending to not already know that the man in front of him was an Einzbern.

"I should hope not." The man scoffed as he stuck his nose into the air. He appeared to be in his mid to late thirties and wore a fairly expensive suit much like most of the other males in the Association. Average height. Average weight. All in all, he was fairly unremarkable looking save for his hair color when compared to everyone else in the Association. "I would be abhorred if I was known by someone as lowborn as yourself."

"If you don't like me… and you think I am beneath you… and I don't know who you are… then why are you talking to me?" Shirou asked confused. He technically knew the reason already, but he still didn't understand the logic. In his mind, it was best to just avoid people you didn't like and you didn't have business with.

The nobleman raised an eyebrow and looked at Shirou with a mix of disgust and insult. "I am of the Einzbern lineage boy. Surely your traitorous father has mentioned to you of how he stabbed us in the back all those years ago."

Shirou kept his cool despite the killing intent and glares that the man and his guards were giving him. "Ah. Right. Dad did warn me about your family should I make myself known to the magic world… but that still didn't answer my question. Plus, why are you here? I heard that the Einzberns normally keep to themselves."

"I will have you know that I am here as an envoy for the Sea of Estray for Alchemic research purposes." The man sneer proudly, announcing his position as an important member for one of the other main branches of the Magus Association to anyone that was within hearing distance.

"A member of the Wandering Tomb?" Luvia raised an eyebrow curiously, mentioning the third branch of the Association's nickname. "It is quite uncommon for someone from there to be here in the Clocktower…"

"It was to both of our misfortunes that my stay here happened to align to one another. How you managed to become approved to apply here is beyond me, however I do not care at this point." The man continued, ignoring Luvia's comment and staring down at the masked male.

"Then for a third time, why are you here interrupting my lunch break with my friend?" Shirou sighed, clearly not impressed or intimidated by the man's ramblings. He wished the man would get to the point already so he would leave. The longer he stayed, the more likely it was that something unfortunate might happen. "If you're here to just try to intimidate me, can you please go away. I'm sorry if I'm being a bit blunt, but I'm getting tired of all the people trying to challenge me just so they can try to find out how my mysteries work or gain fame by "being the one who beat the Magus Killer.""

The corner of the noble's mouth sneered upwards in a grin that was common upon those who enjoyed inflicting pain on others. "I just wanted to know what the poor fool that gained the attention of the traitor looked like. Unfortunately it seems that like your father, you are also a coward that doesn't like to show your face unless left with no other option."

Shirou remained quiet for several seconds before Luvia spoke up. "Couldn't you have done that from a distance? It's pretty rude to interrupt a conversation for something small like that."

The Einzbern glanced at the girl and growled. "It would be best if you didn't talk to people you know nothing about girl. Those of the Emiya name and blood are nothing more than disappointments, traitors, liars, and failures."

"And Fakes." Shirou added offhandedly, getting confused looks from the other two there. "It… It's an inside joke…" He mumbled embarrassed.

"Regardless of what kind of trash you are, I was still curious to see what that traitor's legacy would have produced." The Einzbern grunted, being the first of the two to recover from Shirou's odd joke. "So far I am not impressed. To be blunt, I doubt that those rumors about you are even true."

"Most of them aren't." Shirou shrugged as he leaned back in his chair and glanced at the homunculi that had remained in their positions behind the man since the conversation started. Every one of them had been ready to move the instant a wrong move was made or the slightest raise in prana. "You know how things get. A mysterious person does something big and people suddenly start making assumptions about him."

"I assumed as much." The man nodded coldly. "To think that a child like you was responsible for killing a hive of monstrous beasts, seven heretics, and over a dozen Dead Apostles, one of which was an ancestor is simply preposterous."

"Actually…" Luvia spoke up before Shirou cut her off.

"I completely agree." Shirou nodded, not wanting the girl to make things worse for him. "It is stupid to assume that I have done even half of that."

"At least he is honest." The eldest man there grunted, not knowing that he had been completely misled in his assumptions about Shirou. "It's a shame too." He sighed with a grin on his face again, one that did not leave the other male with good feelings. "Your sister will be so disappointed when I tell her all the stories she has heard about her brother were all made up…"

"Brother?" Luvia blinked in confusion as she turned to Shirou in confusion.

"Sister?" Shirou echoed the man in a raspy voice, not truly trusting it at the moment as his mind ran at a hundred miles a second and his blood turned to ice. His breathing had slowed down to the point that he probably wouldn't realize if he was suffocating or not, and if anyone had been able to see his face at this point in time, they would have noticed that his fairly tan skin had gone pale white.

This was bad. This was what he had been fearing of the moment he had found out that the Einzberns were in the Tower. He did not at any point want for the Einsbern to know that he was not only aware of Illya's existence, but that he deeply cared for her safety and as such they could use it against him in the oncoming war. In hindsight, he probably guessed that this was what the man had planned in the beginning, the bastard. It wasn't unexpected, but it was an extremely dirty move that Shirou would have preferred not happening at any point in time.

Regardless of what Shirou did now, Illya, the one he had sworn to his father to save, would end up losing in the end. The best the younger Emiya could do now was contain the damage to a minimum…

"What… are you talking about?" Shirou spoke, hating himself for what was going to happen next. "I'm an only child as far as I know. If you have nothing relevant to speak of, please leave. I have more important things to do than speak about made up stories."

More circular logic, this time spawned from talking to Sirius and Waver earlier when he informed them of Einzbern's presence. Shirou was adopted and had no memory of his original family. As far as he knew, he really was an only child until the fire. So long as he talked from that perspective when needed, that he was talking about the family members that he could no longer remember, he would be able to fool the man in front of him into believing it… no matter how much he wished to pin him to the walls by his swords instead and use him to rescue the girl right now.

"You mean… surely he must have told you about the abomination he had made with one of our products?" The Einzbern asked, bewildered that the boy in front of him did not know something that the man himself thought was common knowledge. "That he foolishly believed that the tool he had become attached to was…"

"I would appreciate it if you would stop talking about something you are clearly making up in order to slander my father's name." Shirou growled darkly. "I know little about my father's relationship with the Einzbern save for that you hired him to fight in the Grail War, and personally I think you are making up the story about my father having a child with one of your homunculi in an attempt to irritate me and show everyone that you have some power over me. As of right now, I am only the former. Once again, if you have nothing true or significant to speak of, please leave me be."

The man's face turned into one of disappointment and disgust. "You little ignorant brat. How dare you think that I would make something like this up. My dislike for you right now is only matched by my wonder as to your traitorous father's actions in not telling you about the tool... though upon thinking about it, it would make sense." He smirked. "After all those times failing to get her back from our castle, no doubt he thought it would be better to save you the embarrassment of suffering from the same failures."

Shirou took in a deep breath to calm himself down. He knew he shouldn't let this man get the better of him. He knew that getting angry would not help his or Illya's situation in the slightest, however the man in front of him was really starting to get on his nerves. The rational part of his mind knew that if this continued he would completely loose his patience and do something that would ruin everything he had worked for at this point.

On the other hand, his irrational mind pointed out that his rational side also wanted to skewer the Einzbern fairly badly right now.

"Better a family of failures than a family that does not listen to justified and reasonable warnings Einzbern. Now leave. I have no more to speak to you about and as I mentioned before, your family does not have the best history when it comes to listening to others."

"I have yet to hear of any worthwhile warnings boy, but I will grant your request since you asked politely so many times." The man sneered as he turned to walk away before pausing. "Before I leave… may you clarify one thing for me?"

"Depends on what you're asking." Shirou replied with enough irritation in his voice that even the shroud muffling his voice couldn't hide it.

The man's mouth twitched into a faint grin. "Is it true that you currently reside in Fuyuki?"

"Fuyuki?" Luvia echoed with curiosity, obviously having never heard of the Japanese city before. In fact Shirou wouldn't put it past the general Association populace to not be able to name any Japanese towns or cities outside of Tokyo, Kyoto, Hiroshima, Nagasaki, or any place that oddly enough had the same name as an international car company.

The younger male nodded slowly, already guessing what the man was trying to get at by confirming the information.

"I see." The Einzbern's grin grew in a cruel but satisfied way, as if enjoying a joke that only he could understand. "Well then. Thank you very much for your time Emiya."

Without saying another word, the man turned away and left at a confident pace.

Unlike the man however, the three homunculi lingered for a few seconds as they all made eye contact with Shirou. Despite the fact that none of the silver haired men had uttered even a single word during the conversation, much less shown any emotion on their faces, the looks they were all giving him through their blood red eyes were enough for the Emiya to know that he had clearly done them or someone they knew an injustice during the conversation.

"Keep her safe." The Emiya muttered under his breath as the triplets turned away, so softly that he doubted that even Luvia, who was sitting less than a few feet away from him, heard him make a noise. He liked to think that he saw them hesitate for half a second after his faint request was made, but even years after the event, he would not be able to confirm it.

After seeing the man with his entourage leave, Luvia glanced at Shirou warily. "Care to tell me what that was all about?"

_Something that could have easily been a lot worse than it was. _Closing his eyes tiredly, the male couldn't help but laugh bitterly. "In a nutshell, Einzbern just declared war on me."

"W-war?" The girl's eyes widened in surprise. "How do you know that? No, never mind how, WHAT are you going to do about it and how can you be so calm?"

Shirou sighed as he slowly stood up and gathered his things. "Don't worry about me Luvia. I was prepared for something like this to happen for a while now. You don't have to bother yourself with my problems."

Luvia frowned. "I will if it means losing a valuable ally and worthy enemy Emiya. Do not think that you are good enough to handle an entire family on your own, especially one as well established as the Einzbern."

The Magus Killer smiled kindly in such a way that anyone could tell he was doing it despite the shroud around his head. "Thanks for the offer… but this is something that I'm going to have to handle on my own. Besides, I'm better prepared for this than you realize." He strapped his bag over his shoulder. "I have to go talk to some people right now. I'll see you around. Same time Saturday?"

"Humph. I suppose." The female pouted as she looked away. "I was looking forward to learning more about your father's exploits and learn from them, however I guess I can wait a few more days so long as you keep your word." She turned slightly and looked at him through the edge of her eyesight. "If you must know, I am planning on writing a paper based on the exploits of the Magus Killer, his drive, his techniques, and his method of thinking. Despite his average ranking as one of us he still managed to kill those far superior to him. I wish to analyze and uncover that particular mystery… and I need you in order to do it."

Shirou chuckled lightly as he stood up. "I don't know if I should be honored or scared right now." He shook his head. "I look forward to seeing you soon Luvia. Take care."

Turning away, Shirou's eyes narrowed as he thought about the turn of events. He had about a year and a half left to prepare for the grail war. The fact that he was known to the Magus population was going to work heavily against his favor, as was spending large amounts of time working in the Tower when he should be training or studying, however he would have to deal with it. Right now his greatest priorities were to talk to Waver and Sirius about the current turn of events with the Einzbern, and master his newest spell as fast as possible…

He was so deep into his thoughts, he completely missed Luvia say goodbye to him as well with a faint trace of red on her cheeks… and unconsciously rubbing the back of her right hand at the same time…

o. o. o.

Some time later in Germany:

"So the rumors were true." Jubstacheit Einzbern, otherwise known as "Old Man Acht" and head of the Einzbern family mused as he looked at his descendant standing on the other side of his desk. "So Emiya did father another child after all…" He closed his eyes in thought. "Judging from what you claimed his age to be, it seems that the man not only betrayed the Einzbern during the war, but his wife as well soon after she bore his child…"

"The boy didn't even seem to know that the girl existed." The younger German snorted in equal amounts amusement and disgust. "Such lack of loyalty can be found in heretics and foreigners these days. I am astounded that we even considered him to be a part of our family in the first place…"

The white haired old man grunted thoughtfully as he turned to look outside, ignoring the reflection of the man with long white hair and a beard resembling a frozen waterfall imposed on the glass. "Perhaps… though it would not explain then why Emiya repeatedly attempted to retrieve the next grail for those years after his betrayal… and if I may remind you, the man did come much farther in obtaining the grail than any of our previous entrants in the war…"

"Feh. Considering who we arranged for him to summon, I would not be surprised if the Servant did most of the work." The younger of the two waved his hand lazily, brushing off the fact as if it didn't amount to anything. "Speaking of Emiya and the war though, how is the new grail faring?"

Acht's eyes opened slowly. "She is developing as planned. Though she will not last long after the alterations made to her body, she will fulfill her role for the oncoming war before that time comes." He turned around. "Did you mention the war at all or see if the boy was aware of the next one occurring soon?"

"I hinted at it, but I doubt that he knows about it given how he reacted." The younger sighed pityingly. "If I remember correctly, the current Tohsaka head is just a girl, and the Makiri head… well… you know more about him than I do…"

"Yes. Zouken isn't one to involve others unless he has a firm grip on them. I highly doubt that he is related the boy in any way." The head nodded in agreement before he began to move out of the room. "I was hoping that Kiritsugu would live long enough for the next war to occur so that his daughter would kill him with our servant as repentance for his betrayal, however since that obviously can no longer happen, I suppose we will just have to make do with using her to end the Emiya line…"

"Hoh?" The man under the age of two hundred raised an eyebrow. "Does that mean you found the artifact?"

"It was not that difficult to locate unlike the previous one. All we needed to do was obtain a significant portion of the temple's foundation and ensure that no evidence was left behind." The old man shook his head. "Come, we will discuss this as we walk. It is time to inspect the next grail's development. Despite being born from the traitor's genes, she has proved to be quite valuable as a grail. Far more than her mother. According to my calculations, her body and mind would not completely break down until all seven heroic spirits would enter her body."

"That is fairly convenient. I believe her mother could only store up to five before her body broke down into the grail itself." The younger shrugged carelessly as he followed his leader out of the room. "The girl is a stubborn one I will give you that." A smirk etched itself on his face. "You know, since we are going to talk to the girl and are speaking of the boy, we might as well tell her of my conversation with him. She will no doubt be quite interested in what was said after all…"

o. o. o.

Sirius chuckled as he looked up. "Ya know, ah tink yer havin a bit too much fun playin around wit yer new spell lad."

The boy returned the grin with one of his own as he stood on his makeshift platform. "Hey don't blame everything on me. You're the one who made me this custom blade so I could do this in the first place."

The old man crossed his arms amused. "Ta tell ya ta truth, ah did it ta kill time. Ah didn't tink ya were really able ta pull tat trick off by ta time ya left." He chuckled and shook his head. "Yah've come a long way lad."

The teen landed deftly in front of the old man and put on a dry smile. "Thanks, but I kinda prefer being called a Faker. It fits me better…"

The old man rolled his eyes sarcastically. "Just take ta damn compliment already. Ya gotta learn ta do tat now tat yer Lorelei's dog." He chuckled. "Funny. Everyone calls ya tat, but in ta end she's more likely ta listen to her dog barking than ta local noble's advice."

Shirou groaned as Sirius brought up the new nickname he had in the Association's population. Despite all the rumors about his achievements from being his father's son and from what he actually did, in the end they had been ignored all of that, the fact that Shirou now held a position that, given the right circumstances, trumped the standard Lord's authority. Instead the general population of nobility (rather uncreatively) combined his revealed status as Lorelei's underling and his noble colored magic and dubbed him the Queen's Silver Dog.

What really unnerved the teen was the fact that people were already comparing him to the Queen of the Dead Apostle Ancestor's, Altrouge Brunestud's, own personal "dog". Said "dog" was supposedly a massive truck sized wolf that had absolute authority over a human's continued existence as a rule of nature. It was also number one of the twenty seven Apostle Ancestors, and known as the Beast of Gaia, The White Beast, Humanity's Murderer, Altrouge's Demonic Dog, and most commonly, Primate Murder.

Comparing him to that thing was like comparing a pellet gun to a fully stocked aircraft carrier filled with tactical nukes. It simply was no contest.

"I preferred it when people didn't care who I was and just passed me by." Shirou sulked. He never did like being the center of attention, whether it was for positive or negative reasons. So far his new position had caused most people to either avoid him like the plague, disrespect him, or look down on him for his rather laborious position.

The latter two group's population dropped significantly after he beat down the first half a dozen overconfident Magi that tried to pick a fight with him at once, (they obviously didn't see him kill Marakov), in front of a fairly healthy portion of the Tower's population.

In Shirou's defense, he was still in a pretty pissed mood from his at the time recent meeting with Einzbern. He didn't kill anyone, but there were a few cases of limbs that needed resetting or being reattached to the body… thankfully Natalia's cuts were very clean and easy to realign…

There was still the occasional curious Magus that came to ask him a brief question during his spare time, but the few that did were always on guard and kept the conversations rather short.

Sirius chuckled heartily, not at all bothered by the fairly bloody memory. "Ah don't get yer panties in a bunch lad. Ah've seen far worse beat downs done here by people far worse tan tose bastards. Trust me, what ya did ta tem was nowhere near ta worst ting done in ta Tower's history of duelin… or six on one fights… though ya couldn't really call tat a fight. More like a… Tasmanian Devil ragin on a bunch o retarded squirrels… only wit magic…"

"I don't like the fact that I cut off both of that one guy's arms and instead of getting punished I got recognition instead. There is seriously something wrong with the way Magi society works." countered irritably, ignoring the old man's disturbingly violent and childish description of what he did to his latest opponents.

The old man snorted. "First of all lad… they were tryin ta kill ya. It's kinda amazing tat you can just brush off tat fact like it didn't matta. Second, ya know tat Magi society is twisted tat way. Stop bein surprised about it already. Eitha ya get recognition fer bein a genius, fer discoverin something new, fer bein in some rich annoyin family, fer bein their highly valued slave, or fer killin someone strong an dangerous." He shrugged. "Just be happy tat ya killed ta right someone and yer ta right someone else's slave."

"Thanks. I feel so much better." Said slave grumbled irritably as the pair walked through the hallways of the Clocktower to the main entrance from the small dueling grounds they had been using. "What time is my ride to the airport again?"

"Anotha hour." The old man shrugged. "Ya sure ya aren't gonna say goodbye to tat Edelfelt lass? She seems ta like spendin time with ya."

That was the understatement of the century. After Shirou's one sided fight with the half a dozen students, the girl had lost her patience when it came to waiting on the sidelines whenever things got violent and unleashed absolute hell on the next, and last, person who tried to pick a fight against him when they were trying to enjoy lunch together.

Needless to say, after the incident Shirou swore to himself that he would never willingly anger Luvia unless it was a really good reason… and he would more importantly never give Rin the idea of rapidly shooting off her Gandr curses with both hands at once at the same target. What he saw that day was not only painful to watch… but it was also absolutely terrifying…

Spines were simply not supposed to bend that way. Fighting style and magic be damned.

Shirou could confidently say after the event that if his reputation didn't stop everyone from approaching him for any form of casual conversation, Luvia's display at the very least dissuaded whoever was left.

"Luvia left for Finland yesterday with her sister." Shirou pointed out. "I said goodbye to them as both "Emiya" and "Shirou" just to make sure they weren't disappointed." He would have continued to message her to keep in contact and sate her thirst for his father's stories, but she unfortunately didn't give him her family's address, and she like many other magi didn't have a cell phone or an email address.

"Ah see. Don't know about you, but ah'm glad tat little shrew of a little sister is gone." The old man cracked his neck. "Standard spoiled noble bitch that lass was. Wouldn't stop giving orders even if her life depended on it. Ya don't know how close ah was ta puntin her down a hallway last week…" He paused as he saw the look of disbelief Shirou was giving him. "Oh don't you give me tat "ya actually would hit a girl" look. Ah've seen ya try ta gut Bazett loads of times when ya spar with one anotha."

"Bazett-nee can punch through steel walls and has beat me senseless more than anyone else!" The teen argued as if it was the most obvious thing to say in his defense.

"And ta Edelfelts shoot curses from teir fingertips an hire themselves to tha highest bidder." Sirius pointed out calmly. "Trust me on tis lad. I wouldn't doubt it if ta lass already has more blood on her hands than you do, apostle or not."

Shirou bit back his tongue, knowing this was probably another argument that he would not win. He constantly had to remind himself that he was dealing with the magical world now, a violent world where standards and safety were only secure so long as the strongest one there deemed it and remained in power. Here he was not the norm, not that he ever was really, but the outsider. He was the person who would have to adapt to the system in order to have a hope to change it in the slightest from within, and prevent more people from endangering themselves for no reason whatsoever. That is, if he bothered to attempt to do so in the future.

"It's still not right…" Was all he managed to let out and glared at the ground as if it was partially responsible for the way things were.

"Tat it ain't. Ah'll give ya tat." Sirius nodded solemnly before instantly brightening up and sporting a far too happy grin on his face. "… But on ta bright side, at least all tat physical activity tey do tryin ta kill tings ensures tat they end up wit great bodies… not tat ah'm young enough ta have a chance wit any of tem anymore, but at least ah get some good eye candy every now and then."

Shirou didn't say anything as he stared at the old man as if he grew a second head.

"Oh don't give me tat look. Ah'm over two hundred years old and have a sealing designation. Cut me a bloody break and let me have mah fun."

"I'm fairly certain that your definition of fun is illegal in most countries of the world." The Emiya stated, still looking at the old man in disgust.

"Most." The old man nodded in agreement and taking the boy's displeasure in the topic of conversation in stride before his expression hardened once more. "Speakin of unsavory tings though lad, ah couldn't help but see yah've been preparin yer meat on ta rare side lately when ya eat… ya used ta be a medium sort a guy…"

Shirou paused before looking back at the old man, his previous state of disgust instantly gone. Deciding that what they were now talking about was just too sensitive to be overheard, he switched to Japanese. "I found that it helps curb the thirst a bit. All in all I haven't experienced any changes since it first happened…"

"But Solomon still wants ya." Sirius finished with a stern look, also switching to the eastern language at the drop of a hat.

"I don't think that's a good idea old man." The teen hesitated. "He is a member of the burial agency in the Church. It would look pretty bad for everyone if we were seen together."

"Then just ask him fer advice and tips." The old man rolled his eyes. "The gnome is a soddin' Ancestor lad. Ah'm fairly certain that he knows a way or two ta get people off his back wheneva he needs ta be alone. Ah might be overthinkin things, but it might be best ta ask him fer help. If for anything else, do it for the day ya might actually lose control over yerself. Betta ta be safe than undead afta all."

"Fine." The younger of the two relented switching back to English, knowing he wouldn't win this argument no matter how much he protested. "I still think it's a waste of everyone's time, but I'll do it…"

"Good. Ah didn't feel like getting in a full blown argument wit ya right before ya left." Sirius smiled as he nudged the teen to walk with him and switched back to the western language as well. "Come on. Lighten up a bit. T'ings aren't tat bad. Sure yer Lorelei's pet an people are scared shitless of ya here. At least they're respectin' yer personal space. Plus there's all ta progress ya made fer yer work, and then there's ta work ya helped me wit." He grinned. "Ah really owe ya. Ah don't tink ah would have made all those orders on time without ya."

The younger of the two shrugged. "It's no problem old man. I was glad to help. Plus it helped me practice my grasping on magical fabrics. I've been spending too much time focusing on metals and crystals lately."

"I noticed." Sirius chuckled. "Ta work ya did on tat staff's jewel enhancement and design was borderline brilliant. Ah doubt ah could do much betta. Tat Rin girl must like ya a lot if yer tat good at jewel magecraft already…" He paused as he noticed a dark cloud hover over the teen. "Uh… Lad?"

"_This isn't big enough!" "You call this a jewel good enough to use magic on? Are you TRYING to kill me?" "I told you that I wanted an Emerald not a Topaz!" "Rubies ARE Sapphires you novice!" "Do this over again! The cut is wrong! It will completely ruin the market value I mean the magical conductivity!" "Shirou! I need twelve pink diamonds by Thursday! Seven carrots each and not a milligram less!"_

"Don't let me go back…" The prematurely graying boy shivered.

"Lad?" The old man repeated, now a bit more concerned for the boy's mental state.

"Huh?" The Faker blinked, having snapped out of his relapse. "You say something?"

"Er… no. It was nothin." Sirius laughed nervously. "So um. Right. About yer studies. Did ya manage ta get any copies of yer grandfather's notes on ta Emiya family Thaumaturgy?"

Shirou gave a stiff nod. "What was left of them, yeah. I won't or can't use most of what was there seeing as I don't have or see much use for most of the research or methodology, but there are a few things I saw that I can mix with Tracing that I haven't used already. If I'm right, I think I might be able to give you some very interesting research samples in the near future."

Sirius grinned. "Oh? Well don't keep me waitin lad." He patted the teen on the shoulder, causing the boy to wince. "Ah. Right still sore from yer sessions wit Bazett. Sorry."

The sore fighter grit his teeth and rubbed his aching limb. Despite the fact that his skill level, reserves, and weapon library had skyrocketed since his encounter with Louvre, he still constantly lost in his matches against his first female teacher. Part of the reason why was because he refused to use anything more remarkable than his standard elemental weapons out of fear of doing real damage to the woman. No matter what anyone would say to him, he would absolutely refuse to use Natalia, Maiya, or the Mace of Odo against her or anyone else he cared about. Kiritsugu was obviously out of the question as well.

The other part was simply because Bazett was just that good. The woman had enough speed, strength, and experience on her side to overwhelm a vast majority Shirou's versatility and ranged capabilities. The few spells and weapons that Shirou had that could tip things into his favor were too lethal for him to use for mere spars... and even then in a real fight it would possibly just give her a reason to use Fragarach. Shirou had still yet to lay eyes on the infamous Ace Killing Joker noble phantasm, however out of respect of his teacher, he had never asked her to show it in the first place. "It's fine. It's nothing I haven't dealt with already."

"Ain't tat tha truth…" The old man chuckled before stopping. Looking around Shirou noticed that they were in the Tower's secondary hall that lead to the main hall which connected to the main entrance. It was a fairly wide room that connected to multiple corridors. The walls, floors and ceilings were all very decorative and elaborate, however the most notable aspect of the room were the multiple arches that spanned the ceiling like a web. Both of the males had long since noted that they were actually built to enforce the multiple bounded fields inside the underground structure. "Ah can't follow ya farther than here lad. Sealing designation and all tat crap."

"Right." The teen nodded as he turned to hug his grandfather figure. "Be safe and try not to piss off any more nobles."

"Ah'll consider it." The old man smirked mischievously. "Before ya go lad, can ya by chance… ya know, make me a copy of… fer research…"

"Seriously?" Shirou hissed in frustration. "You're still going on about that?" He hesitated, looking at the exit of the room and at the people walking by before relenting. "Fine, but so help us both if Barthomelloi catches you with it…"

"Ah'll shatta ta ting ta second ah think tat somethin's wrong." The old man held three fingers up. "Scout's honor."

"Like you were a scout." The teen grumbled irritably before reaching into his inner world and quickly firing off the gun in his head. An instant later a red and gold mace appeared in his hands.

In the next, the copied weapon had disappeared into one of the old man's deceptively deep pockets. "Pleasure doin business wit ya lad." Sirius grinned happily as if he got a new toy, which, depending on how one interpreted the situation, was exactly the case. "Now get yer bloody arse outta here already before another bloody moron here tries ta kill ya."

"Your concern is touching." Shirou snorted before giving the old man a quick hug. "I'll keep in touch."

"Ah'll make sure ta have more good stuff fer ya next time." The blacksmith promised as he backed away. "Can't leave mah favorite student waitin now can I? Later lad."

"Later old man." The teen nodded as he turned around and walked away, thinking about his time in the tower, and what he needed to do to prepare for his next visit…

o. o. o.

Somewhere in Europe:

Merem found himself sitting relaxed in another church, somewhat amused with the fact that despite being a vampire he spent so much time in them, but was mainly focused on the young and attractive grey haired woman next to him.

"Our superiors aren't that happy that you're not telling us who the new tenth Ancestor is Solomon." She sighed casually as she inspected her nails. "We hired you despite the fact that you are one of our targets because you were willing to work with us to the letter in order to gain your payment. Don't tell me you're having a change of heart."

"Not at all boss." Merem smiled cheerfully despite the perilous condition he was in. The woman next to him was an extraordinarily dangerous and fearsome individual, having single handedly captured three fellow Apostle Ancestors. A woman who loved killing so much that she was aroused by it, she leads the Church's burial agency with power and fear. It wouldn't be far off to claim that she was the Church's version of Barthomelloi in terms of firepower.

Said woman had also been in a fairly irritated mood recently as word of Kiritsugu Emiya's son entering the Association had spread around the magical world like wildfire. She wasn't irritated that the boy was rumored to be as dangerous as his father and saw him as a potential threat or a lost resource. It was more that she had a… slight… adoration for Kiritsugu's rather brutal work when he had still been an assassin, and lost out on her chance on nabbing a very shiny and valuable toy. As a woman who adored the act of killing, the elder Emiya's tactics and efficiency were things that she could really get behind, and anyone who was taught by the man himself must at the very least be someone that could give her some fun as a subordinate.

Thankfully for Merem and Shirou, the Second Magus Killer was not the topic of conversation today… at least as far as Nabareck knew.

"It's just that so far he not only doesn't count as a threat to humanity, but he's technically not even an Ancestor. He's more like a placeholder until someone else takes the position or until he willingly accepts it."

"That still sounds like a pretty weak excuse to me." The chief Executor whimsically sighed, not once turning to look at the child like Ancestor. "Still, it's pretty rare for one of your kind to turn down that sort of thing."

"To be honest he's barely our kind to begin with Nabareck." Merem shrugged. "Even I would have trouble telling if he was one of us or not unless I knew what to look for. Plus he's the kind of person to absolutely refuse attacking the innocent or drink other's blood, even if it means dying in the process."

"You know as well as I do that it doesn't matter much to our superiors." The woman sighed. "Unless you can give us a real reason to leave him alone like with Ciel and that idiot curry obsessed Apostle, then I'm afraid that you will end up as our next target for circumventing our will."

The vampire laughed heartily. "Do not be modest. You would enjoy hunting me down like an animal if you had a reason to boss."

"You wound me Merem." She smirked and looked at him hungrily. "You should know by now that I don't really need a new reason."

"Ah true. You are rather infatuated with murdering." The twentieth nodded in agreement. "However the tenth can be useful if guided in the right way. He has great potential as one of my kind, however he is rather stubborn and doesn't truly recognize himself as one of us. He is also rather adamant about doing the right thing. If you, through me and in due time so he can grow a bit stronger, ask him to take care of some rather troubled areas in Asia and promise not to look into things, I'm fairly certain that he would gladly jump in to help control the damage for the sake of helping out… so long as we pick his targets carefully. He seems to be a bit of a bleeding heart."

Nabareck snorted. "You mean to tell me that the tenth is some sort of defender of justice? How is he still alive?"

The vampire shrugged carelessly. "Like I said before. He has great potential. It also helps that he hasn't really gone out and involved himself with the world much until recently. Actually he originally planned to not do that for a couple more years, but some certain events unfortunately accelerated his plans."

"He should have just stayed inside until he died. It would have been safer that way." Nabareck mused lazily. "Still, if he refuses to drink blood and go after others, I guess he can be overlooked for the other Ancestors for now… so long as he stays that way."

"Indeed." Merem nodded. "Oddly enough, I just got asked to help him out. He hasn't shown any signs of losing control, but he does want to be prepared in case something aggravates his condition."

"How very cautious of him." Nabareck remarked, clearly not believing the story for a second. Merem couldn't blame her. His kind wasn't really known as the most pure hearted and rational species on the planet. "How do you know he isn't lying?"

"He's a surprisingly honest and upfront person." The younger looking of the two admitted. "It's not in him to lie about something like this. He doesn't see the point in it."

The woman looked at Merem skeptically for a few seconds before chuckling lightly.

"What did I say that was so amusing?" The vampire asked, honestly curious as to what was going through the murdering addicted woman's head.

"A naturally honest and upfront Dead Apostle Ancestor." The executor snickered as she got up. "Now I have heard of everything." She looked at Merem with amusement on her face. "You've won me over for now Solomon. Your little Ancestor project will be left alone for now, but if he starts to become a problem then it won't be just his head we'll be mounting on the wall, but yours too."

"I assumed as much. You truly are a terrifying person." Merem sighed. "I wish you luck on your next assignment boss. Do try to leave the bodies in your wake with some dignity this time if possible."

"I doubt I'll be able to remember it in time, but I'll try to remember your request." The murdering addict smiled calmly as she exited the back of the room.

The vampire chuckled and shook his head. While many of his kind would scorn him for joining up with the Church, he doubted that they could say that the company he kept himself around while there was not interesting. After all, a Dead Apostle's greatest enemy was not the Church, the Magus Association, or one another, but the sheer raw boredom that came with immortality.

Though if he were to be honest, he would assume that Shirou would be the least boring of his kind right now. Secretly being Barthomelloi's dog of all things must be as eventful to him as it was amusing to Merem. Then possibly being used by the Church, and being the Magus Killer's son, AND the tenth Ancestor… and then there's that task he mentioned that his father wanted him to do. He was definitely looking forward to going to the Japanese city of Fuyuki again…

Fuyuki…

The vampire paused as the city entered his thoughts again. Ever since he visited the place, the vampire had the feeling that there was something odd about that city. Something familiar. A sense of déjà vu, but he could not remember why that was the case. His visits to the country were so few and far in between that he should have been able to recall if he had been there at some point in the past or not fairly easily, but that was not the case.

The King of Rats, his only conversationally capable limb, offered no help on the matter either as every time he died and was recreated, some of his memory went in the process, meaning his recollections would not be entirely accurate.

Oh well. All the better he supposed. It's not like he was in any rush. The mystery of the city would merely supply him with another way to push away his ever looming boredom between missions…

o. o. o.

Fuyuki:

"Emiya." Issei stated as he sat with his friend for lunch at school during one of their first days back from break. The two had resumed their habit of eating privately in the freshman year's student body meeting room, which was obviously empty save for the two.

"Yes Issei?" Said addressed person asked calmly while focusing on his meal.

The monk in training momentarily glanced at the door to the hallway and pretended to not notice the flutter of black hair in the small window disappear out of view. "Care to tell me why a certain individual has been peeking on us?"

"I have no idea what you are talking about." Shirou replied innocently, not bothering to turn around to try and see what his friend was referring to, already having a good idea as to what was happening.

"I see…" He muttered, not believing what Shirou was claiming but deciding to leave it be. "Well this may be a bit out of place, but I feel I must remind you to pick your friends wisely. I am concerned that someday soon you might be lured to become involved in some unsavory person's game and end up as her plaything."

"Mhm." Shirou mumbled as he nodded with a mouth full of food, not bothering to dwell on the irony that not only has it happened, but twice. He was just too tired to bother with it, and if he was honest, the Emiya would admit that his eldest male friend had been badgering him about his semi secret relationship with Tohsaka for years.

"I mean it Emiya." Issei continued seriously. "Unless you become more aware of how other gender works and how conniving its members can be, I'm afraid you might be dragged into a world that you can't pull yourself out of."

"Mhm." The other male mumbled with a mouth full of food while wondering if Issei was making fun of him or if he had some sort of sixth sense when it came to how messed up his private life was.

Honestly, he didn't know why the girl had been wanting to be near him so much lately. All he did was give her that scholarship and tell her that he got a part time job at the Tower in his first conversation with her when he got back, and now the proud girl was trying to spend as much time with him as humanely possible while being… dare he say it… nice.

He needed some private time to practice and perfect the recipes that he got in England damn it.

Granted he had somewhat expected her to be fairly pleased with his actions since it could help her out in the long run with her research, but now it was starting to unnerve even him. Last night she had even asked if she could help him out with his research… without once insinuating that he was overly dependent on her guidance. That was as big a warning sign as any to him that something was up.

"Speaking of dark and painful worlds, how has managing the class government been doing?" The Emiya steered the conversation away from himself casually.

The mutual friend looked at him skeptically before politely continuing his meal. "The same as always. Other than a handful of people in our class, there doesn't seem to be anyone reliable so I have to undertake most of the responsibilities myself. Thankfully I have you around to fix most of the school's equipment so the class budget is in nowhere near a bad of a state as it could have been, but it's still not something I look forward to managing whenever it needs attending again."

"You know, you can always ask a teacher for help." Shirou pointed out. "If the teachers find out about your position, I'm sure that they can arrange something to get things running the way they are supposed to be again. To be honest, I think you've been the most rested now right after vacation than you have ever been since we started High school."

Issei snorted. "Humph. Coming from the guy who always seems busy and has that childish new teacher Fujimura…" He shook his head. "You might be right. I had done most of these tasks in order to maintain the image of our class' integrity, but if things progress farther like this, I might accidentally let things get too far out of control."

"At least if it falls apart now you'd be able to pick up the pieces." The magus joked as he finished up his lunch. "If it was anyone else in your position, I'm fairly certain that all anyone would be able to collect would be ashes."

"Ha ha." The monk in training sarcastically laughed. He would have gone on to say something about how if Shirou was left in charge the government would end up looking like a garage, but before he could say it, the door opened to reveal a seemingly emotionless middle aged man in a green suit and wearing glasses. "Kuzuki-sensei?"

"Ryuudou-kun. I've been told to get you. There are some questions that need to be answered regarding the freshman year's part in future school events." The world history teacher stated calmly as he looked at the glasses wearing teen. He did not once make any inclination that Shirou was in the room or that he recognized him.

"Again?" Issei sighed tiredly as he stood up. "Sorry Emiya, but I have to deal with this. We can talk a bit later."

"It's no problem." The redhead shrugged as he gathered his things as well. "Just let me know if you need help with anything and I'll clear up my schedule to help out."

The other teen nodded before tossing out his garbage and walking out the door. "I'll keep that in mind."

Shirou yawned tiredly as the door closed behind him. Not once had he or Kuzuki looked at one another. Not once had they recognized one another's existence…

o. o. o.

That night:

Shirou's lungs were on fire. His arms were heavy and his legs even more so. His vision blurred as he attempted to deal with the multiple blows that he had taken to the head in the past few minutes…

Yet none of that mattered as the teen did not relent in his constant dance against the assassin turned teacher in the middle of Fuyuki memorial park.

The larger man's right arm shot out at near inhuman speeds towards the teen's open right side. It would be a crippling blow for any human if it landed cleanly on their head, however…

The moment the man's arm had struck towards that opening, Shirou had already raised his right arm up to strike at the offending appendage. The opening to the right side of his skull had been one of three he had made in the stance he was in and he had enough experience to know when his opponent was gunning for any one of them from the way they moved. As such he had no need to watch the attack or calculate it's movements to know where it was going and could jump straight to countering it in a way that would cripple his opponent if it landed…

However Kuzuki was not a martial artist. He was a killer, trained from birth and skilled in combat. His style itself, a rare form called Snake, not only capitalized on killing blows, but unpredictable whip like movements that made it nearly impossible to follow for the standard human.

Within less than an instant the man's attacking limb had changed direction and shifted from targeting the Emiya's right temple to his ribs under his right arm, which were now defenseless due to the teens defending maneuver. The movement of his arm was so seamless and flowed so naturally, yet so suddenly that it was little wonder why the technique he used was called Snake…

However before the man could capitalize on this new opening he was forced to shift is weight and dodge the other blade in Shirou's possession, which had shot out the instant the teen had noticed the man's arm had suddenly dipped from its original trajectory underneath his original countering arm.

Once more Shirou's experience and style had showed its true colors to anyone with sharp eyes and experience, had they been watching. Under normal circumstances, the teacher's blow would have landed long before Shriou's counter would have gotten close enough for him to need to dodge. In fact, had this been done normally, Shirou would have been hit hard enough that his counter would have failed to the point that the teacher would not have needed to even block the oncoming weapon… however that was if Shirou had been countering in response to Kuzuki's attacks.

Instead, the boy had moved his other weapon a fraction of a second after he had moved his original to counter the oncoming fist, and even less after that fist had changed directions. His moves, openings, and counters had all been premeditated. Moves that he had practiced constantly by himself and his combat teacher Bazett who also fought using nothing but her fists. The boy was no stranger to fighting people stronger than he was, both armed and unarmed…

However the man in front of him was no fool, and no weakling either. Without any warning or indication in his face, body language, or even his breathing he had reacted with perfection. In one swift movement, the man's right elbow shot down and his right knee spiked up, catching the teen's weapon in between and wedging it between his sharp joints, stunning the defender and keeping him in place at the same time.

Exploiting this new opening, the ex-assassin's free left arm shot forward three times, embedding itself into Shirou's ribs, stomach and face, each with the force of a hammer capable of knocking or incapacitating a normal human, before the last one forced him to let go of his trapped weapon and stumble backwards, but the Emiya did not fall...

Because he still had the sword wedged in his left side, the teacher could not immediately pursue his opponent before he managed to regain his composure again, and as such he had no choice but to put up his guard and quickly jump back in order to defend or evade a wild, but strong two handed slash made by the teen.

Unexpectedly, or rather expectedly considering how the boy fought, the attack was a feint as it caused the man to drop the trapped sword and retreat far enough for the teen to rush forward and pick it up again, just in time to defend against a fresh onslaught of punches from his elder opponent's lethal style.

It was a war using feints, counters, and lethal strikes took place where no one could see, and horrific to watch for anyone that could have had they been able to watch. Neither fighter let up in the slightest save for the small lulls where both prepared for the next skirmish.

The clashing between the two continued uninterrupted for well over ten minutes, something that any moderately trained martial artist would say confidently to be an exceptionally long time for any fight. By the time both had distanced themselves from one another for the final time. The boy was breathing fairly heavily as his body gasped for air.

The man on the other hand, while doing so more visibly, could only be described as breathing perfectly. Every breath he took was seemingly flawless, even in his tired condition, and was a testament to his years of physical conditioning.

It is said that on average, a man fighting with his bare hands needs to be at least three times higher in his field of martial arts than his foe in order to defeat a man fighting with a sword. If this was the case, then one could say that Kuzuki was at least four to five times more skilled than Shirou if one were to judge by the wounds both were sporting. Save for a few minor scratches on the undershirt and light pants he wore, the man's body was for the most part unmarred. The student on the other hand was in far worse shape. Several bruises were forming on various sections of his body and head, and there were some small red stains appearing on his shirt where he took hits so hard that they actually managed to break his skin in addition to wounding his insides.

The two stared one another down before the elder relaxed his stance. "You are still having trouble maintaining yourself after your third chained opening." He stated simply, as if he had not just moments before been engaging himself in a vicious brawl against the teen. There was no words of praise or scorn, nor the hint of either in his tone. Just facts and observations.

The younger of the two in turn collapsed and leaned heavily against one of the wooden swords in his grasp. He sucked greedily at the air as he attempted to calm himself both in body and in mind. No matter how often he fought the man, he was left both humbled and speechless at the man's pure skill and technique. "I've been practicing when I could." He managed to get out after a dozen deep breaths. "It's not like there are a lot of people around who are skilled in martial arts and go for stance openings these days."

He was technically telling the truth. Even though Bazett did a great job shaping him up and getting the basics of his style started, the woman's technique was not the greatest thing to use it against. Her style was focused more on quick jabs and power attacks than it was on exploiting openings in stances.

It wasn't like she needed much technique to knock out most magi when her punches moved at the speed of a car on the highway and hit like one ramming into you. He didn't even need to add in the fact that her clothes and fists were extremely magic resistant.

The emotionless teacher said nothing as he stared at Shirou for a few more seconds before going to pick up his clean set of clothes that were next to a nearby tree. "Be sure to clean yourself up before coming to class tomorrow." He advised as he took off his dirty shirt and replaced it with a clean new one that didn't have any tears or minor bloodstains on it.

Despite the fact that this was clearly not the first time the two had sparred like this, he always seemed to have the urge to remind the boy to do so. It wasn't without reason of course. Shirou's current condition was definitely something that would grab attention if he was seen in public, however he had noticed after the first spar that the boy had some sort of advanced way to hide his injuries almost as if they weren't there in the first place, and heal in time for their next spar. It was almost like magic, however he never brought it up in conversation. It was the boy's secret to keep and he would respect it much in the way the teen had respected the nature of his past.

"I always do." Shirou panted as he regained his breath. It had been shortly after the Louvre incident, and at the beginning of his freshman year of high school that he encountered the assassin turned teacher. His father had mentioned him in his notes, and while the description of what he had done and was capable of doing in his father's visions were a bit unsettling, Shirou had decided to confront the man early in order to not only try to prevent him from getting involved from the oncoming slaughter early, but to get in some extra combat training. It took a little convincing and perhaps a very minor hypnosis spell in order to convince him in the end, but he had eventually managed to get the old man to help him out.

And boy did he get it. Kuzuki was technique and efficiency personified. Every strike was precise yet unpredictable, almost always going for a lethal or crippling blow wherever an opening was found. Fast, exact, calculating, and exactly what Shirou needed in order to push his personal two sword style to the next level.

Where Bazett's training taught him how to fight, react, make judgments, and adapt, Kuzuki's sparring taught him where he would expect his skilled opponent's to strike and where he would want to make openings in the first place. It was slow, painful, and at times senseless as there was less teaching and more raw battle, but slowly Shirou was learning where some of the less well known vital points on the human body were and how each of his stances left himself open. When he first began sparring with Kuzuki, he could at best chain and counter two fake openings being exploited before being overwhelmed. Now he could push that limit up to four, five if he was lucky.

Save for the very minor bounded field that the Emiya had set up around the area where they fought weekly, and the healing that the teen used on himself after every fight, there was absolutely no magic involved. Shirou was far enough below Kuzuki that he rarely delivered a strong enough blow to the teacher that it would impair his work, or last long enough to exist during the next fight.

The teacher had managed to switch his shirt and gather his things before turning back to the recovering boy and stared at him. "… Your movements were a bit forced and desperate. I assume something happened over break."

Shirou paused as he looked at his teacher, who showed what seemed to be the closest thing to genuine concern he had ever since their initial meeting. "Ah…" he paused before finding his voice again. "You could say that. I was just reminded of how much time I have left before a certain thing happens that I have to deal with."

"I see." The man nodded. "How much longer is it?"

The Emiya licked his lips and chose his words carefully. "… Enough that I'm beginning to feel the value of how much is left, but also more than enough that I feel I can still prepare without being rushed."

The elder looked at Shirou with an unreadable gaze before placing his pack over his shoulders. "If you have that much time left, then there is little point to be concerned. So long as you are well informed about your event when it comes and what it entails, and you plan accordingly, there should be little issue."

"Speaking from experience?" Shirou breathed out more calmly, but still taking in deep gulps of air. He could already feel Avalon working its magic on him and if he let things go naturally he probably would be healed within a few days. However since he didn't have a few days, he would simply use a few minor spells to deal with the more serious and visible injuries as soon as Kuzuki left.

"Yes." The man replied bluntly as he turned to leave, before pausing. "Emiya, do you know why I decided to help you with your training?"

The redhead paused and looked at the man skeptically. Kuzuki rarely spoke more than needed and ever rarer did he prolong a conversation. "I thought it was because I wouldn't leave you alone about it." He replied honestly.

Normally the teen wouldn't bother ANYONE for a favor as he personally believed that it would be rude to bother other people with his problems, however in the case of Kuzuki he felt that if he established a strong enough link with the man now, he might be able to prevent him from falling under the possible future Caster's control, or at least listen to his warnings if he did.

"Somewhat." The man relented. "However soon after your initial request I saw something in you that I did not expect to see." He did not blink. "I saw the eyes of someone who has killed, and someone who knew he would have to kill again."

The Emiya froze in surprise. He had known that the man in front of him was good, and that he himself was a bit transparent at times, however he did not once think that Kuzuki could determine such a thing just by looking at him.

The teacher turned around again and began to walk towards the darkness. "It would have been foolish to let you continue doing whatever it is that you were planning without proper guidance, so I decided to give it to you. It is my responsibility as a teacher after all to do so. I am merely doing what I am supposed to be in the first place." His figure was now disappearing in the distance. "Do not concern yourself with how much time is left. Your task will come when it comes. It is as simple as that."

Shirou stared at the man's disappearing frame for several more moments before he disappeared.

Letting the man's words sink into his skull, the Magus Killer's son slowly developed a light chuckle and shook his head. "I know it's mean to Fuji-nee, but I honestly think that that guy might be my favorite teacher here…"

Back at the Fujimura house, a certain teacher sneezed loudly.

o. o. o.

Finland:

Marjatta Edelfelt grunted irritably as she ran through her private obstacle course with grace and precision that belonged only to those of her nobility. Familiar after familiar appeared in front of and around her as they attempted to impede her progress to the end of the course, either with their magically enhanced bodies or their minor spells. Ranging from a swarm of electrically charged insects to a bear with metallic appendages to birds that blew out tempest grade gusts of wind, the girl's opposition by no means was considered a weak force when put up against the standard magus…

None of the creatures even got close to the girl as they were all taken out with a Fin shot to the head or other critical areas. The advanced form of the Gandr curse flew in every direction at a record pace and nailed each creature so hard that they either were killed, knocked out, blasted away, or any combination of the three. Despite their numbers and advanced magical abilities, none of the familiars stood a chance against the girl.

Marjatta Edelfelt was considered by most means standard when compared to the mass magus population. Born with a fire element, the girl had progressed at a moderately advanced rate in her studies, which by most magi standards was nothing special. While she was fairly talented in her family's jewel magecraft, her elder sister had proven herself to be not only vastly superior to her, but also more diversified given her dual fire and ether element.

However despite the fact that her sister had surpassed her in virtually every other field, there was one thing that the younger sibling was proud of being seemingly unsurpassed in.

When it came to the use of the Fin curse, Marjatta had no equal. Period.

The girl was widely known within the Edelfelt family as a prodigy of the curse, being capable of shooting off variation after variation without a moment's pause, attacking at the speed of thought. Curved, scatter, rapid, puncture, disease prioritizing, lethal, non lethal, reversing, even exploding… the girl had learned and perfected them all to an art. She had even managed to figure out a way to shoot the black orbs out of all her fingers at once, something that had until then been thought of as completely impossible.

Of course in the world of Magi where scientific achievement was more valuable than physical achievement, the girl's capabilities were drastically undervalued by most of the population. Still to those who actually utilized their mysteries for more practical purposes, the girl was fairly famous for her abilities.

Which was unfortunate for the familiars that were pitted up against her since after roughly fifteen minutes each one of them had at best been crippled or horrifically injured, and at worst… well, they were alive at least… and who knows, they might actually find a cure for those horrific growths the size of their bodies one day…

"Humph." The fifteen year old girl snorted as she walked back to her elderly butler Sabastian who was waiting dutifully with a towel. "Next time prepare an actual challenge for me butler."

"I will make a note of it my lady." The elderly man bowed politely, ignoring the small smoking craters littering the field in front of him and the numerous disfigured animal bodies that were around it. Such an image had long become a common sight for him. "As always, your performance is exceptional."

"Have there been any job requests?" Marjatta asked as she wiped the small amount of sweat off her head. While the amount of mysteries she had performed would exhaust the average magus, she, born with over thirty circuits and inheriting another sixty from her family crest, combined with her mastery of her favored spell and her physical condition, had barely felt the strain of her session.

"A few, but they were all below the standards that you had set and as such I forwarded them to some of the branch family members to manage." The elderly man acknowledged. "I feel the need to remind you however that the number of jobs you have taken recently has fallen to the point that several of the elder members of the family have been starting to voice rather disappointed observations."

"Ignore them. I will meet the family yearly quota as I have always done." Marjatta snorted, not caring in the slightest of what her elders thought of her performance. They should be impressed and humbled that she only took on the hardest missions assigned to them in order to meet the family's mercenary mission quota.

"What of my sister?" The girl frowned. While she had been renown as the master of the Fin shot, Luvia was still the favored successor of the Edelfelt due to her overall high proficiency of all the fields of study that the family specialized in. Jewlcraft. Fin shot. General Thaumaturgy. Negotiation. Financial management. While she was no exceptional prodigy in any of these fields, she was good enough in everything that everyone treated her as the most promising member of the next generation.

"Lady Luviagelita has resumed working on her recent personal project. She has made it fairly clear that should she be interrupted for anything but the most important reasons she will be most… resolute in her response." The servant replied without any hesitation.

"Humph." The girl scoffed. "She never ceases to confuse me. How can someone so highborn be so attached to the common borne of the unprivileged? I will never understand her…"

"Give her time my lady. Your sister may have some uncommon tastes, but even you cannot deny that she is a very capable individual that is able to understand things more thoroughly than others." The butler replied truthfully. "This project will end up like all of her others. Either she will complete it, or she will deem it no longer worthy of her time and shelve it."

"I doubt it." The younger sibling sighed tiredly as she handed the butler back the towel. "You saw yourself how many documents she has gathered on that man and her reactions to many of its contents. If she does bother to give up on it, it will only be after at least a year."

"You cannot blame your sibling my lady. Even you must admit that the topic of her research is rather intriguing given what she has learned." The elderly man stated calmly, though his master did note a momentary glint in his eyes.

"Something on your mind?" Marjatta asked warily. Sebastian was a loyal servant to the family, however that did not mean that he did not participate in the occupation of mercenary work as well during his younger days. In fact he was supposedly one of the best mercenaries under the Edelfelt empire up until about two decades ago.

The butler hesitated for a moment before replying. "It is just… I have encountered the subject of lady Luvia's interest before back when I was active on several occasions. To be perfectly honest, I have extreme doubts related to the nature of her research. I know I am not to claim this, but to assume that that man's drive was to save as many lives as possible, ESPECIALLY after that incident in Buenos Ares…"

"You are speaking of that Hospital fire that he started." The girl asked warily, recalling the particular incident. "Saavedra, correct?"

"It was a nightmare for everyone involved." The man nodded as he recalled the nineteen eighty five incident. "A powerful magus turned Dead Apostle known as Stradivarius had secretly taken over the psychiatric hospital and had been experimenting on the patients for his research on attempting to perfect the process of altering the human mind through the nervous system. Given the location of his base of operations and the number he was experimenting on when he was found out, the Association and the Church had joined together in order to take him down, and hired several mercenaries in between for insurance."

"And the Magus Killer was one of them." The girl added in even though she didn't need to.

He shook his head tiredly. "It was a deathtrap. We had assumed that all we had to be wary of was the ghouls and magical constructs in the building, however we had not assumed that he had managed to turn the patients there into his familiars without turning them into Ghouls. By the time we had realized what was going on, we were already very far into the building and nearly half of us had been killed in the initial ambush."

He closed his eyes. "We had managed to regroup and were starting to turn the tide of battle when that man spat in everyone's faces. Instead of attempting to go from the top down like everyone else had done, the heretic had sent multiple familiars through the sewer system carrying large amounts of explosives, gas canisters, and incendiaries. Magical and not. By the time the first explosion had occurred, it was already too late. The bottom three levels of the hospital had instantly enveloped themselves in flames, killing the target and a good portion of the assault group. If that wasn't enough, he had somehow at the same time managed to detonate the gasoline backup power supply that the hospital had at the same time, disrupting the main power and caused the building to burn itself from both above and below."

He gripped his hands into fists. "He had used us as a distraction the entire time. It was only by a stroke of luck that I and several others had managed to lock ourselves into a side room when the flames were coming and seal it off so that we neither burned nor suffocated to death."

"Supposedly almost eighty died and two hundred and fifty were injured according to the public." Marjatta recalled absently, not at all concerned about the terrible contents of the story.

Sebastian couldn't help but snort in bitter amusement. "Those were only the numbers we allowed to be known. In reality the real death count was closer to five hundred when you take into account all the patients the Apostle had been experimenting on that were inside, and there were at least three hundred injury reports when I last saw the management cleaning up the situation." He sighed. "It took a massive effort from the Church and the Association in order to cover up the entire event and remove any evidence of Thaumaturgy from the area. The Association was also not that pleased that all of the Apostle's notes and research had been completely destroyed in the event as well."

"A shame." The girl nodded her head seemingly understanding the man's frustration. "All that effort and the only good thing that came out of it was the slaying of the Apostle. That man was far too sloppy to be relied upon."

"Sloppy or not, it was not an army of soldiers or a complicated spell that took out the vampire my lady." The butler frowned. "It was a single man that used mostly standard non magical means to not only wipe out the target, but everything he possessed as well." He wearily took off his glasses and cleaned them with his gloves before putting them back on again.

"The point of my story was that regardless of how we viewed the man, or how inelegant, or mundane, or heretical his means were, it would not change two main facts. The first was that he was remarkably good at what he did, to the point that he rarely even needed to use thaumaturgy in the first place in order to do his job. It would not be far from the truth to describe him as an unsurpassed master in the art of murdering a designated target, regardless of how talented of a magus they were. The second however is the reason why I am so skeptical of your sister's reason for researching him…"

"Oh?" The teen girl raised an eyebrow. "Why is that?"

The elderly man's gaze narrowed as the air around him thickened with dark emotion. "Because, that man had a habit of killing innocents and those only vaguely related to his targets in order to kill his target in the first place. I am fairly certain that there has not been a single cowardly trick he has not used in the history of being a mercenary. If he deems a tactic would be enough to kill his opponent or lure them into the open, he would use it regardless of how many people would be caught in the crossfire."

He closed his eyes. "I am afraid that if your sister immerses herself too much into that man's exploits while attempting to justify them in the process, it may eventually result in affecting her judgment. His actions are completely controversial to what her claims are and her theory and as such if she tries to look too far into what he has done and reason his actions, she will risk altering her code of morals into something unsavory."

Marjatta remained quiet for several moments as she processed what Sebastian had told her, from the event's details to what her sister was doing. Under most circumstances she understood what the old man was pointing out. Much like how a person ignorant of the magical world was suddenly thrust into it and exposed to its various socially unacceptable standards would have to adapt themselves in order to understand it, people too would have to adapt themselves in order to understand the Magus Killer's supposed methods. However…

The girl frowned as she came to her conclusion on the matter. "I am disappointed in you Sebastian. Do not assume that my sister would fall for such meager mental temptations. She is far too strong and in control over herself to subject herself to such minor influences."

The butler blinked momentarily before donning a small smile. "You may be right my lady. Your sister is a rather steadfast individual. She would not bend so easily… though I am quite surprised. You yourself are not one that frequently compliments others, your sister even less so…"

The blonde teen flipped her hair over her shoulder and walked away. "While I am not fond of my elder sibling, I will not ignore the fact that she has a reputation for a reason." Her eyes narrowed dangerously as she dwelled on the subject. "To think that someone reputed to be more capable than myself would fall for something so minor is unacceptable. Luvia will fall in stature in time, however I will make sure that I will be the cause when that day comes. I will not accept any other reason…"

o. o. o.

Omake: Why Sirius should never have too much free time. Ever:

Shirou raised an eyebrow as he watched an exceptionally pale and sweaty Waver lean against the doorway of Sirius' quarters. "Why…?"

"Sirius got his old skin samples back. He made a mannequin and is doing puppet shows. Run, before he shows you too." The Lord stated in a haunted tone.

Shirou didn't need to be told twice as he disappeared around a corner.

o. o. o.

A/N:

Once more, thanks Maximorph1 for betaing.

Damn it. I really tried to get significantly closer to the war here, but there was just too much stuff to make the transition. Judging from how things are right now, it will take another one to two chapters for the war to start… or at least to the point where servants are starting to get summoned.

So then, To recap here in no particular order:

Shirou encountered the Einzberns, and Einzberns will tell Ilya about him.

Marjatta is shown a bit more in depth and what she is capable of.

Shirou is training with Kizuki to enhance his physical abilities.

Shirou is half a step away from finishing the spell that cut off his arm all those chapters ago.

Waver is under more scrutiny from the Archibald family but holds them off to a degree.

Rin is hinted at being very clingy to Shirou upon his return.

Merem's Lorelei level scary boss decides to let Shirou live for now.

Another one of Kiritsugu's past exploits has been revealed that shows him in his full Magus Killer Glory. The event with regards to the Nasuverse is something I made up, but the fire itself did happen in real life.

I admit, I did not expect there to be so little Sakura and Rin in this chapter, however I did not really see the need to stick them in for now. I will make sure to focus on them more in the next one.

As for Bazett… yeah I got no excuse there. I just have no confidence in writing her character as of now, but I will try to cover her as well next time.

So in the next chapter you'll see more things falling into place for the war and more character development and blah blah blah.

For those who want to know why I was so late, here's the deal:

I'm working six days a week and all of them are at least nine hours each if I'm not caught in a meeting. When I get back home, I normally exercise and stuff for the following hour (though technically almost half of it is me doing absolutely nothing in the shower). Then I eat and clean up with the family (cause my dad has a habit of making huge and overly elaborate meals… but good most of the time), then read the latest manga, comics fanfics, and anime that I've been following (which thankfully isn't that much) that have come out so I can finally unwind from my day of working on coding, theoretical jargon, circuit board designing and paperwork. THEN, if the gods are grateful and my folks aren't running me around the house or town, I start to work on the fic, leaving me with about 2ish hours a night (if that) before I fall asleep at a time where I won't have to kill anyone upon waking up the next day and thus get into trouble.

And on Sundays I sleep. A lot.

In short. I gots little time. After August, which is when my company's current project ends, I will get a bit more time back in my weekly schedule, commonly known as Saturday, but until then, don't expect me to pump out chapters at the rate I used to.

So Review! Worship the Log! Pray to all that is holy that Sirius has something to work on! And Review Again!


	21. Chapter 21

Chapter 21: Turning Gears

I do not own Fate/Stay Night and stuffs:

o. o. o.

At the Association:

Sirius grunted as he walked up to the podium in front of the lecture hall, dressed up in a fairly formal suit and tie, something that he always hated to be dressed in from the bottom of his heart. Not for the first time he complained to himself about how uncomfortable, inefficient, and plainly stupid looking formal attire was. While the suit he was wearing was nice, many would note how off it looked on the frame of the normally casual and fairly unkempt giant old man.

The lecture hall itself was nothing unusual, many college campuses around the world, magical or not had a similar setup. A large area in front with several moveable blackboards occupied one wide end of the room, complete with a couple of tables and pieces of equipment, took up a fourth of the room. The rest of it was taken up with row after row of seats for spectators and students to sit down and observe the people who commanded the first section of the room with authority.

In front of the Mystic Code Crafter, sitting with notebooks and recording devices, magi of all ages there to learn and scrutinize his work as he taught his subject. A quick structural analysis told the aged man that there were about seven hundred and fifty four people in the room.

It was a good number for a class, to be sure, almost half what the place could hold in total, but he was fairly certain that that was because his presentation today was the first of a new branch of magic that he had spent the last few years ironing out. It was usually like this when a new class or practice was being taught as a legit class given the cutthroat nature of the Clocktower's noble populace.

Sighing to himself again and cracking a few joints in his neck to relive some of the pressure he was feeling, the McGinty decided to get things started and dropped his papers and books down on the table next to him, using a small parlor trick spell to make the landing of his load sound like a gong upon contact and shutting up his audience to gain there attention.

"All right lad's an lasses. Ah have only a few rules before ah get started. They're all pretty simple so ah expect ya to follow tem." Sirius spoke loudly to his audience. "Don't make fun of ta way ah speak. Keep quiet unless ah give ya permission ta speak or ask ya a question. An fer fuck's sake, if ya didn't understand what ah said, say it and ah'll either say it again or write it down on ta board for ya! Ah know ah sound funny when ah talk! Don't try ta pretend otherwise!" A combination of minor chuckles and grumbles of disapproval echoed throughout the room

Smirking as he turned around, knowing he had his audiences attention, the man began writing on the blackboard. "Tis here is ta first class of Material Tansmutatin' 784, Denial of Concept Imposition." He turned to his audience again. "So can anyone tell me what ta hell ya tink yer gonna be learnin in tis class?" He saw some hands go up before nodding to a young teenaged girl near the front with long black hair. "You. Lass."

The girl stood up. "We are going to learn the study of nullifying conceptual functions in objects."

Sirius nodded. "Close lass, but not quite there. What yer goin ta be learnin is not ta nullification of concepts, but ta complete removal of tem, an their implications on ta objects ya use them on and how they affect other objects. In essence, yer all gonna learn how ta take an object tat is in definition by Gaia as complete, remove a fundamental rule embedded inta tha object, and turn it inta a similar object that is still technically complete by Gaia's perspective. Ta reason fer doin this is because by doin tha adjustment this way, instead of performin some bounded field or adjustin spell ta make similar effects, tis spell permanently changes ta object, meanin tat it's permanent an afta ya do ta spell ta object won't need anymore prana in order ta retain its effects."

He nodded to a table next to him, holding an iron rod, a wooden rod, a tank of water, a pile of wood, and a gas burner. Walking to the pile of wood, the man picked a piece up. "Allow me ta give you a quick example." He lit the wood on fire with a quick spell, showing it to everyone, and then put it out again. "As ya'll can see, tis here is a normal piece of dirt cheap wood. It burns easily. It's not special in ta slightest." He twirled it in his hands before tossing it back on the pile lazily. "Now ah'm gonna now remove ta concept of "fire" from tis pile of wood."

The man frowned and began quickly chanting something in a horrifically muddled language, holding his hands over the wood for about half a minute before breathing out slowly and relaxing his arms. "As ya can see, tere's no real difference to ta wood… but watch what happens when ah try ta light it in multiple ways."

The audience watched in mild interest as the old man used various spells to attempt to set the wood on fire, ranging from mundane methods as simple fire spells, to using some lighter fluid, to even minor explosives. Nothing was changed save for some splintered pieces of wood.

"So ten!" Sirius grinned, slightly covered in soot as he stood back up from hiding behind another table. "Can anyone please explain ta me why my attempts did jack?"

This time a middle aged man in the back was chosen. "It was fairly obvious." The noble snorted. "Because the concept of fire was removed from the wood, the sticks could not recognize the flames when they were exposed to them and thus could not engage in the act of combustion."

"A bit prude in ta execution but correct ta a degree." Sirius nodded, ignoring the man's scowl. "While ta sticks could not recognize ta fire itself, ah did not remove ta concept of heat conversion from tem, so while tey could not light on fire, tey could still get bloody hot." He tossed one of the unblemished pieces of wood to a surprised student in the front row, who began to toss the object from hand to hand to deal with the temperature. "It's because of small details like tis tat tis seemingly basic range of spells has surprising depth and complexity tat ah will teach ya ova ta next few months."

"Professer McGinty! A question! How did you come across this particular branch of thaumaturgy?" Another student asked, this time from the middle of the audience.

The elderly man nodded. "Believe it or not, ah first got ta idea from ta current Emiya head when ah first started ta teach him. Actually, he helped out in a good part of ta research of ta subject. Ah doubt it would be even close ta where it is today if it weren't fer him. In fact, he is ta only other magus ah know of other than mahself tat can perform tis spell without issue."

As expected, there was much muttering and whispering in the room after the statement. The term "Magus Killer" was heard more often than not before the man cleared out his throat again.

"If yer all done gossipin like middle school kids, we can continue." He spoke out loudly. "Now before you all try ta start removing crap from more crap, ah have ta warn ya, tis is no simple family of spells. At least high level ability in structural graspin is a must here, even if what yer removin has no immediate effects on ta object's physical state. In addition ta tat, and ah can't say tis enough, unless ya have blue blood or a bloody huge number of circuits, never EVER try ta remove a concept tat ya don't have a special medium to. By tis, ah mean if its outside ta basic range of yer element, origin, family crest, or some otha special relic tat ya can channel prana through, it is out of yer ability ta remove. If ya do ah swear ah will laugh at your funeral fer bein a soddin idiot."

The elderly man walked over to his example table again and grabbed the iron rod and momentarily casted a spell on it. "Now. Ah am lucky enough ta be an average one, so ah have spent much time experimentin with removing all ta basic elements from all kinds o objects ta see what would happen. Fer example. If ya remove ta concept of wata from an object, it can do many tings. It will obviously not get wet." He dunked it in the water and then took it out. Not a single drop of water remained on the metal. "Howeva tat is only ta basics. Fer example if ya remove ta concept in a slightly tweaked way…" He opened his hand to drop the metal into the water…

o. o. o.

Somewhere in a doomed town in northern Europe:

The hunter clicked his teeth in irritation as he stood on top of a moderately sized building overlooking the bay. From what he could tell it had once been a casino of some sorts which explained why it towered over the rest of the mundane structures around him, but that had been before everything went to hell here. He had been too late and a good majority of the fishing village's populace of around a thousand people had already been turned into undead or been feasted upon.

The Apostle he had been sent to exterminate, while still possessing the weakness of being unable to personally cross major bodies of water by himself, had the ability to create various powerful vampiric themed familiars out of the bodies of animals, basically a twisted puppet master that cut apart other creatures to make familiars. His target had once been a human, but had believed that a way to access the Akashic Records lay in the minute line that lay between species, or rather the single theoretical unachievable genetic location that no creature, chimera, altered, manufactured, monstrous, phantasmal, or even divine, would ever be able to reach. As such the Vampire had a wide range of unnatural creatures that followed his every command despite the surreal numbers they possessed.

This included those of the aquatic monstrous beast variety, as the hunter spied the rather large red whale like creature momentarily surface, look around with its horrifically bloodshot and massive eye that had no eyelids, open its mouth, and shoot its tongue out at the nearby coast to snatch some of the few human stragglers that had sought refuge on their small boats. The poor unfortunate men and women there didn't even qualify as a single bite for that thing. As soon as it had taken its snack, the beast twice the size of the largest normal sized hunchback whale sunk back below the water, but clearly staying in the shallows in order to gain another easy meal.

The young man with his head wrapped in a red shroud growled in anger and frustration as he materialized his bow and kept an eye on the shadow of the beast that was hiding under the water. Normally his arrows would be useless here as the water would take the impact of whatever he would shoot into it, however that was why he had this weapon made…

"Trace. On." The magus muttered as a slightly blue tinted and tightly contorted sword appeared in his hand before notching it onto his customized bow. Pulling back hard and breathing out slowly, he took aim at the dark shadow almost half a mile away.

Taking the local winds into account. Calculating water refraction displacing the image of the beast from where it really is. Estimating how strong the natural defenses of the beast were…

"Triple Accel…" The concealed crest on the teen's chest began to warm up in the darkness of the cold night, even though it was summer…

"Break limit reached…" The customized arrow began to splinter along the edges and glow slightly from the super saturation of Prana it had received.

And like that the projectile was released, travelling at horrifically fast speeds.

The current world record for the fastest arrow shot by human hands was held by Kevin Strother and traveled at around four hundred miles an hour at its peak, roughly half the speed of the standard fired bullet. The poor man would be crying in depression if he ever saw what the teen had just accomplished as the arrow greatly surpassed the latter's speed with gusto, shattering the sound barrier in the process.

A normal human would only see perhaps a brief flash of something silver pass by as it penetrated the water's surface with the smallest of splashes…

Moments later the surface of the bay erupted as the whale like creature thrashed to the surface, a good portion of its torso had been blasted out of its body.

A few seconds after that, the fleshy remains that had been blasted off of the creature would return to the ground within a two mile radius of its position…

o. o. o.

CLANG!

The iron rod dropped by Sirius fell through the water as if it was air and hit the bottom of the tank without any issue.

"Ten tere would be no physical resistance met wit ta rod." The elderly man casually stated before taking out the iron rod again, dry as a bone and placing it down on the table again. "Conceptual removal can not only apply to the interactions between one object and another, but also the manner in how said objects can interact as well. It is quite possible ta make an object water proof via this method, yet still allow it ta experience water resistance when moving in a body of it. Likewise it is also possible ta influence tings such as conversion of forms, fluidity, an cycles through tis method ta get additional results."

"Now fer wind, ya got from previous examples ta removal of natural air resistance, where ta objects could handle just about anythin to da point tat ya could stick ta damn thing in a hurricane and it wouldn't bend in ta slightest…"

o. o. o.

Faint streaks of silver littered the sky as the inhuman beasts that were assaulting the town's populace were felled one after another with discrimination. Their course and speed unchanged by the gasses that made up the atmosphere as they dove towards their targets, constantly gaining speed with seemingly no terminal velocity to hold them back, speeding up as gravity enhanced their overall velocity and making their impacts even more devastating than they normally would have been.

Every flying distorted creature, every twisted four legged beast, every undead animal or human that was in the view of the tallest building on the coast was sniped without mercy or hesitation.

And yet the bowman had yet to lay eyes on his real target…

o. o. o.

"Playin around wit stored energy an kinetic energy in tis way is pretty tricky though since nullifyin kinetic energy makes it a complete bitch ta move ta damn thing and nullifying ta stored gets rid of ta ting's mass, inertia, and electrical charge. If ya want ta play around wit them afta a few of ma classes, come ta me so ah can give ya some notes on what ta look out for." Sirius concluded his brief covering of the wind element.

"Now objects wit earth removed is fairly hard ta work with if ya don't know what ta hell yer doin. First of all, if ya try ta remove a concept from an object that relies on said concept ta keep its form, ta entire ting will just fall apart. With earth, this can range from dirt ta rocks ta crystals ta metal. In otha words, it's only usable on tings like wood, plastic, ice, ya get ta idea."

He picked up the wooden rod and twirled it in his fingers. "Now like I said before, ta effects of tis magic vary dependin on how ya do it. Unlike wit water and wind, ya can't simply just make an object pass through whateva rock or metal ya want. There are different kinds o metal and rock and whateva, of course, and each kind has enough presence in Gaia ta be a separate category in their own right. So, a wooden stick could be modified ta pass through say aluminum, but still be halted by steel. Then there are alloys and layers of different materials and blah blah blah. You get ta idea."

The old man yawned lazily and scratched his backside with the stick he was holding, much to the disgust of many there. "Howeva, you do get interestin results in tha case of alloys when yer tools are only designed ta interact wit only one of the components…"

o. o. o.

He finally saw the vampire trying to escape now from his perch.

The blood drinking magus had finally realized that, including the members of the magus association that had arrived to clean up his mess that were having minor issues with his beasts, there was a major threat there as well. One that was absolutely destroying his small army of familiars with little issue and had taken out his prized monsterous whale from over half a mile away with a single spell. Such feats were normally attributed only to a small group of magi, none of which the vampire felt comfortable encountering at the moment.

Unfortunately for the vampire, the town he had decided to attack was unfortunately surrounded on three sides by large hills that only had a sparse number of trees to hide his retreat. His main mode of transportation, his whale, had been regrettably disemboweled and partially blown up, and was now bleeding out belly up in the middle of the water.

That being the case, the rogue magus decided to escape via land inside another one of his customized monstrous beasts turned puppet familiar. It was a fairly large eight legged tortoise looking creature the size of two trucks side by side with a thick metallic armored shell. Obviously the puppet was designed as a secured method of transportation, but the design was left something to be desired…

It only took a brief glance for the archer on the building to see what was happening… however seeing what was inside took a few more moments of concentration to determine. The creature was moving at almost forty miles an hour and weighted about twelve tons. Despite the creature it resembled, the shell encompassed the entirety of its body, though there was a fairly sizeable gap inside for its master and a few more puppets to travel in with room to spare. The outer layers of the shell were moderately protected by impact and spell resistant runes and enchantments, designed no doubt for miracles that directly affected the internal workings of the creature, however the bulk of its defenses were made up by the four inch reinforced steel plating shell that made the frame of the shell.

Good. For a moment there the archer had worried that the beast's defenses were actually something that would take some creativity to get around…

The next contorted dark grey sword he projected was made of a plastic compound. Granted if it had been disfigured in any normal way the thing would have been next to impossible to repair, however since his arrows were all disposable it didn't really matter much. After notching the bow and repeating the process of overcharging the projectile and enhancing the speed, the archer took careful aim…

Looking behind his ride, the vampire grunted out in frustration. A vast majority of his work had been destroyed by those damn enforcers. The whale alone had been one of the last of its kind and would be nearly impossible to replace, let alone the research that it's body had contained.

Looking at the tallest building of the small village nearly a mile away, the man growled as he saw the despicable Magus Killer point his bow at him. Oh he knew who the teen was. Very few Dead Apostles had yet to hear of the Queen's Silver Dog ever since he showed up last year and began hunting down whatever unfortunate Apostle that she had set him on.

A bow and sword wielding teen whose appearance was clouded by a red holy shroud. Honestly if any of his kind had heard of the bastard's description before his reputation had gotten out they would have scoffed and thought that the poor fool pretending to be a medieval robin hood would die soon. Unfortunately he didn't die, and if the rumors were true he was strong and resourceful enough to kill even the Ancestors. A very sobering thought…

Sobering or not, whatever was going to go through the vampire's head was replaced with pain as a plastic arrow violently punched through his puppet's defenses and exploded on the inside, shredding everything there and causing the transport itself to cease functioning due to too many of its organs being torn apart…

While the beast's defenses were indeed impressive and resistant to many forms of assault, they unfortunately offered little resistance to the arrow shot at it due to the simple fact that its shell was made of steel.

Most construction projects and objects containing metal in this day and age rely on iron in their framework. Strong, cheap, and lighter than other metals that would be considered for transportation, iron is often considered the best choice for most projects that require frames with heavy loads.

Steel is, despite being significantly more durable, reliable, and stronger than standard iron, is merely an alloy that is mostly made out of iron.

In most cases, at least over ninety eight percent iron.

The steel shell barely provided any resistance to the arrow that by definition could not recognize, affect, nor be affected by the element as the weapon shredded apart the traces of carbon inside the shield, creating a distorted ring of carbon around a core of iron just before the arrow detonated and horrifically crippled what was left of the retreating force…

And the archer finally felt it was safe to take some time off to rest his eyes and deal with his current skull pounding headache…

o. o. o.

"An tat was just a brief overview of what can be done wit partial alloy immunity influence." The elderly red head grunted as he stretched his arms and legs. "Fer fire, which we already quickly went ova pretty quickly, we got thermal immunity, combustion immunity, and crap like tat."

He took out his metal rod again. "As fer ether, ta results are actually pretty short an simple. When ya remove ta concept of ether, you basically get yerself an object tat can't be influenced by thaumaturgy. A magic fire can still melt it sure, but castin spells on it will get ya jack shit so long as yer method of spellcraft focuses on ta altered object itself. Spiritual bodies will have as much luck tryin ta possess it as they would tryin ta sneak inta ta Vatican without gettin caught, an ta only way you'll be able ta get ta ting ta change shape is wit yer own two hands."

He quickly casted the concept removing spell on the rod he was holding and then casually tossed it to someone that was paying attention to what he was doing. "Go ahead. Try ta do sometin ta tha rod. Ya won't be able to, but it will be good practice ta see what it feels like."

"Fer any of you tat are still wonderin why ta hell am I actually teachin tis useful skill ta others instead of hoardin all ta research for meself like any other bloody magus in tis place, ta anser is obvious. No single person is capable of being able ta exploit ta full potential of tis craft. Tere are an infinite number of concepts supported by Gaia, an as such there are an infinite number of ways ta use tis craft ta gain new results. By takin away an objects ability ta react ta one thing, we may be able ta find how it can react to another component of the same object tat we have never seen before. Wood tat melts under heat. Perfectly preserved samples of artifacts. Ah really do believe tat tis craft is ta link to a whole new way ta approach experimentin and thaumaturgy."

"So!" Sirius grinned, clapping his hands together and looking at his audience expectantly. "Any questions!?"

o. o. o.

With Waver:

Lord El Melloi II was in his happy place.

His work for the day was done. He was smoking a Cuban cigar and was reading an interesting manga. He had managed to complete several of his experiments recently and had made some good discoveries. His paperwork was all in order. None of the students under his care had nearly killed themselves or done something stupid…

And he was left in peace and quiet with his feet on his desk as he read a manga to pass the time.

"What are you doing?" The stern and in control Lorelei Barthomelloi asked from his doorway in a tone that had just the barest hints of bewilderment in it.

Happy place gone now.

"Enjoying some time off after a productive day." Waver replied without any hesitation or bothering to move from his spot. His reasoning for this was two-fold. The first was simply because he really was in a comfortable position reading his comic right now. The second was if he allowed himself to get caught up in Lorelei's tempo he would never be able to get out of his current situation unharmed.

"I did not think you were so uncouth as to relax with a child's comic book." The woman frowned.

"Japanese comics are fairly interesting to read…well the ones that are not written by immature fools that are perverts or pedophiles at heart at least." Waver replied casually without looking up. "Some of them are quite creative and innovative about how their fantasy magical system works." He tapped the back of the comic. "This story for example, Flame of Recca, while a bit vague in the execution of explaining how they work, has multiple mystic code like devices that would be fairly interesting to manufacture if possible."

"And you claim to gain inspiration for your work from these childish devices of yours?" The Queen of the Clocktower asked disbelievingly.

"The individuals who created that crude weapon, the atomic bomb, realized the solution to their research while they were changing a tire my lady. The ability to discharge that much stored energy at once is to this day still quite a miraculous feat, especially through non thaumaturgical means." The man explained casually. "Inspiration comes to people through all kinds of ways."

It was a good thing that Waver wasn't looking at his boss at that moment, because if he did he would have seen her eyebrow twitch. Just once. If he had seen it, there would have been no doubt in anyone's minds that he would not have lived past the next five seconds.

Before the woman could speak her mind though, the door leading to Waver's labs opened to reveal a maid made of pure mercury walk in with several books in hand. The metallic woman paused and looked at Lorelei, bowed politely, and then moved to a nearby bookshelf to put the books away, and then moved back to the labs.

"... I see you have been playing with your predecessor's mystic code…" Lorelei stated in a stiff tone. "What was that comment you made before about perverts at heart?"

"In my defense, I unfortunately made the last of my adjustments to her while with McGinty… and we were both intoxicated at the time." Waver answered Lorelei without any shame at all, smoke still rising from behind his comic book.

"I see. And what about the rumors I have heard about a metal woman occasionally breaking equipment and claiming to be a… what was it? Killer robot from the future?"

"I edit my previous statement. We were _horrifically_ intoxicated and watching a rather crass American movie at the time." The lord corrected himself and shrunk his head behind his comic. "I had forgotten that McGinty has a habit of reinforcing any alcohol that he touches out of habit at the time."

To his knowledge, the only things that he knew for sure would set off another Terminator episode with his code was to mention someone with the last name Connor within hearing distance, show it a shotgun, bring it anywhere near melted steel, or actually talk to it about being a killer robot from the future. Thankfully, so long as he kept the damn thing in the magical world, the odds of two of those things happening was minimal, and the other two wouldn't happen so long as he warned people not to do it before it was too late.

"Reinforcing…" The Queen of the repeated in disbelief before closing her eyes and breathed almost audibly. She made a mental note to talk to McGinty about this habit of reinforcing alcohol later, if only to get her hands on some for when she developed another headache due to the man's antics. "You mean to tell me that you successfully tampered with a highly complex and powerful mystic code and improved it while inebriated?"

"I hardly believed it myself when I came to." Waver answered. "The physical model initially used was a bit basic, but I was more surprised by the distribution and management of the internal flow of the model that I completed in that state. Those kinds of calculations aren't things that I would like to attempt to do while sober, but they worked surprisingly well. Of course I had to do some editing to the spiritual comprehension of the code's thought processes, in addition to making the model's appearance a bit more presentable."

Thank all that was holy he managed to fix that before anyone else managed to see the metal woman's original appearance. If word had gotten out on how his code turned servant looked originally, he either would have ended up getting killed by a number of nobles in the tower, lost his lordship and all of his sponsors… Or he would have been permanently labeled as a masochistic pervert for the rest of his life.

Damn you McGinty. Damn you and the blackmail pictures you took to hell.

"At the very least you have proven to be capable when impaired." The Queen of the Clocktower stated, though in a more strained tone than it originally was.

"Why thank you." The smoking man accepted the very vague compliment without issue, before lowering his book and looking at Lorelei in the eyes for the first time in the conversation. "However I am curious, why are you here my lady? I doubt you are here to converse with me about my mystic code or how I spend my leisure time."

"I should hope so." Lorelei replied, regaining her composure in doing so. "I came to discuss Emiya."

That had Waver's attention as he put his book down and took his feet off his desk. "Did something happen on his latest hunt?"

"No. Emiya has once again proved my decision to take him under my command to be the correct one. Within the next twelve hours he should be on a plane back to Japan with Fraga as an escort." The Queen stated, all but saying that Shirou had killed yet another Dead Apostle, bringing his kill count to six Apostles and who knows how many undead and other random familiars since he began working for the woman almost a year prior. A very impressive feat for someone that isn't even seventeen years old. "What I wish to speak to you about is of several other matters."

The lower ranked lord held back a groan and settled for breathing out some more smoke from his lungs to the side. Matters. Plural. Just what he needed, multiple favors from the Queen just as he had finished a heavy workload.

He had no idea how bad it really was. And technically, neither did Lorelei.

o. o. o.

Japan:

"Not bad." Rin nodded in approval as she supervised her sister's form as the younger girl slowly went through another set of basic martial arts stances. "You're still a rookie, however, your basics are solid. You won't be winning any tournaments soon, but at the very least you'll be able to deck an idiot hard enough to either knock him out or get away now."

"Please don't say such violent things Rin-sempai." Sakura sighed as she lost herself in the steps. Ever since the Louvre incident, she had had Rin teach her basic martial arts and thaumaturgy during their spare time. Right now they were once again in the overly elaborate Tohsaka estate's back yard in the middle of a fairly warm summer's night. Since Fuyuki City was on the southern part of Japan, the winters there were only somewhat cold while the summers ranged from blistering hot to monsoon season.

Of course Rin had agreed to do this under the feeble but logical reasoning that she and Shirou couldn't afford to always be there to rescue her again in case there was another vampire attack, but the younger female and Shirou both knew better than to take her excuse at face value.

The extra work though seemed to be paying off for Sakura in more ways than one. The physical training had helped give her more stamina during the day and gave color to her rather pale skin. Plus with the additional control over her body, it took more to get the worms in her body to get agitated and make her falter. The studies on the other hand had aided her in controlling her magic. Despite how the Matou family study of miracle making normally worked, mainly by instinct and activation through the body, it did not mean that there were other ways to apply it or make it work.

Sakura's execution of her magic in Rin's words was in short, crude, blunt, and sloppy. That wasn't to say that the younger sibling was bad or that she couldn't do much. Quite the opposite. The girl was quite capable of efficiently absorbing quite a large amount of prana from targets in a single spell, but her execution and her will to perform any form of her craft was destabilized by her timid will, making her attempts at self defense quite easy to either dodge or dispel when encountered by any reasonably trained magus.

This of course was something that Rin was determined to change.

Within the past year, the former Tohsaka had been studying extensively in a select few subjects that would compliment what she already knew and enable her to not be a hindrance to the others again, primarily in bounded fields and spiritual evocation, with a little bit of structural grasping and reinforcement on the side for obvious reasons. Sakura tended to focus more on spells for defensive purposes, she was still far from a threat if truly pushed, and for now that was enough to satisfy Rin.

In addition to combat capability though, the training had provided another benefit that aided the purple haired girl significantly. By combining her adoptive family's craft with bounded fields in just the right way, Sakura could effectively drain the prana in a small area and route it into herself to feed the crest worms in her body and prevent them from gluttonously feeding on her own reserves. In essence it was like creating a massive magic circuit for herself, only it was located outside her body and was used to fuel something inside herself instead of a spell.

Of course Sakura never told Rin this. Partially because if she did she would guilt her sister by telling her what had become of her body, and more importantly because it would end with her revealing that she had sex with Shirou fairly regularly. Technically she could last a good two and a half months now with the way she had things set up, but "just to be safe" she told him that it would be best if they did the nasty every couple of weeks.

It wasn't like anyone was getting hurt by the little lie.

"Someone has to." The elder female shrugged as she looked at her sister's form skeptically before turning her head back to the book she was reading. "Shirou would just try to solve everything by himself and end up getting hurt, and you're too shy overall to speak up."

"I'll have you know that I have been getting better." Sakura pouted childishly. "Just last week I had to berate Fuji-sensei for acting childishly and eating too much."

"Woo hoo. You talked down to an adult that has the mind of an eight year old. You must be so proud." Rin sarcastically cheered in a monotone voice as she turned the page and continued to read her book. "Huh. So that's how it's done…"

"Sempai…" The younger grumbled before taking in a deep breath and calming herself down again and repeating her forms. Rin was always like this outside of the public eye, so there was no point in getting irritated with her. Besides, performing her stances was a great way for her to relax, much like archery practice.

Just flow through the forms slowly. Relax. Close your eyes and listen to the quiet around you. Let the cool summer night air brushing against your limbs while you memorize your heartbeat. The distant chirping of the insects nearby…

"Oh yeah. I forgot to tell you. Shirou got back a couple of hours ago." Rin interrupted her sister's self meditation, causing the girl to trip in midstep and fall to the ground clumsily.

"RIN!" Sakura shouted irritably, forgetting any and all form of formality this time.

"What?" The elder grinned in a way that clearly said that she knew exactly what she was doing.

Not giving her elder sister the stuttering reaction that would indicate that she had won, Sakura picked herself up. "Could you at least wait until I was done before telling me this?"

"Excuse me for not telling you sooner then." The Tohsaka smirked before turning back to her book. "I wouldn't bother going to him right now though. From what I've gathered he seems a bit tired from his trip. That Fraga woman came with him, so she'll probably force him to shower or rest first before doing anything else."

The Matou looked at her host skeptically for a moment. "Rin-sempai. You've been with me all day. How could you have known how Shirou looked like when he got back? He made you promise to stop setting up detection bounded fields around his home anymore."

"True." The elder admitted shamelessly. "However he forgot to make me swear to not set up familiars outside of his home to inform me of the same thing."

"That's a very underhanded Sempai." Sakura frowned in disapproval. "I expected more out of you."

"Do you want to bug Shirou later or not?" Rin asked with a deadpanned expression, clearly not buying her sister's chastising for a moment. The truce was still on, but it was still anyone's race to get the moron to notice the feelings of the two of them.

"I'm only going because I want to see how he's doing." Sakura defended unconvincingly. "You said he wasn't doing well. He might need help."

"Mhm. Now whose the one that's being untruthful?" The elder yawned.

"Don't pretend you aren't worried too. I can tell you are giving him time to rest before you drill him for details." The younger observed, getting a twitch from her host. "You have been getting fairly lazy since Shirou began making those jewels for you."

"Hey! My little side business has been helping me get back all the property that idiot Kotomine lost me when he took me in!" Rin snapped.

Ever since the fourth grail war ended and Rin, and subsequently all the Tohsaka properties, were put under the priest's care, the man had been haphazardly losing possession of piece after piece of land until in essence all that was legally left under the Tohsaka name was the girl's home. This meant that most of the income that came from owning all the plots of land had disappeared as well and left Rin fairly limited when it came to practicing her jewelcraft magic until Shirou came along.

Now a year after the girl had begun selling Shirou's spiritually infused crystals, Rin had managed to purchase some of the land back, and with it a portion of her family's original income, utilizing her magic to hypnotize the original owners to believe that she was older of course, but the deals themselves were still legit… to a degree.

"Besides. You make it sound like I haven't given him anything in return for his work." The girl continued. "I've been teaching him basic jewelcraft the entire time he's been working… I mean helping me. I mean, sure, he stinks at it. Even if the crystals were in the shape of a sword, his prana insertion efficiency is at best thirty percent compared to my ninety eight point seven percent efficiency, but still he claims it helps him out on occasion, and who am I to prove him otherwise?"

Sakura didn't say anything, and didn't _need_ to say anything, as she continued to stare at her sister accusingly.

Rin fidgeted in place. "Would it help if I said that I was planning on remodeling his kitchen while he was gone to give it the equipment and quality of a five star variety the next time he left on vacation?"

The younger magus fidgeted, no doubt torn between standing up for Shirou and thinking about all she could do with such a kitchen. "… Perhaps."

"Glad we came to an understanding then. Now finish up your stances and…"

Rin was cut off as her doorbell rang. In actuality it was really a cheap piece of magic that did the exact same thing as a doorbell. To be blunt the Tohsaka had made it as a small project when she was younger after the original mechanism broke, but since her spell was doing so well she felt there was no need to correct it and get a real doorbell.

"That's odd." Sakura tilted her head to the side curiously. "Who would want to talk to you so late at night?"

"Most likely no one with pleasant thoughts in mind." Rin frowned as she quickly looked through the eyes of a familiar she had posted near the front of her home. "Three foreigners. All of them magi. They look like nobles."

"From the Association?" The younger girl shifted uncomfortably. She had enough trouble dealing with her grandfather and her limited experience with the magical world. Getting involved with elements from the other side of the planet understandably didn't appeal to her much.

Rin gave her sister a comforting smile. "Don't worry. If they've come here, obviously it's for business. Just stay out of sight and let me do all the talking." Her smile became more sincere. "Besides, if things get too rough, I can just tell them that the Magus Killer is currently in town and that I'm good friends with him."

"Sempai. I don't think that Shirou would like having his reputation being used for something like this…" Sakura frowned disapprovingly.

The Tohsaka merely waved her hand lazily to brush aside her sister's comment and got up. "Oh please. You make it sound like it's something that I wasn't planning on exploiting at some point in my life."

"True, but I was expecting you to at least be a bit more creative and resourceful before pulling out that card Sempai." Sakura countered. "It would be fairly cheap and shallow to rely on such a card so early in negotiations wouldn't it?"

Rin faltered in mid step before catching herself and continuing onward with a confident step. "Humph." She snorted, flipping one of her pigtails in the process. "Who do you think I am? Of course I know that. I was merely stating what I would rely on should things turn sour. The odds of requiring Shirou's help for something like this is minimum at best…"

o. o. o.

Emiya Household:

Shirou groaned as he picked himself up from his bathtub. He was exhausted. He was tired. He was hungry. But most of all he just wanted to forget.

Save for a dozen or so survivors that he had managed to convince Bazett-nee and the other enforcers to spare and just wipe the memory of, everyone in the village he had been sent to had been killed or turned into undead, which were subsequently killed. He may have finished off the vampire that caused the entire debacle, but unfortunately at the cost of far too many lives… no, even if it was at the cost of one life he would have felt the price would have been too high…

But this wasn't the first time he had encountered this kind of situation. In fact, this was the third time he had been sent out to kill an Apostle while on vacation. One of those hunts happened to unfortunately involve sibling vampires, something the not-quite-human desperately never wanted to encounter again after his initial encounter with Louvre's family.

This latest hunt, however, his first time dealing with a city that he had reached too late. He had always mulled over what his father had told him about Apostle hunts, about how much death was truly left over in their wake but… to actually walk through one was beyond sobering. The streets had been littered with the bodies of demonic beasts, undead humans, and unfortunate carcasses. Looking over the slaughter of men, women, and children reminded Shirou of a painful fact his father had told him once when he was training. Death was indiscriminate.

Even after he had been satisfied with the fact that all the monsters inside the town were killed, there had been much unpleasant work that needed to be done. The few survivors remaining had been accounted for, hypnotized, and taken out of the village. They would never know what happened, but the images would still haunt their nightmares for years to come. The bodies of the dead and the monsters were piled in the middle of the small village by those that remained, primarily the other enforcers there that had come with him and Bazett to manage the situation. Much to his displeasure, they had decided set the place ablaze in order to destroy any and all evidence of thaumaturgy that had taken place there. While it was standard procedure, the entire situation and the way it was treated left a bad taste in his mouth.

There was more than enough death and fire there to give him quite a few flashbacks from the Fuyuki Fire... mostly when he slept now.

Getting a towel and covering his nether regions, the teen hunched over his sink and looked at himself in the mirror. His body had become more toned as of late. His muscles were more defined, though still retaining a good portion of its young and slim appearance. His arms were more refined than his body, no doubt due to the additional physical work and fighting he had been performing recently. His skin had darkened by another shade, so now it looked like he had a constant and notable tan, though few would still peg him as anything other than Japanese. His head didn't really have the round shape that most Filipino's seemed to possess. Save for a few minor scratches on his body left behind from his recent apostle hunts, his skin was smooth thanks to Avalon's influence and, if he were to admit it, his partial transformed state.

However his hair on the other hand was clearly his most defining trait. It was now half silvery white now. Combined with his original red hair, his head appeared to be something akin to white hot embers, only instead of coals it was hair.

He brushed a few wet strands out of his eyes. He would need to get a trim soon. He didn't have much time to take care of it as of late and it was starting to get annoying. An inch or two should do the trick…

He paused as he looked at himself and frowned. His normally light brown eyes glanced at their reflection for several moments, taking in their haunted and weathered appearance and the small bags underneath them-

…Before momentarily turning pure silver and observing everything around them in an instant and turning back with a wince.

"I see you are still not completely accustomed to the new state of your eyes Lord Emiya." A smooth male voice from above stated calmly, though it did not cause the young man to react in surprise in the slightest.

"I should have expected you and Merem-san to come around now." The Magus Killer sighed and rubbed his forehead. "Couldn't you have at least done this when I wasn't half naked?"

The King of Rats chuckled humbly from inside the vents of the room. "I'm afraid not. Your enforcer companion would detect me should I have appeared anywhere else in your home."

"I see." Shirou grunted and sat on a small stool in the room. "My thanks then for allowing me to rest a bit before revealing yourself."

"I like to consider myself, if anything, a considerate divine beast." The pure white rat nodded in thanks. "So how have you progressed with your eyes? You know you did give us quite a scare when you first activated them. You were quite lucky that we were around when you did, otherwise who knows what could have happened."

The Emiya nodded in bitter acknowledgment, remembering the incident from six months ago…

He had been doing some minor training with managing his vampiric impulses with Merem while performing some of his thaumaturgy when it had happened.

Pure Eyes.

A weaker form of genetic thaumaturgy than Mystic Eyes that describes eyeballs with magic circuits, Pure Eyes are used to describe ocular powers that enable the user to see things that cannot normally be seen. This is opposed to Mystic Eyes, which are used to enact specified magic upon the outside world.

A simple example would be that Pure Eyes enable someone to see the future, while Mystic Eyes enable someone to set things on fire by looking at them.

The acquiring of them happens when there is some kind of mutation in the magic circuits located in the area of a person's eyes, either from birth or through some other means. They can also be artificially made through a process similar to making a Thaumaturgical crest, though only a very small range of powers can be acquired through this method.

Apparently, Shirou had managed to gain Pure Eyes due to the unlikely yet convenient blend of his body's natural familiarity with structural grasping and his physical semi vampirized state. It was not that unexpected of an event since many Dead Apostles eventually developed Mystic Eyes of their own should they live long enough, most of the time ending up with the Enchantment variety, though many were not that strong to begin with. In Shirou's case, the end result of the mutations was eyes that could be best described as the Pure Eyes of Structural Grasping…

And they were a complete hindrance to Shirou.

Originally, when Shirou wanted to gain information on an object that wasn't immediately stored into his Reality Marble, all he would have to do is focus a tiny amount of prana to his eyes, look at his target, and delve into it a bit. If he wanted more information, he would have to push a bit more into the object's structure, but otherwise it wasn't that bad. No extra information would go through his head, and he got what he wanted.

Now though? Now he had to approach things in a completely different way. When his eyes activated, he didn't simply grasp the insides of the object he wanted. Oh no. If he wasn't careful, he would take in the structural information of absolutely everything in his line of sight at once without exception.

Taking in such a direct massive influx of information at once was far beyond what the human mind could handle, save for maybe a select few individuals from Atlas, and it showed. When Shirou first accidentally activated his eyes during his training and burst no less than five major blood vessels in his brain at once, followed by bleeding from the eyes, ears, and nose, screaming incomprehensible words of pain, and then finally blacking out. This was of course, not including the horrific amount of pain he went through during the episode.

Merem had claimed later he had a hell of a time keeping Shirou's disappearance a secret while simultaneously trying to fix the teen's damages and figure out what had happened. Honestly, so long as Merem had kept him away from Kirei despite his wounds, Shirou would have been just as happy.

Though, he would admit that he was wary of what would happen if the Queen found out about his eyes.

It had taken an unnaturally large amount of time, effort, and luck for the teen to regain the use of his most basic and useful magical ability while keeping his crippling status hidden from everyone else he knew, and even now his current skill with it was significantly less than it had been before his eyes evolved.

What took him at most a second to scan or identify under normal circumstances now took at least five in order to prevent his brain from exploding. Ten or more if he had to reinforce his eyes in order to see the object from a fair distance away. Switching between objects took even longer to do. Then there was the fact that he was prone to getting headaches every time he used them carelessly…

Thankfully though this did not in any way affect his ability to instantly record, analyze, and trace anything that could be stored within his reality marble with a mere glance, prana not required. Also he could still structurally grasp an object normally if he was in physical contact with it, however he knew in many cases such an approach would not be practical or safe to do.

That wasn't to say that the eyes came with no benefits... though if Shirou was asked, he would still have gotten rid of them in exchange for his old eyes back. In addition to the standard influx of data stemming from the tracing process, he also could obtain basic Physic based information on them as well including coordinates with respect to himself, velocities, accelerations, etc.

Additionally, he had significantly less trouble gaining information from structures with internal sources of energy, aka people, familiars, mystical objects, vampires and so on. Normally this would be fairly hard for him to do since internal reserves of prana caused disruptions in spells casted upon them directly. However, Shirou's new eyes seemed to have little trouble getting around this. He still couldn't determine a person's element like Sirius could, but knowing how their bodies were built and if they had any existing wounds were just as good.

Shirou theorized that with enough practice, if he ever got used to the damn things without killing himself, he could eventually evolve his eyes enough to see instantaneous concepts in objects such as 'trajectories' and 'intended paths and targets'. But like most everything else involving his magic, he had to get used to using them without blowing up his brain first before he could ever try something like that. At the rate he was going, he was fairly certain that it would take him years if not decades in order to achieve such a proficiency.

"They're still more trouble than they're worth." The Emiya sighed as he rubbed the bridge of his nose to relieve some of his stress.

The divine beast laughed. "Perhaps. It certainly wouldn't be the first time I have heard of mystic or pure eyes driving the wielder insane from their use… though of course my Master and myself are rather humbled by their potential. True they are not Mystic eyes, but the ability to obtain such grand amounts of information from the world so quickly is a rather valuable asset to claim. Given the choice both of us would rather have your eyes than the Mystic Eyes of Enchantment that most Apostles possess…"

The rat chuckled again. "Indeed. It is quite ironic that your altered status has enabled you to possess another ability that would qualify as _Silver_ under the noble color scheme…"

"Why are you here?" Shirou frowned, wanting to change the subject. "Even if Merem-san had been waiting for me, he normally lets me have a day of rest from travel before having you come in contact with me. Is something the matter?"

"Master was going to visit, however he has recently discovered a moderate increase in magus activity in this city within the past few hours." The rat admitted. "It does not look like anything will get violent soon, however due to this unexpected turn of events, he felt it would be appropriate to at least send his greetings and apologies for not being able to spend time with you during your break." The rodent shook his head in depression. "A shame too, we are quite fond of your cooking."

The Magus Killer let out a brief grin of amusement, while pride in his cooking swelled in his chest. "There's no need for either of you to apologize. It was merely inconvenient timing that ruined your plans. I'll try to make it up to both of you the next time we get together. I'll make some of that four cheese pizza you like and that eastern European soup that Merem-san seems to be pretty fond of."

"F-four cheese? H-Homemade? F-For me?! You spoil me Lord Emiya!" The King of Rats declared.

Shirou laughed more now, the rat's reaction amusing him enough to cause some of the exhaustion in his body to seem lighter. "It's no trouble my friend. You and Merem-san have helped me out so much. Cooking you your favorite dishes every once in a while is the least I can do to say thanks."

"It is I that should be thanking you!" The rat bowed politely. "I am rarely treated so well once people know of my true nature save for my master. You truly are an outstanding individual."

"I am honored to be held in such high regard by a king." The Faker smiled happily before calming down. "Before you leave, can you possibly answer a few questions of mine?"

"Oh? It is rare for you to actually ask me for information. If it is my ability to do so, then by all means ask." The familiar replied.

"It's about this new tenth ancestor, the Ash of Miracles." Shirou started aimlessly, not noticing his animal friend's stiffening of posture. "There have been many rumors of him going around recently, but save for those, no one seems to know anything about him. Even the members of the Association with Dead Apostle contacts are completely oblivious to who this guy is." He sighed and began to stretch his weary limbs, letting the warm humid air gently massage his tired muscles. "To be honest, it's starting to get on Lady Barthomelloi's nerves, and she has made it fairly obvious that she doesn't like not knowing anything about this guy."

Fairly obvious was an understatement. He had unfortunately been in the same room as her and an informant when she was having a bad day and witnessed her quite clearly express her displeasure with the man for his inability to come up with anything. At this point, Shirou just wanted to get something to sate the woman's hunger for information before she made things even more unpleasant for the people around her.

"I hate to put you in a position, but would it be possible for you to tell me something about him?"

The King of Rats shifted unevenly as he tried to think of how to best deal with this awkward situation. He had no doubt that his master would be more than amused about this when he reported back later tonight. "Unfortunately, I am obligated to reveal next to nothing about the new tenth. His identity is being kept secret for a multitude of reasons, even from himself."

"That's somewhat concerning." Shirou frowned. "Normally apostles are quite vocal about their status, much like nobles in the Association. For him to not want to be known could mean many things."

"Indeed." The familiar laughed nervously. "I can say however that his position is unsteady. The title of the Tenth at this point could easily be given to another Apostle should they kill him and meet the qualifications of the rank before he acquires the appropriate power." The rat hesitated. "He could also lose the position if you…"

"No." The teen interrupted firmly, but still kindly. "I know where you are going, and my answer is the same. I will not become the Tenth."

"I assumed as much. You are still quite unused to your condition after all. Best to give you a decade or so to adapt." The King sighed. "Regardless, the only other thing I believe I can get away with informing you is that he is remarkably humane. He does not drink blood unless it's an absolute necessity, and even then avoids attacking others whenever possible. Other than that, he has almost no contact with the rest of the Apostles and mostly keeps to himself."

"Sounds like an introvert." Shirou muttered, ignoring the snort from above, assuming that his guess was amusing in some odd vampire related way. "Wonder how he was risen to the level of the Tenth then. Still I can't argue with that kind of approach. Lady Barthomelloi would still try to hunt him as soon as possible, but until we actually find the guy that's probably not going to happen."

"Which is good for him." The rat nodded knowingly before turning to the dark vents. "Now by your leave Lord Shirou, I have to report back to Master. As always it has been pleasant to speak to you. We shall speak again soon…"

Shirou sighed as he felt the minor distortion in reality that always was present whenever the King of Rats was around slowly go away, indicating that he truly did just leave, before getting up and finishing up his cleaning.

"You certainly took your time." Bazett pouted as she stood waiting outside the bathroom door with her cleaning supplies and some extra clothes. "If you hogged all the hot water, make no mistake I will beat you senseless for your selfishness. I haven't had a decent bath in over a week. We only had those cheap European showers to work with and those aren't relaxing in the slightest."

The Emiya laughed sheepishly in his towel and the Shroud of Martin once again reshaped as an undershirt on his body. Normally he would be more prudish about being so under clothed in front of others, but considering all that he and his other sister figure had gone through, it didn't bother him much if it was just her. She was mature enough to not let such a thing bother or affect her. Taiga on the other hand… no. Not a chance in hell if he could help it. "Eheheh. Sorry Nee-san. I guess I just got a bit too relaxed in there."

The Enforcer crossed her arms and sighed, looking at him pityingly before sighing. "There's no need to apologize Shirou. This is your place, and in all honesty you deserve a break. This hunt was rough for you since we didn't get to the apostle in time to stop him. I know it must have been hard for you to deal with the realization that we didn't get there on time…"

The images of several dead bodies flashed through the teen's mind. None of them were put down in a clean manner. "I hate to admit it, but I'm beginning to truly understand why dad's methods were so violent and desperate when he took out a target." He stated dryly. "Even if they involved more casualties than anyone would have preferred, they took out the targets easily and prevented things from getting to… THAT degree…"

The elder nodded solemnly before patting the teen on the shoulder. "Get some rest. Knowing you, you probably haven't had any since the night before the village."

"And for good reason." Shirou grumbled as he walked to his room. "I'm going to cook something quick before going to sleep though. It'll take my mind off of things…"

"If you're taking requests, can you please see if you have any hamburger? You always add the best spices to them unlike the cheap stuff you get from restaurants." The purple haired Irishwoman asked hopefully as she closed the door.

It was a sad fact that regardless of her skill, employment, and relation to Shirou, Bazett still had horrific luck when it came to monetary affairs, either with losing her wallet or getting her accounts hacked, or any other number of unfortunate circumstances. This led to her employing a less than idealistic history and lifestyle that included cheap food and occasional embarrassing side jobs.

In fact Sirius had a collage somewhere of pictures of her in a number of embarrassing work uniforms that she had worn before becoming an Enforcer. The evil bastard of an old man had also thought ahead when he made the thing as that photo collection was horrifically durable to the point of somehow being nearly indestructible. Bazett could attest to that personally.

"If we have it, consider it done." The Emiya smiled, pleased that he could once again be useful without having to hurt anyone again doing one of the things he enjoyed to do the most.

It had taken him less than a few minutes to get some light clothing on. He decided to just wear the shroud on his upper body since he wasn't going anywhere, and a pair of sweatpants so he didn't have to get changed later to go to sleep.

Happily thinking to himself of what to make as he walked to his kitchen, he was interrupted when he heard the doorbell ring.

The teen checked the time curiously and saw that it was close to nine thirty. Not horrifically late, but not a time that anyone really got guests either.

Another ring from the door prompted him to make haste to the entrance, and slowly feel more tired with each step he took. He could think of several people that would come visit him at this point in time, and to be perfectly honest each and every one of them would cause him to stay up longer than he really wanted to right now. But he was if anything else, an accommodating host.

He was beginning to worry about the possibility of having to cook for additional guests and if he had enough food in stock. He had just come back from a month long trip, and while he was certain that he had some meats in his freezer and other supplies in the kitchen, he wasn't sure if he had enough to accommodate much more than maybe two or three people if that was the case. Meat was expensive and if his guests preferred to eat eastern cuisine…

The third bell rang just as he was in front of the door, snapping Shirou out of his thoughts. Had he paid more attention, he would have notices that there were multiple distinct scents of prana coming from the other side. "Yes. I'm coming!" He stated. As he opened the door…

And saw Rin, Sakura, Luvia, Marjatta, and the Edelfelt butler Sebastian standing in front of him, all waiting expectantly.

He must have been more tired than he thought. He was beginning to hallucinate horrifically terrifying images…

o. o. o.

Twenty minutes later:

"You five better have a good reason for interrupting my bath." Bazett grunted irritably with wet hair and in casual clothing consisting of khaki pants and a loose t-shirt as she sat at the head of the living room table with the five guests sitting around it, looking at her with varying levels of fear. "I was just about to reach nirvana when you showed up."

"Shouldn't we wait for Shirou-kun to finish cooking for us before we explain?" Sakura asked hesitantly, looking at the kitchen where said owner of the home was frantically trying to prepare enough food for everyone there. While his initial reaction to seeing them was rather amusing at first, it was clearly apparent that the sudden visit didn't do the teen any favors as he began rather sloppily to attempt to be a good host to everyone. His act had cleaned up, but everyone could tell that the male was considerably tired from how much noise he was making in the kitchen.

"Don't care. Interrupted relaxing bath time. It's your fault you didn't bother to wait till tomorrow for this, so you're going to explain it twice." The Enforcer growled dangerously.

"And who are you to tell us what to do?" Marjatta Edelfelt snorted while crossing her arms. "As far as I can tell, you are just another commoner that has no idea who you are addressing…"

"Bazett Fraga McRemitz." Luvia's eyes narrowed knowingly and interrupting her sister before she dug herself into a deeper hole. "Enforcer of the Association. It is an honor to meet someone of your skill."

"You've done your homework Edelfelt, and thank you for the compliment. Most nobles tend to spit on those in my profession." Bazett briefly nodded her head without breaking eye contact. "How do you know of me?"

The blonde teen flipped her hair haughtily in a reflexive manner. "It was a small thing really. There had been word of an Enforcer training and traveling with the Magus Killer during his missions for a while now. All I had to do was a little research into your background to find out what you looked like and who you were."

"A Fraga?" Marjatta raised an eyebrow, recognizing the well known name of the rather isolated but very old family of magi.

"Yes, but I would appreciate it if you didn't talk about my family. I haven't spoken to them in years." The identified woman frowned. "Now, once again. Why. Are. You. Here?"

"That would be my fault I'm afraid." Rin sighed aridly, waving a hand lazily. "You see I've been using dear Shirou's rather unique skills to help me make a fair number of spiritually infused jewels and then selling them to the European magus community. While it has made me a rather sizeable profit which I have been putting to restoring my family's fortune, it has also gained me the attention of Edelfelt-san's family. They were quite curious as to how I was able to produce such a vast quantity of quality gems for experimentation and, well, here we are."

"And the reason why you decided to come so late at night instead of bothering to wait?" Bazett questioned tiredly.

The Tohsaka shrugged casually. "Well that was a mistake on my part. I merely knew that he had recently arrived, not the exact condition he was in when he did so. Also, it happens that Shirou was acquaintances with Edelfelt-san here, so when we realized that we both knew him, we decided to kill several birds with one stone. We would reacquaint ourselves with our friend while finishing up our business."

Sakura tried very hard not to give her sister a cold look. In reality it had only taken around ten minutes for Luvia and Rin to exchange not so subtle death threats during their negotiations of a new jewel exchange deal. Neither teen was giving the other an inch in terms of negotiations before Rin let Shirou's name slip out of her mouth. Then a whole new can of worms was opened as she and Rin realized that Luvia was somehow an acquaintance of Shirou's… and the Magus Killer.

Rin, somehow managing to prevent herself from even showing that she found the whole double identity thing absolutely hilarious, then suggested that it considering the circumstances it would be unfair to continue having this sort of business discussion without Shirou there to act as a neutral party. In all honesty, Sakura had a feeling that Rin arranged this whole meeting just to amuse herself while subtly strong arming Shirou into giving her a favorable deal.

Sakura had to hand it to the Tohsaka though. She didn't know how, but the dark haired girl had made it so far without so much as a giggle of amusement, however she was fairly certain her sister did crack an evil smirk several times on the way to the Emiya household.

"Just curious Bazett-nee-san, what are you doing here?" Sakura asked curiously. "We haven't seen you for years."

The Enforcer closed her eyes before stretching tiredly, inadvertently causing her impressive bust to stick out a bit more than intended for everyone to see. "To be honest I just finished up an Apostle hunt up in northern Sweden. It was a pain in the ass and it didn't end well. Long story short we got the bastard, but he got the town we caught him in, forcing us to torch it. So, I decided to go on a quick break and crash at Shirou's for a couple of days to unwind a bit before getting back on the job. It was by pure coincidence that we met up in England and he was going back home, so I kinda invited myself over."

Sebasian frowned. "From the looks of the boy, one would think that he was the one that had fought the Apostle."

The woman didn't blink as she looked at the only man sitting in the room before shrugging. "The kid doesn't take traveling well. It's a long trip from England to Japan you know. Some of us can't afford to travel first class to every place we want to go." She turned to Rin. "So what exactly is this deal you were talking about earlier?"

The Tohsaka heir yawned. "Oh it's what you would expect. Mass production of spiritually infused jewels for the Edelfelt family at reduced prices in exchange for a constant customer and benefits. What the benefits are and what the prices are are yet to be determined though."

"I would have believed that my original offer would have been sufficient to appeal to one in her position, however it seems as if Miss Tohsaka here enjoys overstepping her bounds." Luvia smiled in a strained manner.

"Funny. I expected as much from a rich and spoiled individual such as yourself." Rin growled sweetly.

"Hey!" Shirou shouted from the kitchen. "Don't think I can't hear you two pretend to be nice to one another! Don't make me set off my bounded fields to make sure my house doesn't blow up!"

Marjatta raised an eyebrow. "Humph. Who does he think he is? He is merely a third rate magus. What kind of weak bounded fields does he have set up that make him think that it would affect our magic?" Rin had to suppress a wince at that, recalling the one time she had barged in his home and 'attempted' to kill him. Having one's magic rendered explosive in their face was not a pleasant experience.

"Um." Sakura pointed out. "Actually to my knowledge he's good enough to have a fully paid scholarship to the Clocktower."

The younger blonde frowned. "Him? How? He's just a third rate nobody."

"Can we not talk about positions in Magus society in my home with other nobles please!?" Shirou shouted from the kitchen. "I'd like to make sure that the house stays in one piece when everyone leaves tonight!"

"It's not like he would be losing much." Marjatta snorted as she looked around, eyeing the traditional Japanese home with disdain before grimacing at the wide screen tv in one of the corners. "There is nothing of value here, and it is clear he isn't of nobility. Look at how much he squanders on primitive commoner appliances."

"It is rude to insult a person's home while he is treating you to a meal." Sakura frowned disapprovingly at the teen her age.

"Humph. He should be honored that he is given the chance to host my sister and I in his… home." The girl stuck her nose up in the air defiantly.

Luvia sighed, noting the looks of irritation that Bazett, Rin and Sakura were giving her sister. "Please forgive my sibling. As you can see, she is not very adaptable to environments outside the standard of our noble raising."

"Kid. Let me just give you some advice as a person that's been on the road a lot and seen many things." Bazett stated calmly before leaning back and seemingly relaxing. "Don't piss off the people that make your food. Trust me on this. You don't want to know what they could do to your food without you ever knowing."

Rin and Sakura looked at one another knowingly. On the one hand, the woman was indeed correct in that rule of thumb. On the other hand… this was Shirou she was talking about. The boy was more likely to cut off a finger than willingly sabotage one of his dishes, let alone feed a person some sort of horrifying or disgusting concoction for his own personal satisfaction.

Marjatta on the other hand didn't seem to get the hint. "As if I would fall for such a simple and lowborn trick."

Bazett sighed and shrugged aridly. "Fine, don't believe me. Just don't say I didn't warn you the next time you find a hair in one of the meals your servants made you… or if you were in a restaurant and annoyed the waiter too much…"

A faint twitch in the girl's eyebrow was all it took to show everyone there that Bazett's "warning" had indeed taken root. It might not get anything out of the girl soon, but it would fester and grow with time until… and the final results would be beautiful. Just a shame none of them would probably get to see the end.

Sebastian suppressed a brief chuckle by clearing his throat and making himself known again. "Ehem. I do not mean to be rude, but could we by chance go back to the subject at hand?"

"Right. To make a long story short, you two don't get along and are trying to set up a deal. In order to try and get things done, you involve Shirou to act as a mediating third party." Bazett yawned. God she wanted to go back to her bath now.

"Pretty much." Sakura nodded.

"I still don't see why she is here with us." Marjatta frowned. "She doesn't have anything to do with the deal.

"She is here of my support." Rin crossed her arms. "If Edelfelt-san here, who is clearly the heir to her family name, is allowed to have her assistants accompany her, then I am entitled to do the same…"

"We are both heirs to the Edelfelt name!" The younger blonde snapped. If there was anything she hated, it was when people assumed that her sister was the only one that inherited her family crest and she was left to dry. No matter who it was, Luvia was the one that everyone assumed was the one in charge.

"Tohsaka, if you do not mind, please do not goad my sister." Luvia's eyes narrowed while hiding the fact that she didn't want to have to deal with this situation again. "If you are as well informed as you claim, then you are well aware of Ore Scales."

"Ore Scales?" Sakura blinked in confusion.

"Sisters." Rin smiled sweetly, though the thought of the subject clearly left a bitter taste in the speaker's mouth. "It's a sorcery trait that the Edelfelt family has that enables them to have two successors for each individual line of magi, meaning that siblings can have identical copies of their parent's crests, and so on."

She didn't bother to notice the twitch in Sakura's face, realizing how invaluable such a thing could have been, for them in particular. "It's a very convenient thing to have."

"Indeed." Luvia nodded confidently. "Both my sister and I already have our copies of our family's diverse and ancient crest, so I would appreciate it if you treated her with the same respect you would treat me, as a head of the Edelfelt family."

The Tohsaka looked at the younger one skeptically. "As she has yet to actually do anything productive during our negotiations, I'm afraid I can't abide by that request." She stated aridly, ignoring the girl's look of outrage. "Now if she did contribute something of value while we were here, then maybe I would treat her with some respect…"

"You want a reason to respect me you backwater excuse for a magus?" Marjatta growled as she stood up and began to activate her circuits…

… And was stopped as she found one of Bazett's hands on her neck. "As far as the nobility standard goes, you still have a long way to go before you even qualify as short tempered." The Enforcer stated calmly while keeping pressure on the girl's neck. "There will be no fighting in this house if I have anything to say about it."

_Fast…_ Marjatta and Luvia noted to varying degrees of nervousness as neither one of them saw Bazett move before she was behind her target. On the other side of the table though, Rin and Sakura were for the most part unsurprised by the recent turn of events, nor the woman's physical prowess.

_Looks like she's been learning a bit of Shirou's reinforcement magic._ Rin noted casually as she eyed the woman's clothes. None of the pieces of cloth possessed the physical enhancing runes that are all over her gloves and business suits. _I only saw her fight once but now I can see for certain why Shirou puts her abilities on such a high pedestal…_

"It may be a bit late, but please excuse my ladies for their rudeness." Sebastian bowed, gaining everyone's attention. "We had only recently arrived in your country and like yourself Ms. Fraga, we are rather weary from travel."

Luvia's eyed everyone in the room before letting out a sigh of weariness and fanning herself. "Hm. Yes. I am loath to admit it, but we are not truly accustomed to traveling significantly long distances and remaining clear of mind." She looked at her sister momentarily. "Marjatta, we will discuss your behavior when we get back to our hotel. Until then it would be best if you did not speak unless addressed." She turned to Bazett. "If you would please…"

The enforcer let go of the teen roughly before walking back to her seat and sat down tiredly.

Sakura couldn't help but smile briefly in victory over the other girl her age, even though she didn't really do anything. Deep down Sakura was indeed jealous of Marjatta, but she would not admit it, not even to herself. In the Matou's mind, the girl in front of her was a spoiled brat who was lucky that she was born into a family that didn't have to sacrifice her like she was…

Before anyone could continue on with their conversation though, Shirou came out with several plates of food. "I did the best that I could seeing that we were somewhat limited on food, but I managed to scrape together enough for seven people. Since everyone was tired from traveling I went with something simple. Fried rice with beef, chicken in teriyaki sauce, and a few other small side dishes to curb everyone's appetite… and I think I have some soda in the fridge if anyone wants some." He placed the dishes down before looking around. "So did I miss anything import…"

SLAM!

The front door to the building slammed open, grabbing everyone's attention instantly.

_Oh dear god not her now_. Rin, Sakura, Shirou, and Bazett all thought at once.

"Shirou!" Taiga's childish voice echoed from the main hallway. "You're back! I missed you and your cooking sooo much while you were gone visiting your friends and!" The teacher stopped in mid sentence as she skidded to a halt in front of everyone there, who was in turn staring at her with varying degrees of shock, annoyance, and embarrassment.

"Oh this is not going to end well." Rin groaned as she put her head in her hands.

"Um… Fuji-sensei… there's an explanation for this…" Sakura laughed nervously.

"Great. Just what we needed. A jester." Marjatta muttered under her breath.

"Shirou." The teacher turned to her neighbor with an unnervingly calm voice and face.

"Y-yes nee-san?" Shirou replied nervously, once again finding a new reason to be afraid of his original sister figure.

"Can you please explain why there are so many girls… and an old man here?" She asked point blank.

"Well… you see…" The teen began to sweat and retreat slowly.

"Didn't I tell you that if you began starting a harem there would be consequences?!" The woman began raising her voice in hysterics, completely ignoring Luvia, Marjatta, and Sebastian all staring at her or coughing heavily in disbelief.

"Nee-san! You know that's not what's happening here!" Shirou countered irritably. "You're letting your imagination go wild again!"

The teacher crossed her arms. "What? So it DOESN'T look like some sort of dangerous and shady deal is being made in your living room?!" The other magi there momentarily blinked in surprise as they didn't expect the woman to hit the nail on the head without hesitation. "The old man is a Yakuza remember? I've been in enough of these things to know when one is going down."

"Uh… well… this was kinda a surprise on me too and…" Shirou began grasping at straws at this point, and sloppily at that.

Rin groaned even louder. "Shirou you idiot. Stop talking before you make things worse."

"I will talk to you later about how messed up it is to do underworld dealings at your age Tohsaka." Taiga lectured like a teacher before turning to Shirou and began to cry. "Shirou! Where did I go wrong with you?! Not only did you go down the wrong path despite me trying to keep Kiritsugu's promise, but you won't even trust me with negotiations! Waaaaaa!" Great streams of tears flowed down her face as she cried.

"Kiritsugu?" Marjatta raised an eyebrow curiously while Luvia simply rolled her eyes.

"Nee-san please! Now isn't exactly the best time to do this." Shirou winced, hoping to calm things down while he had the chance. He turned to Bazett. "Bazett-nee. A little help?"

"What am I supposed to do?" The woman looked at him incredulously. "You're the one that knows her best."

Taiga wasn't finished as she continued to weep. "And here I was going to tell you that the old man and I got you a good gift for all your hard work… and you're doing deals behind everyone's back! This cannot go unpunished!" She paused for a moment before looking around. "Erm… hold on for a minute. I'll be right back."

Before anyone could say anything, the eccentric woman had disappeared again with the rapid thumping of her feet echoing behind her.

"… What just happened?" Marjatta blinked in confusion. "Who was that insane woman?"

"Legally she's my guardian." Shirou sighed. "In reality, she's my loving neighbor that enjoys mooching meals off of me and causes chaos in her wake."

"She's also our highschool teacher." Sakura laughed nervously.

"How on earth did that woman manage to get a license to teach children?" Sebastian wondered out loud.

"Her father's a yakuza boss so she probably had a string or two pulled." Shirou sighed. "Plus she's a hard worker. Unlike in America or other western countries, teachers here are given slightly more legroom when it comes to their behavior. She isn't one of us though, so I'd appreciate it if we didn't give her a reason to kill her or wipe her memories."

"As interesting as this conversation is, dare I ask what she may be doing that would serve as punishment?" Luvia asked curiously.

"Who knows?" Rin shrugged. "I try to ignore her when I can. Do you know Shi…" She turned to her friend to see that his face was paling drastically. "… rou? Ok, what going on?"

Before the Faker could say anything, the rampant footsteps of Taiga returned inside the house. "Shirou Emiya! Prepare for your divine punishment!" Taiga shouted as she skidded into the room…

Her cursed kendo stick in hand, radiating bloodlust like no one's business and completely stunning everyone else there save for Shirou himself.

"When the hell… I thought you lost that cursed thing!" Rin shouted in surprise and fear.

"I found it a year ago!" The teacher shouted gleefully as she approached her prey covered in a dark aura.

"It's the legendary Torashinai." Sakura shivered in as much fear as her sister was experiencing. "There are stories about its thirst for blood but…"

"Someone knock her out now!" The Emiya shouted frantically as he attempted to escape the woman's wrath…

And was somewhat let down as Bazett appeared behind the raging Tiger and knocked her out with a hit to the back of the head.

"… Well that was… anticlimactic." Sebastian blinked as he eyed the weapon. "Still, it was unexpected for that woman to actually possess a genuine cursed weapon without any side effects."

"I can't believe it…" Marjatta frowned, causing Shirou, Rin, Sakura, and Bazett to tense up instantly. "That weak looking chef is the Magus Killer?!"

"Please, it took you that long to figure it out?" Luvia rolled her eyes. "I realized that he was the Magus Killer months ago. The only time that 'Emiya' ever showed up was when the chef 'Shirou' did."

"… M-Months?" Shirou whimpered dejectedly. He had put so much effort into preventing people from identifying who he was before the Grail War started, and yet he was pegged so easily. Even though he wouldn't admit it, he was actually having some fun with the double identity thing while in the Association. It made him feel like a real superhero. To have his "secret identity" found out so quickly after going on the job was like getting stabbed in his self confidence. Multiple times.

"And you didn't tell me?!" Marjatta shot at her sister accusingly.

The elder shrugged, taking her sister's anger in stride. "I was fairly certain that it was the case, but I had no concrete proof. It would be highly irresponsible if I had begun to throw accusations everywhere without evidence and wound up endangering someone that was innocent." She didn't want to point out that Luvia had no intention of ever telling her little hotheaded sister if the suspicions were correct. As much as she loved her, Marjatta was currently mentally unsuited for managing situations such as this.

A not so polite cough from Rin drew attention to her. "Aside from the fact that I really should have assumed that you wouldn't have been able to hide yourself for long Shirou, may I ask why Taiga-sensei has her cursed sword again? A cursed sword that I specifically had the fake priest dismantle shortly after we had initially met?"

Shirou laughed nervously. "I-It was an experiment?"

The Tohsaka frowned, with a rapid twitch of her eyebrow, before looking at the discarded weapon and performed her own version of Tracing on it. While she was nowhere near as good as Shirou, she could home in on one particular step at a time on an object with little issue. What she found though was somewhat surprising.

"It really is a year old… but it hasn't degenerated at all." She muttered in disbelief before turning to him again. "Shirou… we are going to have a long conversation about what you just did when we have some time to ourselves."

"I take it you know how his magic works to some degree then." Luvia mused curiously.

"Oh you have no idea." Rin grunted irritably without taking her eyes off of the Emiya.

"By any chance… did you happen to meet his father before he died?" The Edelfelt asked curiously. "After I met Shirou here, I developed an interest in his father's exploits, but other than him I haven't really met anyone that has traded a significant amount of words with the original Magus Killer."

Rin looked at her future business partner skeptically. "No I haven't. He was dead by the time I met Shirou."

"I talked to him once." Sakura offered helpfully. "When I first met Shirou, I saw Kiritsugu-san." She paused hesitantly as she called up the memory. "He was… very scary at the time though. Not cold but… empty."

Luvia raised an eyebrow. "Empty?"

Sebastian nodded as he fell back into his memories. "Hmm. That is a good way to describe him. When I encountered him as a mercenary, he seemed to act as a function. There was no true drive behind him, no emotion, no anger or anything like that. Just a purpose in the shape of a human…" He closed his eyes. "A "cold" man would constantly put others down. Only see the mistakes in others and attempt to remove all comforting feeling from others. Emiya on the other hand seemed to not care about such things and merely used mistakes and other events to plan for his next steps. He would not dissuade or insult people simply because he did not care about them in the slightest. Unless he could use them, they simply served no purpose to him. Yes… empty would be the correct term to describe him…"

"He wasn't empty." Shriou spoke up defiantly, before massaging his temple. "Look. Can we just get back onto topic please? Why is everyone in my home?"

Rin crossed her arms. "Long story short. Luvia's family buys a lot of the jewels we make and they want to make a deal. We were having trouble with the negotiations, and you came up in conversation, so we decided you'd be the final vote."

The Emiya looked at his friend skeptically. "… You do realize that even though I expected you to do so, you have not once told me that you were selling the gems we made."

"Minor details that we will discuss later." The dark haired girl waved her hand dismissively.

"Humph. I don't know what's worse. The fact that I was the last one here to know that he was the Magus Killer, or the fact that so far he appears to be the most incompetent person in the room." Marjatta rolled her eyes.

"At least he isn't obnoxious enough to insult a person who is feeding them in their own home." Sakura muttered just loud enough to be heard by everyone.

"What was that commoner?" The Edelfelt's eyes flashed angrily.

"Put your sister on a leash Luvia." Rin sighed aridly. "She seems to be detrimental for negotiations."

"Like you are one to talk." The elder blonde countered, though giving her sibling a mildly irritated look.

Sparks began to fly between the eyes of the teenaged females there as more insults were thrown back and forth to the point that Sebastian, Bazett (who had dumped the unconscious Fujimura in a guest room), and Shirou had been completely forgotten.

"Nee-san… I'm afraid." The Emiya whimpered to the Enforcer. "I want my home in one piece, but I don't know what will happen if I try to stop them. Plus I still don't like fighting girls that I know."

"Ignoring the fact that you have no problem fighting me, I understand your position." The Enforcer nodded. "Here's what we'll do. You take down the local girls. I got the Edelfelts. If we're fast enough, we'll be able to have dinner without anything breaking."

"Right." Shirou nodded as he got his feet under him.

"On three." The woman muttered, noting that the other girls there were starting to channel prana now. "Two…" She began, not even bothering to waste time with "one".

Just before everything in the room combusted, the doorbell rang, causing everyone to falter almost instantly.

"Saved by the bell." Sebastian breathed out in relief.

"Oh for the love of… who the hell is it this time?! An Apostle Ancestor?! I just wanted a break for once!" Bazett threw her arms in the air in frustration.

_Merem. I have never thought ill of you before. Please do not give me a reason to start now._ Shirou mentally prayed as he slowly got up and made his way to the door. "Please don't break anything." He pleaded. "If you have to fight, can you please wait until after dinner?"

The teens there looked at one another warily before glancing down at the rather appetizing food placed in front of them before looking at one another and sitting down again reluctantly.

"Temporary truce?" Rin asked skeptically as she began to serve herself.

"Agreed." Luvia nodded before turning to her sister. "Marjatta, if you would please abide by this decision for now. Also, can you pass the rice?"

"Oi old man." Bazett spoke up as she poured herself some soda. "If these brats start to act up again, do you mind actually helping to calm the down?"

"I will see what I can do to contribute." The elderly man nodded. "I do have to put my master's well being ahead of everything else after all."

Gritting her teeth irritably, Marjatta helped her sister with the meal, ignoring the glare that Sakura gave her as she did so. How dare that foolish backwater girl insult and belittle her? It was unforgivable! She was one of the heads of the Edelfelt family! Her linage demanded respect from all but the eldest magical families in the world!

On that thought, why was this girl even here? The Edelfelt had business with the Tohsaka, not this Matou or whatever brat. Her very existence here was in itself an insult to her pride and any kind of standard Marjatta had for these kinds of meetings. Then when things were heating up, she had the nerve to stand up to one of such a higher pedigree? It was just insulting!

"Sakura. I do not believe I need to say this, but I trust you to be able to handle yourself should we begin to argue once more." Rin sighed tiredly as if she wasn't about to destroy the room around her.

"Don't worry Rin-sempai. I am confident I can at least hold one of them off long enough for you or Shirou to save me." The Matou smiled cheerfully, causing Marjatta to become even more irritated with her.

"Huh." Bazett raised an eyebrow as two pairs of footsteps were heard coming from the main door. "Looks like we got more company."

"Uh guys?" Shirou walked in tiredly followed by a very tired Waver Velvet much to everyone's surprise. "Could some of you move over to make some room for one more?"

o. o. o.

An hour later…

Despite the fact that there was clearly a massive number of conversational topics to be made and much tension between sides throughout dinner, everyone was fed without incident. Due to Waver's position as a Lord, he managed to maintain the peace through sheer authority, intimidation, and purposefully triggering Shirou's bounded fields so that neither the Edelfelts nor Rin could fire off any ill timed curses at one another.

Shirou in particular wasn't too happy with the fact that Waver could play around with his defenses at will, but he let it slide since he enjoyed having said home in one piece.

Conveniently enough, Waver had during the meal also managed to get Luvia and Rin to agree with a deal that they could both, albeit reluctantly, be satisfied with in the long term once the situation had been explained to him in detail. The man may be a Lord, but he was also the best damn teacher in the Association and knew how to deal with teenaged nobles like no one's business.

"Ok. I think I can speak for all of us when I ask… why the hell are you here Waver?" Bazett asked bluntly in front of everyone save Shirou and Sakura who were cleaning the dishes in the kitchen.

No one that knew Shriou doubted that he desperately needed to clean right now if he wanted to make it through the night.

The Lord closed his eyes and breathed out slowly before taking out a cigar and lighting it. "I have business with both Shirou, and the Edelfelt siblings. Both topics are independent, but both are of high priority as of now. The fact that you two happened to be in the same area simply made things easier for me."

"Convenient." Rin frowned, not liking Waver's answer in the slightest. "So is there any intention of letting those not involved know what these things are?"

"It depends on the people I am to deal with." Waver casually shrugged before pausing and looking around warily. "Speaking of people, I am surprised that there are so many here and yet…"

"If you're talking about that immature nut Taiga, I knocked her out earlier and ditched her in one of the guest rooms." Bazett yawned. "I also put a rune on her to keep her unconscious so she doesn't wake up and make things random again."

"Should have made it two." The lord grumbled under his breath. "I swear that girl has twice the Od of a practiced magus and she puts it all to being energetic."

"Hmm. Shirou wouldn't bother to check that, but I'll make a mental note to do it myself." Rin nodded in agreement before remembering something. "By the way Lord El Melloi, how up to date are you with Shirou's experiments?"

Waver looked at the girl skeptically. "I admit I haven't talked to him much about them lately. He mostly relies on Sirius for them these days. Why?"

The Tohsaka took out the traced Torashinai that had been left unnoticed for a while and showed it to the man. "Shirou made this a year ago."

"A cursed kendo stick?" The lord raised an eyebrow as he inspected it casually before realizing something was off. "Wait, you said that he made this a year ago?"

"You can use the eight steps too. See for yourself." Rin stated calmly. It didn't take her long before the Lord confirmed what the girl had said.

"Fascinating." Waver muttered as he looked at the weapon from multiple angles. "The degeneration rate has been reduced to the point that it is nearly nonexistent. It is almost as if…" He blinked in realization before nodding frantically and scanning it again. "Of course. So that's how he did it. Clever. Very clever... and useful. Magnificently useful. Yes. I can see Sirius being extremely happy about the ways this can be applied to his research… as will virtually everyone in the Departments of Universal Research and Mineralogy… this can help us out significantly in understanding some very old questions…"

"What's going to help who now?" Shirou asked confused as he walked into the dining room with Sakura, having finally finished up the dishes and looking significantly more calm and collected than he did earlier.

"Let's just say that I see you making several large deliveries to the Association in the near future Shirou." Waver nodded in approval before putting down the bloodthirsty weapon. "Also I expect to see your reports on how you managed to pull this little trick off very soon."

The Emiya shifted uncomfortably as he realized that Waver had already determined what was so special about the modified Torashinai he had made for his neighbor. "I'll see what I can do Nii-san. I'll have to try and find my notes on it before I make anything to your standards." He sat down on one of his couches. "So I heard you say that you were here for me and Luvia-san and Marjatta-san."

The Lord's mood became less mirthful as he removed the cigar from his mouth and breathed out slowly. "Shirou, while I do have other things to talk to you about in private, I also have something to inform you of. Something I still am quite confused about and will hope you can explain to me if you want to."

Shirou blinked in confusion, ignorant of the expectant looks he was getting from everyone else in the room. "Sorry, but I honestly have no idea what you are talking about."

"Shirou." Waver frowned. "I was told by Lady Barthomelloi that the person you wished to get in contact with has been found."

o. o. o.

Shirou stood inside his workshop and looked around quietly. From the looks of things it seemed as if nothing had changed from the last time he had been inside. Multiple random objects, fixed and not, were strewn all over the place in a seemingly pointless fashion. Books and papers were lying open and unmoving upon the multiple benches that were placed along the walls…

And about a dozen swords were floating in the air of the workshop, not including the ones that were situated on top of his doorframe and on the supports of the building, which were preprogrammed to shoot out at anyone that attempted to barge into his workshop without his permission. For added effect, some of them would be set off in conjunction with gradient parallel to cover a wider range. Shirou initially didn't want to have defenses like this set up in his home, but over time he realized that should anyone he didn't trust barge in and read about his Reality Marble, all his efforts up until that point to save Illya would have been for nothing.

Each floating sword save one was moving in some fashion that the others were not performing. Three were rotating constantly, each on one of the basic physical XYZ axis. Another was rotating on a bizarre diagonal axis that incorporated all three of the previous basic ones. Two more were floating up and down several meters. Another two were moving back and forth parallel to the ground spanning the entire shop. One was doing circles in the air, and a tenth was doing figure eights.

The eleventh sword in the room was special in that it randomly switched functions, always moving in one manner in the air, either up and down, or in circles, before switching to another preinstalled function without any hint that it was going to do so…

But the twelfth sword that remained floating above one of the research benches merely floated there unmoving and unchanging. Unlike the other traced weapons, which had had been left alone for over a month and were beginning to show the signs of being rejected by Gaia, evident by the lack of sheen and some chips present in some of the edges, this one was still in pristine condition.

It was this last blade that Shirou had the greatest pride in as a magus, in fact it was one of his few achievements of thaumaturgy that he was actually proud of accomplishing instead of simply brushing aside his mastery of it as just another skill to use…

Shaking his head to clear his thoughts, the owner of the lab walked up the stairs to the loft on the side of his workshop to pick up the first of two packages that he has premade almost a year ago. He would need it when it came to negotiating with his contact.

Turning around to the exit, the Emiya determined that nothing more could be done in the shack for now, save for one thing. Taking off his belt and placing it on another bench near the entrance, this one covered in jewelcraft related tools, Shirou began to pull off the outer layer of the simple leather frame to reveal a chain of dagger shaped gems in varying colors.

For almost a year now he had been pouring his spare prana into these jewels he had made with Rin after she had taught him how to do so. His progress in the art was horrendously slow, at best being able to store only around a third of the energy he put into them, however once he had done so the power was there to stay. Because he had an abnormal element, he would never be able to perform jewelcraft thaumaturgy with any significant skill.

Preprogrammed spells, refraction integration, reactionary lattice characteristics. His element simply would not allow him to access such phenomena unless they were already present in a sword of some kind that he had seen with his two eyes…

And honestly, how many crystal swords of notable use were there in the world?

Cutting the index fingers on both hands, Shirou went through the process of pouring his energy into the linked crystals. Rin had mentioned at one point that it was best to limit oneself when it came to this. After all, it would be pretty bad if you were caught low on energy right after storing your power away… but the teen felt that it was safer and more important for him to put as much energy as he could into these things whenever he wasn't working for Lorelei.

He felt his circuits in his body and on his chest warm up considerably as he let the magical power flow through them and into his makeshift batteries. Unconsciously his eyes turned silver as he focused completely on the task of putting his power into the gems, taking in their history, their information, the levels of energy they already possessed and watching as their charges increased painfully slowly.

"I doubt it needs saying, but it really does look like jewelcraft isn't a subject that you'll be able to excel in at any point during your lifetime." Waver observed from his workshop's doorway, completely unfazed by the blades above pointing at him. He was the one that had helped Shirou set up that particular defense after all, so he knew how to disable or avoid triggering the mechanism in the first place. He continued to watch Shirou pour more of his power into the gems and sighed. "I really shouldn't be surprised that you're overdoing this. How much power do you have in those things now?"

The Emiya remained quiet for several seconds before answering. "If I set it off now in the right place… and engineer the release correctly, I think I might be able to blow up my workshop."

Waver nodded in understanding. The boy had stored up a fairly impressive amount of energy in just a year despite his inability to use jewelcraft well. In all honesty the amount the teen had stored was nothing to brag about by itself. He was certain that the Edelfelts and the Tohsaka girl had jewels with vastly higher amounts of power stored in them, but for a kid who only started this field around a year ago, it wasn't bad.

Besides, he had a fairly good idea what Shirou was eventually going to be using the gems for anyway, and none of it involved advanced knowledge on the craft.

"Not bad." The Lord admitted out loud as he walked to the boy and eyed the gems in front of him. He had to hold back a snort as he noticed the shape the makeshift batteries were in. Swords. Of course. He should have known better. "So do you have any intention of letting anyone know who it is you're getting in contact with?"

"Not in the slightest." The teen frowned, sweat beginning to form on his forehead. "If I did, one of you might go out to try and find him and possibly ruin the deal I'm trying to set up."

"Understandable. You wouldn't have put so much effort into finding this mysterious person if it wasn't worth the effort." Waver relented. "Even I don't know the identity of this contact of yours."

"Why are you here Nii-san?" Shirou asked in a strained tone. "I thought you had to talk to the Edelfelts…"

"Bazett is keeping everyone in the house in line. Even I can tell that leaving those girls alone for any period of time is just asking for trouble." The man shrugged as he looked around casually. "… I have some bad news."

The Faker paused for a moment before cutting off his connection to his circuits and turning around warily. "What happened?"

The Lord sighed. "I'm afraid that due to some unfortunate circumstances regarding my relationship with the Archibald family, as well as a deal I had to set up with them recently, I am no longer permitted to come into direct contact with you after today."

"What?!" The teen shouted in mixed anger and surprise. "How can they… why would you agree to this?!"

"You make it sound like I had a choice in the matter." The man chuckled bitterly. "Due to my multiple failures during the Louvre incident and not informing them about your existence, I had to do something to maintain the status quo with them. They are the ones that gave me my Lord title after all. Said quo came in the form of one absolute command that I cannot go against. Granted I received some leniency due to the fact that Lady Barthomelloi is rather… content with the both of us and our services, however after I leave today I won't be able to talk to you for a period that extends past the Grail War… purposefully at least."

Shirou grit his teeth hard to the point that he wouldn't be surprised if he was bleeding. He always understood that the noble families in the Association were at best negotiable at times, but he had unfortunately forgotten how bad it could get recently. Since he was exclusively Barthomelloi's property, virtually no one could touch him save for Barthomelloi herself… which was a good or bad thing depending on who you asked. Because of this, Shirou had had little issue dealing with the other noble families there.

He was the Queen's Silver Dog. If the dog didn't force you back or kill you, the even scarier owner would without question.

"What about Sirius?" Shirou questioned in a strained tone.

"I'm allowed to talk to him to some degree, but my time with him is severely limited as well." The lord breathed out some smoke casually. "Luckily only a handful of people in the Tower know that he uses the internet, or actually knows what it does. I can use him to send some emails to you, but don't expect a quick reply."

Shirou's internal stress dropped a few marks as he was given the somewhat relieving news. "… So what now?"

"Not much has changed Shirou." Waver shrugged, his expensive coat and scarf echoing his servant's colors moving with his shoulders. "You will simply have to prepare as best you can without me. From what I can tell, the Edelfelts do not seem to be the kind of people that would spread out your identity to the rest of the Tower, so there is some good news there."

The Emiya blinked as he remembered that his identity HAD been compromised. To be honest he had completely disregarded that fact as there were more important things to worry about at the time, but now that he thought about it, having more people know who he was was definitely not a good thing.

The Lord smirked. "This might not be my place to say it but… you were discovered already? You have the ideal down, but in execution, you'd make a terrible Super Sentai."

Shirou glared at his grinning brother figure. "Hahaha. Very funny Nii-san. If you are taking our current situation so lightly, why don't you just go talk to the Edelfelts now? I'm certain that what you need to talk to them about is more important than comparing me to a children's show character."

The man's grin relaxed but remained on his face as he raised his hands in protest. "Relax Shirou. I can talk to the girls anytime I want. I'm a Lord remember? I outrank them. There's still something I have to get to you before I go anyways and in here is the perfect spot since no one can interrupt us."

The teen raised an eyebrow as Waver approached him and sat on a nearby stool. "Interrupt us? How long is this going to take?"

The Lord hesitated for a moment before taking the cigar butt out of his mouth and tossing it into the trash bin nearby, killing the embers mid flight with a minor spell. "Truthfully it should not take more than about half an hour… but." He looked around for the right words to say. "Well, you may need some time to get used to it after it's done."

He bowed his head. "Shirou, my final gifts to you in your upcoming battle are two memories of mine from the previous war. Armed with their contents, I believe you will be ready for what is to come… and at the very least I believe they will be the key to your survival."

"Memories from the war?" The boy whispered in surprise before realizing how valuable of a gift he was receiving. Should they be of fighting, he could get a good idea of what to expect from enemy servants and their physical abilities, and more importantly, how to rout them so that less people can get hurt.

The man reached forward and placed his palm on the boy's head. "Let me show you… however should you need to break out of the memories, do not hesitate to let me know."

The Emiya frowned, not liking how that sounded. "What do you mean by that?"

The Lord smiled bitterly as he responded cryptically. "You will soon find out."

o. o. o.

Six months until the war starts.

o. o. o.

A/N:

Thanks Maximorph1 for betaing.

Ok. I REALLLY wanted things to move faster, but I realized that if I did that, I'd be cutting out a lot of good plot material… or I'd be making this chapter way bigger than it needed to be. I had already cut out a few scenes here that could have been used for a small bit of plot, but decided against them upon rereading this thing for the umpteenth time.

The next chapter should be the last filler before things go straight to hell and where I FINALLY get to reveal some of the GOOD stuff I've planned for this story.

Now before I talk about anything else, let me get to the thing that's probably going to bug everyone the most here: Shirou's Pure Eyes. I knew from the start that people were going to have trouble the moment I brought these up, but in all honesty they fit in perfectly to Shirou's current circumstances. Other people will claim that I am boosting up Shirou too much from this, even though I pointed out that for all intents and purposes, the eyes do exactly the same thing he was doing before, albeit slightly better, only now they risk blowing up his brain if he isn't careful. This is NOT something that he is going to magically (no pun intended) get used to by the war. It will take him at least a decade to get used to them to reach the point that he could use them as well as his old eyes and probably another decade after that to use them to actually predict minor (motion based) aspects of the future in a manner similar to Sion could in Melty Blood. But once again, this is decades away. For now the eyes are holding him back.

So my life is chaos again. 6 day work week + writing for a videogame (no joke) + grad school classes online + girlfriend + me betaing stories + my actual stories = me crying at night. Fun.

… And that's it for now. I got nothing else to say off the top of my head. I'll try to make the next chapter come out faster but… yeah.

So REVIEW! WORSHIP THE LOG! NEVER GET INTO A TRADE DEAL BETWEEN TWO TEENAGED EGOTISTICAL MONEY HUNGRY MAGICAL GIRLS! AND REVIEW AGAIN!


	22. Chapter 22

Chapter 22: Signal Shot

I do not own Fate/Stay Night and stuffs:

o. o. o.

Three Months Until The Fifth War Begins:

Tokyo:

Shirou was fairly nervous.

It wasn't that he was unused to being alone in the city. Copenhagen was located in the middle of Fuyuki's commercial district and even though he had much less time than he used to, Shirou would still work there occasionally to help out the family owning it. He felt like he owed them as much since he couldn't work for them during the vacation rushes for obvious reasons.

The diner he was in was fairly standard as well. Not a trace of magic was in the air. No magi had appeared yet, and the people there were just going throughout their lives (he had checked to make sure they weren't hypnotized), and paying him no mind even though he had his shroud covering the majority of his head.

He found that most people stopped asking him questions about it after he told them that he had cancer. A bit crude, but it worked fairly well and consistently.

However, the second Magus Killer was still, none the less, nervous as he waited at his table, situated thankfully in front of one of the side doors of the building, and drinking his fairly average green tea.

He didn't even flinch as the scent of something with converted prana reached his nose. Like most existences that were related to thaumaturgy, this one had a unique smell added to it. This time it was a unique scent of something feminine, yet somehow tampered or played with in some way. It wasn't as strong as some sources he had encountered in his life, but this was strong nonetheless.

"Well well." A Japanese woman with short red brown hair appeared to be in her early thirties chuckled lightly as she sat down across the table from him. Her heavy clothing was suited for the late fall weather, but still hugged her mature body in a way that would defiantly draw the attention of any male if they paid attention to her. "They said that you were a kid, but to see you in person really drives it home."

Her appearance matched the descriptions and photos he had been given, but you could never be too sure with sealing designates… especially with the sharp look in her eyes behind the glasses she wore. He could tell right off the bat that the person in front of him was not a magus to be taken lightly. She knew exactly what she was doing, or at least enough that she wouldn't be caught off guard if he made any suspicious actions.

"I'm seventeen. I'm not that young." Shirou replied with a hint of minor irritation. While he was kind of annoyed by people underestimating him due to his age, he also knew that showing some kind of hint of a short temper could cause people to slip up during conversations. Something he had picked up from Waver when he was being taught the standards of negotiating with Association nobility.

"Now now. There's no need to get testy with me." The woman sighed as she took out a cigarette and began to smoke. "You're the one that wanted to talk to me after all." She blew out some smoke. "So what makes me so special that the Magus Killer version two point zero went out of his way to contact using the Queen's own resources?"

Shirou remained quiet for several moments before holding out his hand. "If I may try something?"

The elder magus glanced at the teen's hand for a good few seconds before shrugging and putting her hand into his. "If you do something stupid, consider our meeting done and over with."

"Don't worry." The Emiya frowned as he opened a circuit and structurally grasped the woman's body through physical contact in a second. "I just want to check…"

The Designate's body stiffened for the moment that Shirou's prana acted up before it relaxed with the ending of the scan and Shirou retracted his hand. "Structural grasping? Do you have some sort of hand fetish or something?"

Shirou made eye contact with the woman. "Even if I did, it wouldn't be with fake hands." He ignored the woman's look of surprise. "Please accept my deepest apologies, but I needed to be sure. I had my suspicions that this would happen, but to be honest I'm glad that things turned out this way. Because of it I can now tell for certain that you are indeed the person I need."

The woman stared at Shirou incredulously before she began to chuckle fairly loudly in amusement. "Well well. This is already getting far more interesting than I had originally guessed. I've never come across someone that's been able to tell that "I'm" a fake so quickly before… and better yet, you aren't bothered by it in the slightest."

"You are a designate." The Emiya replied casually. "I half expected you to do this after reading your profile. It's not like I have that clean of a reputation myself."

The smoker grinned. "Finally. A fellow magus that doesn't have his head up his ass for once." She leaned back in her seat and picked up a menu and began looking at what the place was serving. Whether or not she was actually going to order anything was still impossible to determine by the other party. "So then. I already know what you want from me. The question is, what are you willing to put up for it? The cost of what you're asking for isn't cheap, and in all honesty I'm not willing to accept money from someone that's directly related to the Queen. There's way too many ways that it can be traced regardless of the method…"

Shirou nodded as he began to look at the menu himself. "I don't blame you, though we could always just set up multiple bank accounts in a few countries and circulate the money electronically between them several dozen times. You know how bad most Nobles are when it comes to technology." He gave a faint smile as he recalled some amusing memories involving him using a cell phone in the middle of the Association, but Sirius had tweaked out the receiver a bit to get around the bounded fields of the place.

That got another laugh out of her. "I'm liking you more and more by the minute kid. Too bad you ended up as the Queen's bitch." She looked up from the menu. "However, I have a feeling you had something else in mind to pay me with, don't you?"

The Emiya responded by taking out a notebook and placing it on the other end of the table. "Research for research. Consider this a down payment. You'll find the specifics of what I want inside in addition to my work. I believe it would compliment your own branch of studies quite well. It's very valuable if what I've heard is right. Word is that the guys in Atlas would pay quite a bit to get their hands on it."

The smoker paused for a moment before putting down the menu and slowly taking the booklet. "This must be some pretty good stuff you're bartering with if you think you can pull this deal off." She muttered while opening it up. "What you're asking me for landed me with the designation in the first place."

"And what I'm offering to you landed me with the noble color silver." The Magus Killer replied in a matter of fact tone. "It also is the reason why I pegged you for a fake so quickly."

The "fake" glared at the teen with some annoyance momentarily before looking at the table of contents and began scanning them with the eyes of a researcher. "I see. Huh… so if you go that far in depth, then you can possibly…" She looked up again. "I take it my "accumulated years" is what gave me away?"

Shirou smiled in a way that it met his eyes. "Actually you were already figured out just with your "concept of creation". The number of years you existed was just the biggest nail in the coffin. I must say, you look quite mature for a five year old, though aren't you a bit young to be smoking?"

"Tch." The smoker grunted as she looked back at the booklet again. "Cocky little shit. I guess Barthomelloi did actually know what she was doing when she decided to parade you around in front of everyone like a purebred."

"The ironic thing is that I'm actually adopted." The teen added with a chuckle, enjoying the momentarily surprised look that his new acquaintance was giving him before she joined in on the laughter at the expense of the integrity of virtually every Noble in the Clocktower.

Several minutes later the waitress came by to take their orders, never knowing that she was in the presence of two of the most dangerous people on the planet.

And thus Shirou enjoyed a pleasant lunch with the perfect puppet familiar of Touko Aozaki, sister of The Blue and master puppet maker.

o. o. o.

In Europe:

She was leaving now.

Surrounded by white on all sides by the never ending snow of the German Alps, the girl was leaving the castle she had lived in all her life in an antiquated yet still highly valuable car with her two maids… and her guardian.

She did not call the castle home though. As far as she was concerned, she had no home. She had lost the ability to call anyplace that when her mother and that man had left her here alone with no one but those hypocritical fools called relatives to take care of her for the remainder of her shortened life.

At first she had had the misplaced hope that her father had still cared for her. That he would rescue her from this isolated hell, or at least visit her. However as time went on her hope slowly dwindled. She heard stories about how her father had started a new family in that cursed Asian land. How he had abandoned her for another child. Yet still deep down she had held some sort of foolish hope that she had held a part of her father's heart.

News of the Magus Killer's death had served as another terrible wound to the girl's heart. The last of those who she remembered giving her comfort as a small child was gone now. He had never kept his promise to see her again after the war. He would never play with her again…

The traitor.

When she had learned that the war where she would inevitably loose her life would start in a few more years, she realized that she could get her revenge. The boy that caused her father to turn on her would still be living in Fuyuki, and so with her servant she could kill the cause of all her nightmares before dying herself. She would have closure, and for a while this train of thought would help her sleep at night.

If she was a bit more honest with herself, she would admit that she was somewhat curious about this mystery child. What sort of helpless person would keep her loving father away from her? Surely if this person occupied so much of Kiritsugu's time, then there must have been something special about him…

Only, he was not special in the way she had expected. Over the past two years she had heard about her hateful step brother. The next Magus Killer. The Queen's Silver Dog. He was nothing more than another soulless magus that did nothing but yearn for the respect of those stronger than him. So what if he killed an Ancestor. So what if he was supported by the Barthomelloi? In the end he was just like the rest of those hypocrites that practice thaumaturgy. Making empty promises to those with more power than themselves in order to gain a better place on the social ladder.

What was worse was that the fool didn't even know she existed. For all the hype surrounding the fool, he could not even be bothered to know that he had a sister. Even if she wasn't his by blood, she was her father's true child! Such disregard for their standing was absolutely unforgiveable. He even had the nerve to assume that she did not even exist…

Her eyes narrowed in anger. She did not care anymore. She was being sent as a sacrifice. She would die soon enough. The very least she could have is the closure that her family ended with her as the last one standing…

o. o. o.

Four Weeks Until The Fifth War Begins.

Fuyuki:

Shirou grunted tiredly as he stood up from his meditation position. It had a bad habit of cutting off circulation to his limbs, but he was so used to it that he didn't really care much that it did… Still, constantly opening and closing all thirty five of his circuits in different patterns and intervals was a fairly tedious practice after a while.

Looking around his workshop, the teen wearily saw that very little had changed over time. Swords were still floating. Papers were still strewn everywhere. Books were left open or crammed without order on shelves. Random machines and mechanical gadgets were left broken and fixed all over the place. Several dozen blades were impaled on the ground around him in a crude attempt to make him feel more like he was inside his Reality Marble. He found it worked a small amount when he meditated, but not much.

However there were a few things that had changed. Primarily his latest project that occupied a fair amount of space in front of the bigger set of doors of the shed meant for moving in large objects…

But that could wait. While he had fun with that piece of equipment when Taiga and her grandfather sprung it upon him five months ago, despite it clearly being illegal for someone of his age to use or own, he had more productive uses for it that required him to not be arrested in order for it to be used.

He was still horrifically thankful that no one recognized him while he was practicing with it. He never would have heard the end of it at school if he was identified. He would without a doubt never hear the end of it if things were otherwise.

After dispelling the blades he had stuck into the floor and cleared up the gouges he had made, Shirou went through his standard brief morning workout. Stretches. Pushups. Situps. Etc.

By the time he was done, it was almost six in the morning which meant…

Knock knock.

"Sempai? Are you awake yet?" Sakura's voice permeated through the front door rather easily. Normally noise couldn't get through his workshop's bounded fields from either end, but if a person knocked on the front door twice, they could talk to whoever was inside without any trouble. If Waver was to be believed, it had been a standard feature in most smaller workshops since the mid eighteen hundreds.

"Yeah." Shirou called back as he stretched his limbs again and opened the door, allowing the cool winter air to blow in and cool off his body. "You know you don't need to come here this early every morning."

The Matou puffed out her cheeks in protest. "Yes I do. Rin-Sempai and I can't trust you to take care of yourself. Half the time I find you here, you are still unconscious from overworking with your experiments."

Shirou didn't bother to correct the girl with her assumptions and tell her that whenever she found him like that it was because he had put in too much prana into the jewels sewn into his belt after his real experiments. She was close enough anyways that it didn't really matter anyways.

"It's not that big of a deal. I would have managed to get up and ready before class anyways." The Emiya shrugged casually, only to wince as Sakura bopped him lightly on the head. "Hey! What was that for?"

"It's still winter break remember? Class doesn't start for another week." The girl frowned. "You promised that you would spend some more time with me before school started again."

He blinked several times in confusion before his brain finally caught up to him. She was right. It was the first weekday of the year and he had made several promises to spend time with many of his friends during the end of the vacation. It was after all, probably the last vacation he would ever get so he would have to make sure that everyone's last memories of him were good ones…

Smiling cheerfully, Shirou remembered how quickly the last few hectic months had been…

Starting with Luvia's surprise transfer into the city during summer break.

In all honesty, Shirou had contemplated running away from Fuyuki the second he had heard of that little development to get away from the blast radius. At the very least, he had considered asking Lorelei for a series of Dead Apostle hunts or Sealing Designate hunts that would last him until the war started, but he decided against it in the end. As much as he loathed admitting it, he was probably the only resident of Fuyuki, save Kirei, that could reign in the two girls if push came to shove… and he was sure as hell not going to leave the girls alone with that man involved with anything, especially the cleanup, if he could help it.

As much as he didn't want to admit that he was right when it came to pointing out the faults in others, he could not deny that having Luvia and Rin in the same school building was a nightmare for multiple parties. The moment the general school body found out that he was virtually the only student that could calm both of them down without suffering mentally or physically, he found himself being on call at least twice a week to break up the two female magi. Thankfully no magic was ever used, but some of the insults thrown between the two honestly made Shirou wonder if he would die if he got in the crossfire.

Some of the schemes that the girls had spawned and enacted were as evil as they were brilliant in the Emiya's personal opinion. He wouldn't have been that irritated with them if he didn't frequently find himself stuck in the middle of virtually half of all aforementioned plans. He still didn't know why the heck they did that, but in the end he decided that it was best if he didn't know.

It did however kill the long standing dream that Tohsaka Rin was a perfect idol. After the numerous fights breaking out between the two it had become clear to the student body that the 'perfect' Tohsaka was nothing more than a mask. The captain of the Archery club Ayako Mitsuduri was apparently enjoying the destruction of the myth for her own personal reasons that eluded Shirou. Something about long time rival or something...

Issei's reaction to Luvia's presence had been a bit chaotic in itself. On the one hand, the monk in training was elated to see Rin's public mask utterly shattered and realized in front of the entire student body. On the other hand, Luvia was practically just as bad as Rin, both in behavior and in how she treated him. Much to Issei's horror, the student body soon realized that even though Rin's and Luvia's personalities were for the most part fake, that didn't stop them from acting them out regardless of being exposed. In fact it only seemed to make the two female magi flaunt their outer persona even more to those who attempted to call them out on it. So far the only ones that managed to get past their outer layers without much issue were one another.

In the end, Shirou had to ignore the occasional times when his friend began to rant to himself about how "there was two of them now" and "it's not safe anymore". Shirou also used the same method of forced ignorance to pretend that Rin didn't significantly enjoy it whenever she saw Issei act like that without his knowing.

The reason Luvia claimed that she was staying behind, and thus opening the proverbial Pandora's box at school, was for her to better monitor Rin and ensure that the deal between the Tohsaka and the Edelfelt was kept and made easier. Obviously this was said in a less than pleasant manner with Rin in the conversation, but the point was simple enough for Shirou to agree with so he could calm the Tohsaka down.

Marjatta didn't stay with her sibling, preferring to go back home to Europe after a mere week's stay. According to Sakura, the girl had said some rather unsavory things about Japan and them, but he just let it slide. People had their own preferences and ways to express them. In all honesty he was more concerned about the fact that he was partially responsible for splitting up the Edelfelt siblings apart. Luvia told him that this wasn't the first time that the two had spent a long period of time away from one another and that they were perfectly fine with their current situation, but he still didn't like the way things turned out.

"Man, a lot of things have happened over the past few months." Shirou sighed as he closed the door behind him and let the cool air gently seep into his skin.

"You can say that again." Sakura laughed as she walked towards the house. "Since you've obviously been working out, I'll get breakfast ready this time so you can take a shower. We don't want your special kitchen to smell now do we?"

Shirou grumbled to himself irritably as he relented to Sakura's logic. He especially didn't want to dirty his holy place since September, when the school system had a week's vacation off due to multiple national holidays landing on the same week. Due to that, Barthomelloi had deemed it enough time to send him off to take care of some minor sealing designate who had blown up his last workshop in the middle of a crowded city. It was unfortunate too. The man would have been left alone and ignored for bigger targets if his experiments didn't repeatedly cause massive damage on the twentieth floor of a major apartment complex in Berlin.

During the time he was gone hunting the German, Rin had somehow managed to grab a bunch of ridiculously fast and efficient contractors and outfitted his kitchen with the latest in cooking supplies and gear. From what he knew about the construction business, what had happened to his kitchen would have taken most businesses at least around half a month in order to complete from start to finish if they didn't know what they were working with from the beginning… so he was fairly certain that Rin may have used just a bit of thaumaturgy to speed things up. Granted he didn't receive anything outrageous like an automatic potato peeler or something stupid like that, but all his cooking equipment were all top of the line and would hardly ever need sharpening or replacing so long as he was careful.

Needless to say, Shirou was a very happy boy when he came back to his home. And subsequently all of his guests were quite pleased with the following days of him cooking rather grand meals in his personal quest to break in his kitchen as much as he could. Even Luvia was full of nothing but praises on Shirou's cooking, and she had been born and raised on high scale cuisine. That is of course when she was not on the verge of declaring war with Rin in his living room.

If her claims were correct, Taiga was still having exquisite dreams about that particular week of gourmet class dining.

Smiling as Sakura walked ahead of him, he couldn't help but admire her in multiple ways. She was one of the most sought after females in the school, next to Rin and Luvia. She was beautiful, kind, had a nice smile, and was near the top of her class. It was times like this he was simply glad to just be around her and have time to talk, forget about the world of magic, enjoy the peace and…

… _**Bite her neck. Drink. Quench the thirst with the red crimson fluid dripping down his neck from hers in a glorious and savage feast of sinew, bone, cartilage and flying meat as he claims her body as his own…**_

Shirou grit his teeth and shook his head, banishing the impulses from his head. His vampiric impulses had been getting stronger as of late. Granted he had been making headway with his training with Merem, but the Apostle Ancestor surmised that Shirou's fairly frequent Apostle and Designate hunts may have had an adverse effect on his physical status and had slowly agitated his other side more than he originally thought.

Thankfully these moments where his impulses flared in him were still very much weak and few in number, barely more than a flash every week or so, but the sudden increase in their frequency was still something that he didn't like.

The other thing that concerned him was that his dreams were changing. Instead of normally viewing the land of Unlimited Blade Works, he was instead dreaming of a single sword. One that he had never seen before until that point.

It meant that the war was beginning soon, and that servants and masters would soon reveal themselves in Fuyuki… but not yet. Zouken had yet to talk to him about the war and the deal they had set up, so it was safe to say that until that happened, there shouldn't be any real problem socializing with everyone with what little time he had left.

And when that time ran out… he would make sure that everyone he cared about in the city would come out alive. With or without him.

o. o. o.

Edelfelt Manor:

Luvia sighed aridly as she stared outside her window and drank the tea her loyal servant Sebastian had made for her, taking a break from her personal project of researching Kiritsugu Emiya once more. In front of her lay a combination of forest and buildings as she watched the city of Fuyuki move without her. It was rather convenient that the property she was in was still under the Edelfelt name even after seventy years of neglect, abandoned by one of her ancestors from the Third Grail War and left decaying until she had arrived and renovated it in record time. There had been another property in the city that her family had owned, but it was too far out of the way for Luvia's liking and so she left it as it was, half destroyed, decrepit, and untouched.

The memory of Rin gaping at the sight of several dozen, possibly magically enhanced, construction teams remaking the mansion within the span of a week put a grin on the blonde's face. She didn't really care if it was due to the Tohsaka realizing the vastness of her wealth, or the fact that she was moving onto her property with a home that significantly surpassed her own. All that mattered was that the annoying girl was put in her place and there was nothing she could have done about it.

Papers both printed and written littered the table in front of her. All of them fell into one of three categories. The first were reports and suspicions of Kiritsugu's exploits that were recorded within the Magus Association. These were the most informative on how the man fought. His tactics, his results, and where he normally focused his attention. The second were notes she had written down after grilling Shirou for every detail she could get on his father. These were the true foundation of her research as they elaborated on the man's psyche. How he functioned on multiple levels. How he thought. What he prioritized. His reasoning for what he did and how he got there…

The last of the three piles of papers around her though were her attempts to combine the first two sources of information into a solid report. Her findings, her analysis, her conclusions. In short they were the rough bits and pieces of an elaborate biography that had yet to be completed.

And what she determined was that Kiritsugu Emiya was a human beyond humans. What he did for a living was, while impressive, not extraordinary. It wasn't how he did it either, though she had indeed learned much about the flaws in modern Magi thinking. What made him so special was far beyond such common reasons that made other notable individuals famous.

Kiritsugu Emiya's most astounding trait was…

"Is something the matter my lady?" Sebastian asked concerned as he stood dutifully behind Luvia as ever.

"It's nothing Sebastian." Luvia sighed wearily, somewhat irritated by the minor irritation that interrupted her thoughts.

The elderly man looked at his master for several moments before closing his eyes. "You do not have to hide. I have known you too long to know when you are troubled and when you are not. You are concerned about the upcoming war… and what you were hired to do…"

The blonde's face twitched in minor irritation as her butler pegged her easily…

Officially, Luvia had indeed moved temporarily to Fuyuki in order to establish a better trade connection to Rin's enchanted Jewel business. The shorter link between her and the source enabled her to cut out the middleman in the system while ensuring that the quality of the gems her family received were up to their standards and what they had ordered.

Granted the actual ties between the Tohsaka and Edelfelt lines were never actually solid, especially given the fact that there was suspicion that the Tohsaka's had stolen a copy of the Edelfelt's magic crest nearly a hundred years prior after the events of the Third Holy Grail War. This was supported by the fact that Rin was extremely good at both the Fin curse and Jewel based thaumaturgy, things that the Edelfelts were known to be competent in.

Yet for the sake of a constant business deal, the two had (barely) put aside their grievances with one another for their mutual benefit and ignored the nagging suspicion. Rin after all valued large amounts of money more than her pride, and Luvia knew that the gems being supplied would be used by many branch members of her family when they were doing mercenary work, increasing their chances of surviving in the process.

Unofficially however, Luvia was in Japan for another reason completely. The Edelfelt family had been hired by the Archibald family, indirectly through the Einsbern (without much complaint) in order to avoid catching ire of Barthomelloi, to kill the Magus Killer.

And Lord El Melloi II was the one that was going to set them up to be able to do it.

The news had been enough to surprise even Marjatta when the Lord had spoken to them privately five months prior after leaving Shirou's home. How could it not? Waver Velvet was after all one of the Emiya's strongest supporters in the Clocktower, next to the Mystic Code Crafter and the Queen herself. Aside from the fact that the man was among the more rational and kindhearted Lords in the Association, and the fact that he had taught the boy himself, the mere idea of betraying the Emiya was not an idea anyone truly thought of employing since he, like his father, had displayed an unnaturally high affinity for killing all his targets, Apostle or not.

Having seen Shirou fight before, Luvia was under the impression that the Archibalds were sending her on a suicide mission in a desperate attempt to regain some pride from their loss in the previous war… is until Waver explained that the best time to go for Shirou would be during the next war which had been determined to take place in six months.

With Ore Scales, Luvia and Marjatta could alter the servant summoning system like their ancestors did and bring out two servants for the price of one, with both sisters gaining three command seals and drastically increasing their odds of pulling off the kill. In addition to that, should the sisters actually win the grail in addition to killing Shirou, they could receive the honor of reaching the Akashic records, solidifying their names in Thaumaturgical history forever.

The enticing glory and reward of succeeding was more than enough for Marjatta to instantly jump on board with the deal. The girl believed that while Shirou's supposed abilities would serve as a problem eventually, it was nothing that she could not take care of, especially with the aid of a Heroic Spirit behind her.

Luvia on the other hand was more skeptical. True the reaching of the Akashic records was horrifically enticing to a Noble such as herself, but she had grown fairly attached to the Emiya. The boy was… down to earth compared to most of the people she associated herself with. Simple. Practical. That wasn't to say that her new schoolmate acquaintances in Fuyuki were not of that category either, but none of them were magi or had any sort of magic potential. Involving them in her life was simply more trouble than it was worth on multiple fronts.

As much as she hated to admit it, Luvia relented that the local people that were most familiar with her were in fact Rin, Shirou, and Sakura. She had only exchanged a few words with Kirei Kotomine, and that was enough for her to get an extremely bad vibe from the man. As for the local school populace, she was for the most part indifferent to them. There simply was just not enough similarities between her and them to establish a decent connection. She got along with them yes, and many of the males her age had on more than one occasion expressed their interest in dating her, however in the end she was simply in a different world than they were.

Still, a job was a job, and this was possibly the biggest one she had ever received. Even if she didn't win the war, being known for killing the infamous Magus Killer would boost the Edelfelt's name to new heights in the magical world. Sometimes one had to prioritize over their feelings for others, as distasteful as it was, in order to progress in life.

She only hoped that she could eventually forgive herself for what she would eventually have to do in the future… perhaps if she wrote a biography on him as well it would relieve some of the guilt she was already getting. After that she would begin to prepare for her sister and their contact's arrival… along with the artifact they would use to summon their servant.

o. o. o.

Three Weeks Until The Fifth War Begins.

The Clocktower:

Bazett was flooded with mixed feelings at this moment. Anger. Guilt. Self loathing. Exhaustion. Excitement. Lust. The young woman had not felt a mix of such variety of emotions since she had first left home and realized that she would not be let back into the Fraga territory unless she had a damn good reason to do so.

The reason why she was experiencing so many sensations was standing in front of her, looking around bored with blood red eyes in a blue armored jumpsuit like getup.

Bazett had nearly been floored when she had been informed that she was going to represent the Association in the upcoming Grail Wars in Fuyuki. On the one hand, she was selected for an extremely prodigious position for her combat ability, something that had until recently earned her the butt of many jokes from the Nobles there. Not only that, but if she was lucky she would even be able to meet her childhood idol face to face.

On the other hand, as she researched the history of the war and soon realized that she would most likely be ending up fighting Shirou, Rin and Sakura in a fight to the death. she didn't know the girls on a deep level, it was enough to dredge up some regret for ultimately agreeing to fight in the war. Shirou she knew and viewed to something similar to a little brother. She convinced herself that if she was the representative, she would at least be able to give the inexperienced girls a better shot at surviving the war while Shirou would probably find some way to survive the crossfire. He was her student after all.

With her advanced combat based thaumaturgy, knowledge, and experience, Bazett was in a sense a big enough to be considered threat by herself without her servant. There were only a handful of Magi that she could think of that could actually give her a run for her money in a straight up fight, and most of them wouldn't even bother to employ the idea of stepping foot in Japan.

She had been a bit concerned with Sirius' reaction when she had told him that she was participating in the war and who she had been planning to summon, but those thoughts had quickly been shoved to the side as the elderly man declared that he would help her. And help he damn well did as not even a few days later he had SOMEHOW conjured up the earrings of Cu Chulainn for her to use for her summoning ritual, which she was wearing at that moment.

In addition to the earrings, Sirius had tweaked out her rune arrays to be nearly twice as efficient at they originally were. How he had gotten a hold of her personalized equipment Bazett didn't know but she made a mental note to give the old man grief about it later.

As of right now though, she had put her doubts aside in order to deal with more important matters, such as staring happily at possibly the greatest legend to come from her home country.

"So… you're my master I guess." Lancer stated in a casual tone and looked around before laying eyes on Bazett. "Well far as masters go, you're at least easy on the eyes, even if your choice in attire is rather tasteless." He yawned widely. "Eh. Could have been worse. I could have been summoned by some asshole middle aged guy."

The heroic spirit's comments were ignored as Bazett took in the image of her idol, the legendary Cu Chulainn, the Hound of Ireland, right in front of her. The man was to her what King Arthur was to every British child, or what Hercules was to many other children in the world.

"Oi. Master." Lancer raised an eyebrow. "If you're done undressing me with your eyes can you explain what's going on for me? I don't feel the grail or the presence of other servants anywhere near here."

"Huh?" The woman blinked momentarily before realizing what she was doing and instantly gathering herself again. "Oh. Right. Sorry Lancer." She stood up proudly. "It's roughly three weeks before the War is scheduled to begin in Fuyuki Japan, but I decided to take the initiative when summoning you. We're currently in the Association's Clocktower in London England. I figured we could go on a few sealing designate hunts in order to increase our teamwork for the war to increase our chances." She smiled confidently and stuck out her hand. "I am Bazett Fraga McRemitz, your Master and partner through all of this. I'm an Enforcer for the Magus Association."

Lancer paused for a moment before grinning savagely and shaking her hand. "A Fraga eh? Now isn't that a surprise. It's been years since I've seen one of you guys outside of that tiny village you stay in. Not including the time I've been dead of course." He let go and eyed the woman's hips, where a container was hanging off of a belt. "So how many of those convenient balls of death do you have stocked up? I wanna know how well prepared my master is and how often she can cheat death before I gotta save you."

Bazett's eyebrow twitched in minor irritation. She of course assumed that the real Cu Chulainn would be a bit different than what she had been expecting, but did he have to be so rude? "I have four." She replied confidently before flexing her gloved hands in front of him. "I also am quite skilled in close combat. It obviously won't be enough for me to put up a real fight any servant physically save for maybe Assassin, however I am far from helpless."

"Hmmm? You don't say." The Hound of Ireland mused as he inspected his master's physical enhancing rune arrays and let out a whistle to indicate he was impressed. "I gotta admit, whoever made these things is pretty damn good. Eihwaz at the core for hardening and strengthening, but the surrounding three chained rings of runes magnify and stabilize the effects through internal inverting rotational theory while giving you additional stability, impact, and the ability to connect with spiritual and monstrous creatures. As I am right now, it would probably take me a month to come up with something that could top this."

He straightened himself up and cracked his neck casually. "Now if I was summoned as Caster, then I probably would have been able to top it in a few minutes, but that's not what happened so there's no use crying over it." He turned his head to look at the front door where Sirius was standing there with a smirk. "You find something funny you old fart?"

"Heh." Sirius grinned. "Just enjoyin you baskin in ta glow of me work. It makes me happy ta see tat ah can trump a heroic spirit at his own game."

"Oho." Lancer stepped forward, his body slightly tensing like a cat deciding to stalk its prey. "You have quite a mouth on you for an old timer." He looked at the elderly man skeptically. "And you're older than I thought too. What's with the runes you have on your body keeping you alive? Keeping your hips in place?"

The Mystic Code Crafter snorted and allowed the runes on his body to glow visibly and flow all over his skin for a few moments. "Ah fused parts of ta Lebor na nUidre inta mah skin ova a century ago. Ah probably know more about runecraft tan you did when you were alive."

The blue man chuckled as he watched the old man in clear amusement. "The Lebor na nUidre? That dirty bundle of cloth is still in one piece? Not bad." His eyes flashed hungrily. "I wonder who would have won in a fight between us if I had been alive and if you young?"

Sirius shrugged casually before grinning. "Who knows? Now ah don't know about ta lass, but ah for one am feelin a bit puckish. What say you?"

"Sirius!" Bazett protested. "I've barely summoned him and you already want to take him out drinking?!" She paused before looking at a clock on the wall. "… It's only two in the afternoon!"

"Don't ger yer panties in a bunch lass. Yer gonna be hoggin him fer ta next three weeks. Ah at least want ta say tat ah got shitfaced wit a heroic spirit before ah die." Sirius countered as if it was the most obvious thing to say.

"Sounds good to me!" Lancer laughed heartily while casually patting his master on her back. "Does beer still taste like pisswater in this age?"

"Of course it does!" The old man grinned. "But it's all cold and none of ta bastards out there botha to reinforce ta broth before they sell it!"

"Reinforcing booze? You genius!" The spearman roared in approval. "Why the hell didn't I think of that when I was alive?! I love this bastard!"

"Yer not so bad yerself blueboy!" Sirius laughed, already getting along far too well with the heroic spirit for Bazett to feel comfortable with.

"Hey do they still sing that song about the barkeep's daughter in the pubs?" The happy go lucky Lancer asked eagerly as he walked with Sirius.

"Which one!?" Sirius half asked half roared in laughter, causing the heroic spirit to join in with as much gusto.

Bazett could only stare in horror as she watched the two men leave the room as if they were long lost brothers. She had expected many things from Lancer and his personality but… to think he had a mindset so close to Sirius'… it was, terrifying.

Despite the fact that her body was exhausted from the summoning ritual, the woman chased after her whimsical servant and grandfather figure. She would never hear the end of it if she not only lost control of her servant five minutes after summoning it, but it proceeded to make a mess out of the local bar inside the Association as well…

o. o. o.

Several Hours Later:

"Ah gotta say, tat was ta most fun ah've had in a while. Livin in ta middle of Noble country takes ta life outta everytin." Sirius grinned as he lowered Bazett's drunk and unconscious frame onto her bed. "Ya have quite ta singin voice too."

"You're not too bad yourself." Lancer grinned. He loved the fact that his B ranked magic immunity made most pompous magi in the bar that night scared shitless of him. "I wouldn't have minded you being with me during my war days. Things would have been much more interesting with you around."

"How did ya manage ta outdrink me though?" The Giant old man shook his head in disbelief.

Lancer snorted. "I have an A ranked battle continuation. I can just keep on going and going and going for as long as I want."

Sirius blinked in disbelief. "You lucky soddin bastard. How ta bloody hell does tat ability give you ta alcohol immunity of an elephant?"

"Your guess is as good as mine." The blue man shrugged nonchalantly before the mood in the room changed. His calm demeanor didn't alter in the slightest as he made eye contact with Sirius, but the way he breathed and the glint in his eyes were all that was needed to change everything. "So what's your angle?"

The Mystic code crafter chuckled as he stood back up slowly, the alcohol in his system playing with his muscle control a tad bit. "Ah was tat obvious eh? Must be losin mah touch."

"Don't get me wrong. I had a hell of a time drinking all the new stuff this era has, but you obviously have something you want to talk about." Cu Chulainn stated calmly. "Dragging her with us to the bar was the best way to knock the princess out cold without raising suspicion, especially since she just summoned me."

Sirius sighed before scratching the back of his head tiredly. "Ya betta make yerself comfortable, cause tis is gonna take a while. And unfortunately it ain't gonna be good news."

Lancer shrugged lazily, still quite tipsy enough to let it show, and not at all bothered with Sirius' revelation. "I kinda figured that. Surprise news is normally shitty. So what is it this time? A family member is kidnapped? Someone's blackmailing the master? One of the other masters in this war is planning something that can destroy the world with his wish?" He paused before putting on a worried look. "Please don't tell me that Scathach was summoned as Caster. I can handle a lot, but even with my magic resistance I doubt I'd be able to stand a chance against that crazy old bat." The man shivered as he relived some of his more terrifying moments while under the tutelage of the woman who could not be killed.

"Ta grail is corrupted. Badly." The Fraga stated gravely, not once blinking as he stared down the heroic spirit.

Cu Chulainn paused for a moment before slowly tensing his body and frowning his eyes in thought. As laid back as he was, even he knew when things were past the point of simply brushing them aside. He was a heroic spirit after all. His entire life was unfortunately full of events like this. It was because of this that he instinctively knew that this was only the tip of the iceberg.

"… You know, most people would normally start off with the worst news first."

"You have no idea."

"… Good thing we're already drunk then."

o. o. o.

Fuyuki:

Rin clicked her teeth irritably as she read the will her father left her and the report she had received recently regarding the Great Grail underneath the Ryudo shrine.

Why?

Why of all times did the Grail War have to start now? Better yet, how on earth could it have happened? It normally takes at least sixty years for the thing to gather enough energy to summon all seven servants for the event, yet after a mere ten everything was up and running again.

Grunting once more in frustration, Rin attempted to make sense of her current situation. In a few weeks the Grail War would start, or at the very least the time limit for the masters to summon their servants would be up. As the only pure blooded Tohsaka in Fuyuki, that instantly made her the representative for her family. She was absolutely clueless as to who the Einsbern's would send over. Save for the war, the German family pretended that Japan all but nonexistent for all they cared, let alone noted those who lived there. As for the Makiri…

Her heart stopped for a moment as she realized that Sakura would have to be considered an enemy, as the war was the only time that the truce between the Tohsaka and the Matou was nullified. As much as she wanted to protect her sister, compassion in the Grail war would only lead a person into an early grave. It made her sick to her stomach that she would have to fight her sister to the death just as they were getting along with one another, however it seemed that Fate had a sick and disgusting sense of humor.

Wrenching her thoughts from Sakura, Rin attempted to guess who the rest of the other magi in the war could be. She instantly began thinking about Shirou. Normally the Grail would pick magi who had some sort of wish or desire that could be granted as a master. By that logic, the Emiya should be ruled out. Shirou by most standards was pretty content with his life. Sure he was run ragged by the Barthomelloi and despised how most of the magical world dealt with the innocent, but all in all he didn't seem to have any real wishes or desires that required the Holy Grail to fulfill…

… Although now that she thought about it, there was that mysterious promise that he claimed that he had made to his father. As hard as she tried, she could never manage to weasel it out of the Emiya, however she reasoned that the odds of him actually needing the Grail specifically to achieve it were slim. She would have to talk to Shirou about the War later just to be sure.

For a moment, Rin wondered what it would be like if Shirou was chosen as a master. She shivered at the thought. If the Emiya managed to summon Saber of all classes, then the war might as well be done and over with. Shirou's combat ability as a magus was nearly unmatched despite his young age when one remembers that the teen could recreate noble phantasms, and combined with the most desired servant class in the war, the teen would be almost unstoppable unless the other groups teamed up to take them down…

Or unless Shirou momentarily has another one of his gullible moments of pure recklessness and gets himself get completely taken out of the game. Whichever came first really.

… On second thought, Shirou acting as a master wouldn't really be that scary. He was way too trusting of people to be one for long. In fact Rin was fairly certain that she would be spending more time keeping him alive from his own mistakes than fighting other servants.

Moving on, Kirei was out of the running before he even entered her thoughts. Despite the fact that the man was indeed a master in the previous war, the fake priest was serving as a judge for this one. As a representative of the Church, he was obligated to take no sides in the upcoming conflict and serve as a neutral party, the rules, and as damage control in order to prevent the magical world from being exposed to the normal.

What angered Rin even more was that the man had the gall to attempt to secretly aid her in the war, much like how their respective fathers did in the previous war. The girl shot down the idea without hesitation. While the idea did have some merits, teaming up with the man disgusted her and in all honesty she didn't trust him to begin with. She would win this contest alone with grace, honor, and stature like the Tohsaka family creed demands…

So all that left to her knowledge was Luvia. Just thinking about the foreigner left a bad taste in Rin's mouth. It wasn't so much that the fellow Noble was not a local, Rin had long since gotten over that superstition and knew that she would have to deal with being on the receiving end herself when she entered the Clocktower. No, it was simply how that blonde harpy acted as if she was naturally of a higher quality than everyone else. Granted she was more competent than most of the other nobles she had come across during her brief travels with the fake priest, but that only made spending time around the Edelfelt even more insufferable.

Still, if she was chosen to be a master for the grail war, then Rin would definitely have some trouble. The Edelfelt family was proficient in Jewelcraft and the Fin curse, which just happened to be Rin's major lifelines when it came to battle as well. As such she had to think outside the box a bit in order to ensure that she would not get outplayed if she was stuck in a master vs master battle.

Then there was Marjatta to worry about. Rin had done her research on the Grail wars from looking up the data from her family's rather limited library, so she knew for a fact that with the power of Ore Scales, the sisters could summon two aspects of the same servant and class for the price of one. While this could and most likely would decrease the power of the individual servants, should the two work together the end results could be far more devastating than had they summoned just one.

Then there was the concern of just which servant they would summon. In all honesty, Rin didn't know what could pose a bigger threat, two Sabers of slightly diminished power but worked hand in hand, or two Casters that had the potential to magnify one another's powers to significantly higher levels than anyone could possibly comprehend…

And don't get her started on multiple Assassins. She had heard enough of the fiasco regarding Kirei's multiplying servant from the previous war. Had that servant been used more efficiently, no, she didn't even want to imagine how badly that could have turned out for the other masters.

Still, that counted for only five class positions taken up if everyone she thought about (save Kirei) took part in the war. Of the last two, one would without a doubt be a representative of the Magus Association, seeing as they seem to have at least one every war. And the last one was a complete wildcard.

In all honesty the "wildcard" was the one that had Rin concerned the most. Kirei had told her that in the previous war, the psychotic bastard who had filled the role by pure happenstance was a serial killer with no magic circuits and had no respect for the war, secrecy, human life, or the magical world. His servant, somehow, was even worse.

If she concentrated hard enough on the man's picture, she could actually force herself to remember the one time she had the misfortune of encountering him when she was looking for her missing friend from school, but she could not for the life of her remember how the heck it all turned out. What she did remember without a doubt was unequivocal fear, and she hated being afraid.

And therein was the problem. She was scared even if she would never admit it, hence she wanted a strong servant (other than Berserker, she wasn't suicidal after all). One that could protect her from any possible threat and be strong enough to lend some aid to her allies if she felt like it. The issue was that she had no medium or item that was linked to any of the great names in the Throne of Heroes. Without one of those, her summoning ritual would just pick up whatever heroic spirit matched her personality the best… and if she was more honest with herself, Rin would admit that having a heroic spirit with her personality serving under her might not be the best route to take.

She still technically had time to try and scrape up something from a collector nearby, but knowing her luck, she might just end up wasting her time on a cheap imitation. Worse comes to worse, she could always just use the gem stored with almost ten years worth of prana in it that her father left her in the ritual as the medium, but since she didn't think it was linked to any heroic spirit, the best she assumed it could do was increase whatever summoned spirit's stats a little bit when it was brought out.

Honestly, she didn't even need anything specific at this point. Even something vague would do to make sure that she didn't summon something that would backstab her, like an old Greek pot, or a decayed copy of a famous haiku, or a strip of a holy cloth, or…

Rin froze for a moment before slapping herself in the face briefly and then bolting out of her front door as fast as she could.

o. o. o.

Matou Manor:

Zouken chuckled dryly as he watched Sakura endure her endless training in the worm pit. He must admit, when he had first allowed the girl to spend more time with the Tohsaka heir and the Emiya, he had merely assumed that the benefits would be limited to being able to destroy the girl's mind easier, gaining control over the Emiya boy, and getting the outsiders to lower their defenses…

However he was wrong and oh how he was glad to be so. Sakura's mind had been a hard thing to crack before yes, but now, oh it was beautiful. There were more cracks, bigger and distinct yes, but the parts that were intact were oh so much stronger than they originally were. The girl was pure art to him.

Strong yet weak. Perfect yet flawed. Like a glass mural, the girl's varying brilliant natural colors were only accentuated by the dark thick cracks that gave an additional layer to the grand picture of her soul. If he broke her now, the pieces left behind would be more than enough to fabricate a suitable puppet to replace the old persona… yet it was not yet the right time to do so. The current "Sakura" was needed to keep the Tohsaka and the Emiya off his case, for now at least. If he was not so determined to obtain immortality above everything else, he would have even considered being proud of the fact that the girl would be the next Matou heir.

Admittedly, he did get the idea to turn the girl into a living grail from the Einsberns when they too began to use their Homunculi as living containers for the golden grail. However in this case, instead of some feeble individual that could only walk around and run away from danger, the Makiri's black grail was more than capable of fending for itself. With its sorcery based magic, it could not only protect its existence, but additionally feed its ever growing power over time with other sources of nourishment, making it far more versatile than its original, albeit somewhat less stable.

But he could see it now. Yes, he could see the girl slowly falling apart from his treatment of her. Her self loathing was increasing every time the Emiya boy took her to bed, even if it was at her insistence. Her hatred for her sister grew as their bonds grew in turn as well. Truly Love and Hate were two halves of the same coin. When one grew in size, the other must as well in turn in order to maintain balance.

And yet the idiot children continued to train his adopted granddaughter. Much to his delight, the progression of her abilities had far surpassed what he had originally anticipated. Even if his plans didn't work during the war, the girl would be able to utilize what she has learned already to accelerate her transformation into the black grail decades ahead of what he predicted.

Her skill with the Matou line of magic had progressed wonderfully. Bounded fields that gently sap away ambient energy from the earth to feed the user or make the field stronger, bounded fields that absorb curse based spells, and so much more. The girl had even managed to display a fair amount of control over her other half without even realizing it, though not to the degree that would cause issues with his plans…

Yes. The girl was coming along far better than he had anticipated.

As one of the ones that had originally set up the War in the first place, particularly the servant system and the command seals, the man obviously possessed inside information on some aspects of the war. Much to his surprise, Berserker was the first servant to be summoned, long before it was normally possible to summon a servant. He had no doubt that it was most likely the Einsberns who summoned it. The Germans always did have a habit of playing around too much with the system.

Lancer had been summoned recently. Zouken didn't really care much for the class. Granted, they were a fairly solid class with their speed, agility, balanced stats (save for luck. He never understood why their luck stats in general were so abysmal on average), and solid magic defense. He would also admit that their noble phantasms normally had the most interesting abilities and effects compared to the weapons of other servants, but on the whole he didn't really pay much attention to them.

So all that remained to be summoned were Assassin, Caster, Saber, Rider, and Archer…

He had no doubt in his mind that the Emiya boy was going to summon Saber. The child's interest in fairy magic and his unique magecraft all but told him flat out that the boy possessed whatever it was that his father had used to summon King Arthur in the previous war… a very promising and comforting thought if he did say so himself, though he would have to take precautions in the event that the boy was stupid enough to turn against him.

So all that left Sakura to choose from was: Assassin, Caster, Rider, and Archer. Sticking true to his sadistic personality, the man honestly hoped that the girl would summon Rider or Archer, if only to make causing more trouble for the Emiya boy due to their… unique deal… however he also admitted that Saber paired with either of the two stronger classes would all but guarantee his victory as well.

He shook his head slightly. No. He has his catalyst already, a mirror from a temple in Eritrea, a Greek temple, however he wanted to make sure that Sakura didn't summon Caster. The girl's past and nature made it so that she was likely to summon that class due to how morbid things tended to happen to them in particular. He would put off summoning a servant for a little while longer and see who else was summoned. Should his luck hold out, Caster would be taken and increase the odds of getting a servant he would approve of for his plans.

It's a shame that there was a chance that he might have to get rid of her should the Emiya boy or her actually win the grail this time for him… then again, he was slightly curious as to what he could use a second unlimited wish for…

o. o. o.

Fuyuki:

Waver sighed deeply, blowing out a large cloud of smoke from his mouth as he walked with Marjatta through Fuyuki to Luvia's mansion. Looking around, the man couldn't help but wonder at how much the place had changed and remained the same since his initial visit to the city. The skyline was more distinct and developed. The hotel that Kiritsugu took down in the war, once the tallest building in the city, would now have merely become one of many today as several colossal structures reached for the sky like giant tombstones…

He grinned to himself briefly as he employed the amusing thought of imagining how the original participants of the war would have reacted if they saw what the battleground was like now. No doubt they would have either been appalled or absolutely confused at how to conduct a secret war in such a highly populated area with so many variables. A massive city was certainly not an appropriate place to hold a secret war starring over empowered legendary heroes and magic wielders after all.

An annoyed grunt snapped him out of his musings to bring him looking at his charge. "I don't see why we couldn't have simply gone in the car that carried our luggage to my sister's." Marjatta growled, clearly not liking the fact that she was walking such a long distance of three miles, to get to her new base.

"We have gone over this before my lady." Waver stated calmly, making sure to hide his annoyance while shifting the box under his arm to hold it better. "You might as well get some bearing of your surroundings now before the fighting starts. Even your sister has a better idea of what the terrain is like, and where notable locations of use are here in Fuyuki, and she is not the only one to have that advantage. It is best for you to familiarize yourself with this place as much as you can while you have time. Your life may depend on it."

"Don't tell me something that I am well aware of Lord Melloi." The Edelfelt girl growled. "I am well versed in combat tactics and theory. Unlike some people, I do not underestimate my opponents and go rushing in without knowing what I get myself into."

The lord resisted the urge to roll his eyes and ignored the jab at his own integrity. "That may be so, but please do take care to not overestimate your own abilities as well, for that obviously can be just as bad as underestimating your foe."

"I take it you are speaking from experience." The teen narrowed her gaze at the elder man.

"You have no idea." Waver shook his head, not even bothering to take offense to the girl's thinly veiled shot at his experience during the fourth grail war. She'd learn soon enough that theory and modern tactics meant little in a war of Epic Spirits. Mortals were just not on the same level as the ancient heroes, be it in the past or present.

A light chuckling was heard through the night from a nearby road, catching the attention of the two magi. "Hmhm. She has quite the mouth on her for a child doesn't she?" From a nearby alleyway, a handsome golden haired man with blood red eyes walked out. Dressed in casual black and white clothing, an aura of authority hung around him as if it was only the most natural thing to do.

Waver froze in his steps, his eyes wide open and his breathing stopped. Of all the people he had to encounter before the war started, why did he have to come across HIM?

"Excuse me?" Marjatta raised an eyebrow, clearly not taking being treated like a child well, though if one paid attention they would notice a faint blush on her cheeks as well. It wasn't as if the handsome young man in front of her wasn't easy on the eyes after all.

Gilgamesh ignored the teen as he inspected Waver casually up and down, noting his red coat and golden scarf. "You have cleaned up adequately since last I saw you boy. I see you wear his colors with pride."

Waver closed his eyes and breathed once to calm himself, letting the smoke in his lungs go into his system and soothe his nerves. "As the last of his men, I would be ashamed if I had not been able to do at least that much." He looked down at Marjatta. "If you be so kind as to go ahead Lady Edelfelt. I will not be long."

The teen glared at Waver and Gilgamesh irritably before walking up the road without saying another word. Despite the polite manner in which Waver had asked her to leave, not a single one of the three had been unable to tell that he was ordering her to leave.

"I do hope your status is higher than that of a mere caretaker for the spawn of lesser houses." The servant with a body mused aridly.

"Please don't play me for a fool King Gilgamesh." Waver frowned slightly. "You know the girl is a master."

"And the medium for her summoning is in that box you are carrying. It somewhat worries me that the war that I took part in has been reduced to a mere game between women and children." The man who was said to be two thirds god stated as if he was talking about the weather before making eye contact with the human. "You knew that I still walked the earth."

It was a statement, one that demanded an explanation. Waver knew he could not hide such a thing from this man. His blood red eyes, evidence of his god heritage, said as much. "You had been seen after the war." He replied simply, trying his hardest to stand his ground against the King's horrifically overwhelming presence.

He was technically speaking the truth. Kiritsugu had before he died staked out the Church Kotomine stayed at and planted several hidden cameras while the man was gone. He had gotten good footage of the priest and the servant chatting with one another about rather twisted topics on more than one occasion. The videos however, were deleted as soon as they were shown to Waver and Sirius in case the house was ever raided prematurely.

"A paltry excuse, yet you do not lie. I shall allow it for now." The blonde man sighed aridly before looking down on the human with some mild form of discontent. "… Hm. You do realize that I normally kill others for the audacity of staring at me so directly like that."

The Lord didn't falter in his stature. Having been exposed to Lorelei's presence and ire on multiple occasions, he had developed some ability to retain his unparalleled fear by now. Of course the Queen of the Clocktower's presence paled in comparison to the King of Heroes', but it was enough to get by for now. "I am the last of my King's men. If I were not able to even meet your gaze, it would be the same as admitting that his reign is truly gone. That is something I will not allow."

The golden king remained quiet for several moments before smiling briefly as if amused by a small joke. "Truly that amusing man has a fine eye in followers to manage to claim someone of your worth among the rabble that populates this filthy world. I can see that time has only magnified his presence in you. Even after his defeat, his reign slowly grows once more. How entertaining." He looked at the human again. "And even still, as his loyal retainer, you have played cards to kill the one who took down his lord, even if his target is the one and only true king."

Waver's heart skipped a beat, however he did not lose his cool and merely nodded politely. "It is as you say. While I may not be the one to do the deed, I have organized things to increase the odds of your defeat has been raised this upcoming war."

Gilgamesh frowned. "I admit I am somewhat irritated by your audacity retainer. Not only have you made a gesture against the one true ruler of this stained world, but you have the gall to believe that my defeat is even comprehensible, let alone possible." His killing intent rose to palpable levels. "While I will allow your play to proceed out of curiosity and boredom, I am none the less not amused by your activity. Out of respect for that man, I will give you one opportunity to explain your reasoning for this travesty and why you foolishly believe your efforts are at all with grounds."

Waver swallowed heavily. He had a feeling that things would turn out like this. Gilgamesh was after all a rather simple man to understand once you figured out his logic. The world is his, hence he embodies the greatest authority there. The strong stand over the weak and make the rules, and he stands at the top, hence, he has the final say in everything. Yet at the same time he doesn't bother with "mundane" problems that do not relate to him directly or catch his attention. Such things are, from his perspective, issues that the commoners should deal with since they are below him.

Should there be a subject that is vague in any sense that he bothers to take interest in, he will address it as he sees fit without any issue regardless of the destruction that may happen in his wake. If on the other hand someone attempts to say, steal a treasure that belonged to him or make an attempt on his life, he is in his own mind obligated to serve as an appropriate judge, jury and executioner.

Whether or not he allowed them to live was merely a part of his self imposed duty as the judge and jury.

It was Waver's job at this point to make sure that he didn't take up the third role.

Waver knew deep down that Shirou would be a bad excuse to use. While the boy had talent, his ability was merely mimicking others, something that a King such as Gilgamesh would not appreciate or entertain in the slightest. Elaborate schemes were also out since the servant would simply take them out at any point. As such his only route for surviving was…

"She will be summoned again." The Lord reluctantly admitted to King of Heroes. He couldn't die yet. He had yet to deliver the summoning catalyst which was needed to avert another major threat in the war, and he had still to truly spread Rider's name and vision to the rest of the world.

Gilgamesh frowned for a moment before lessening his pressure. "She?" He muttered before smiling dryly. "Ah yes. Her. My wonderful King of Knights would have indeed crossed paths once more with me as my business with her was yet to be concluded, and one such as myself would never leave an important relationship such as that without a suitable end. To think that she would be used again so soon is indeed a pleasant thing to look forward to in this otherwise mundane show. A shame she will not remember me, yet I am afraid such is the unfortunate fate of being trapped in the throne." He looked down at Waver. "However, the arrival of my future bride is not something that I had not factored as a possibility…"

Waver almost clicked his teeth in irritation before speaking up again. He had to speak up while he had the chance or else he would be killed. "You misunderstand King Gilgamesh. SHE will be summoned once more. Memories and all."

The Golden King paused for a moment before a faint but long dry chuckle escaped his throat, his royal blood red eyes glowing madly with amusement. "Oho? Now isn't that interesting? Yes I see no lies. You are indeed speaking the truth retainer of the King of Conquers. Not all the truth, but enough. How you come to believe this is irrelevant, as you do not doubt that it will come to be." He chuckled some more and closed his eyes. "I will ignore the audacity of you interrupting me retainer, in addition to refraining from telling me everything. Your excuse for me to let you live was well spent, and I have given you only one reason to do so. To change my mind on such a trivial matter is beneath one such as myself."

Waver didn't even consider letting out a breath of relief. He was not dumb enough to assume he was out of trouble yet.

"In fact, I am pleased enough with your news that I will ignore your blatant attempts to kill the one true king." Gilgamesh continued. "Indeed, even though they will all be for naught, I am confident to assume that a war that you have tampered with personally will produce at least some interesting and amusing things to witness than one that would have gone its course. The current cast of the oncoming events has so far left me severely wanting." He looked at Waver approvingly. "Once you are done dealing with the children, I invite you to stay and watch over the fruits of your labor. So long as you keep to yourself, I will ensure that no harm will come to you."

This time Waver did show signs of nervousness. He was not supposed to be anywhere NEAR Fuyuki when the War finally got underway. At best he would serve as a live target for both servants and masters in the war, and don't get him started on Kotomine.

But simply turning down an invitation from the King of Heroes was akin to suicide, and Waver still had things to do in life.

"You are indeed most generous." Waver bowed politely. "However I regret to inform you that I do have rather sensitive significant matters to address back in England. It would be rather unsightly of me to simply just ignore my obligations without sound explanation to my superiors and students, and I do believe that you not wish to be exposed to the bulk of the magical populace as of yet." He stood back up. "In addition to that, I have no wish to participate in the war beyond what I am doing now. Should a master die and I am chosen to receive their command seals I would have to take part in it… and to be blunt, I do not trust the priest managing the war with my life. A playwright should never risk altering his work with his presence once put in motion after all."

Gilgamesh's demeanor lessened a bit before closing his eyes. "You are quite a rude little retainer aren't you? Quite fitting for one belonging to that man." He let out a sigh of mild frustration. "However you none the less do point out rather compelling arguments. Kirei is indeed not an individual one such as yourself should place their life in the hands of in a time of strife. Should you indeed receive more command seals, it would place you in an unfitting position. The grail is quite whimsical in that manner. Had I still have my Vimana, I could have simply kept you as my ward with me for the duration of the war wherever I went, however that blasted mad dog destroyed it. A pity."

"Indeed, yet I still follow my King's orders. He commanded me to live, and as such I am merely choosing the path that will ensure my survival." Waver nodded.

The Golden Archer looked down irritably at Waver before turning away. "It is a travesty when a playwright does not stay to witness his own work. Make no mistake, you survived this night only due to my respect for your master. Should I see you in this dwelling again come morning, I will end his legacy without a second thought."

Lord El-Melloi bowed deeply and did not say anything, for there was nothing more to say. Gilgamesh had given him his leave and with that the conversation was over. It was as simple as that. He stayed in that position for a good five minutes as he listened to the Golden King walk away until he was gone just to make sure. Looking up prematurely would spell his end. It was a simple as that.

Once Waver was absolutely sure that the servant was gone, he stood back up and sped towards Luvia's home, certain that Marjatta didn't wait up for him. As soon as he helped the sisters summon their servant he was going to get the hell out of town as fast as he could. Everything else was pushed out of his mind.

He could be concerned about practically condemning the girls to death later.

He could worry about telling Shirou about Gilgamesh's reappearance later.

He could care about the box full of literature from Colchis under his arms later.

o. o. o.

One Week Until The Fifth War Begins:

Tohsaka Mannor:

Rin breathed heavily as she inspected everything in her basement for the hundredth time. Everything of value was moved out of the way in case something went wrong. The ritual circle on the ground had been drawn perfectly as far as she could tell, using a good number of the original jewels that she had spent nearly ten years storing power into to make. The time when her power would reach its peak was approaching very soon…

Thank all that was holy she remembered to take into account daylight savings. It was probably the only time that she had actually been thankful for Luvia's constant mocking as it reminded her to take the changing of the hours. She'd never admit it of course, but that was a given. For a moment the teen shivered at the thought of what could have happened if she forgot to address such a simple mistake… no, such a thing should never come to pass.

She could feel it now. Her power was definitely coming to the peak that she had reached countless times before during her experiments and training. She could feel her internal reserves swell slightly as if it too knew what was to happen.

Looking down at the small sample of Shirou's Shroud of Martin (donated willingly of course), she breathed out slowly, opened her circuits, and held out the final gem that her father had entrusted to her above the circle.

"_Silver and iron to the origin. Gem and the archduke of contracts to the cornerstone. The ancestor is my great master Schweinorg."_

Rin wasn't stupid. When she had asked Shirou for a small bit of his shroud, she had also checked his hands for Command Seals, which indicated whether or not a person was a Master for the war. It only took her an instant to confirm her suspicions.

_"The alighted wind becomes a wall. The gates in the four directions close, coming from the crown, the three-forked road that leads to the kingdom circulate."_

But much to her surprise when she all but bluntly attempted to convince him into an alliance with her, he refused almost instantly with a sad smile on his face. One that told her that he had not only made another treaty, but that he knew something else was going on in the war.

Her circuits were beginning to warm up now. She could definitely tell that her ritual was working if the growing drain on her reserves was any indication.

_"Shut (fill). Shut (fill). Shut (fill). Shut (fill). Shut (fill).  
>Repeat every five times."<em>

However what bewildered her the most was that Shirou claimed that he had absolutely no intention of winning the war he seemed to be dead set on fighting in. She could tell right off the bat that he had something in mind, something that he had already committed himself absolutely to, but she had no idea what. At first she had assumed he was doing it to reduce the number of potential casualties to an absolute minimum, but she couldn't help but think that there was something much more to the teen's drive…

_"Simply, shatter once filled.  
>I announce.<br>Your self is under me, my fate(doom) is in your sword." _

And that honestly terrified her in a deep part of her body. Shirou was normally a very peaceful person. A bit dense sometimes, but he avoided causing trouble whenever he could. However there was a reason why he was called the Magus Killer damn it. Unless he was caught with his pants down or in unique circumstances, the boy was almost guaranteed to at the very least maim _anyone_ who he was absolutely fixated on beating, even if he did lose in the end…

And when Rin left his home, she could tell that his mind was absolutely made up when it came to the war…

Her circuits were burning now. All one hundred of them were absolutely flooded with prana as it coursed from her body into the ritual. Summoning a heroic spirit was obviously going to tax her body heavily, but the girl had already cataloged this particular ritual as one of the most taxing ones she has ever conducted.

_"In accordance with the resort of the Holy Grail, if you abide by this feeling, this reason, then answer.  
>Here is my oath. I am the one who becomes all the good of the world of the dead, I am the one who lays out all the evil of the world of the dead."<em>

The Tohsaka had already resolved herself to the most likely inevitability of encountering Shirou in the war. Since her friend soon enemy had already indicated that he wasn't fighting to win, she would assume that defeating other masters and servants was not his goal. That being the case, she would be careful when she next encountered him, but not be overly aggressive. If the world didn't hate her, she could talk to him reasonably and possibly figure out what he was up to and not get into a fight.

If things did get messy though… she would have no other choice but to take him down in any way she could.

Her vision was almost blurring now as she watched the circle she was in glow a deep vibrant red. As she reached the end of her Aria, the drain on her power reached its peak and the air around her thrummed with magic that could not be replicated anywhere else.

_"You, seven heavens clad in three words of power, arrive from the ring of deterrence, O keeper of the balance!"_

A drop of blood fell from her outstretched hand onto the seal, establishing her connection to the summoned hero and setting off the final trigger needed for the ritual as the complex circle began to spin above the ground around the girl blinding her with the tremendous amount of energy that it was producing, wielding enough prana to become visible to the naked eye…

And in front of her he appeared as the ambient power in the room focused on a single point… Standing tall in black armor with a red shroud. Tan skin and spiked up white hair, with eyes the color of steel and an edge that normally only belonged to a hawk…

Soon enough the air calmed down and the room returned to normal with the now two human figures looking at one another with varying levels of interest.

"It looks like I've been summoned." The servant observed casually as he looked around almost lazily before looking down at Rin. "I guess you're my master?"

Rin on the other hand could not say anything as she pointed and gaped at her servant in disbelief. In front of her was without a doubt an older version of Shirou Emiya. She had summoned Shirou Emiya. Her longtime best friend, had eventually become a Heroic Spirit.

In another world, where due to the lack of previous events Shirou Emiya had never developed a solid relationship with Rin Tohsaka before this point, where the girl never knew about the teen's powers, what he was capable of, or what he was truly like, she would have been insulted. She would have been annoyed that this random and unidentifiable servant would address his master in such a crude and disrespectful way. She would have yelled at him, ordered him around, and eventually wasted one of her three command seals to put him in line.

However this was not one of those worlds. Rin Tohsaka knew who she had summoned the moment she saw him, and as such she reacted the only way she could at the moment given the circumstances.

Repeating the fact in her head several hundred times at rapid speed that she had somehow summoned Shirou of all people as a heroic spirit after her ordeal of trying to convince him to team up with her, Rin did the only sensible thing anyone would do in this sort of situation.

She laughed

Relentlessly and hysterically, she laughed and laughed and laughed at sheer mad irony of it all. She laughed to the point that her new servant clearly wondered if she was sane.

"_I have a feeling that I will not like the reason why she is laughing this hard_." Counter Guardian EMIYA thought to himself as he watched his master collapse onto her knees, unable to keep herself up from laughing so much while still pointing at him and the exhaustion from the summoning ritual itself.

Even in the future, the counter guardian would admit that he never could understand what went on in Rin's mind…

o. o. o.

Three Days Until the Fifth Grail War Begins.

Edelfelt Mannor:

Luvia frowned as she read the newspaper that morning. "This is unacceptable." She growled as she read the article with distaste.

"Is something the matter my lady?" Sebastian asked as he poured his boss a cup of tea.

"Has the local barbarian society done something inadequate again sister?" Marjatta asked lazily as she drank her coffee. Unlike her sister, the girl liked having some black go juice in the morning to start her day. It woke her up faster.

"No." Luvia threw down her paper on the table, showing the article of more murders in the area. "Obviously a master is already getting full of himself and is attacking the local populace in order to gain ground on the other participants."

"Is that so?" The younger sibling yawned. "I thought that it was to be expected. In this ritual, only the strongest can win. Some would even say that any tactic is a viable option here."

The elder clenched her teeth. "But we are not. We are Edelfelts! We do not need to rely on such petty methods in order to achieve victory!"

"Hmhmhmhm… you say that now, however correct me if I am wrong, but have you not already resorted to other "petty methods" in order to increase your odds of victory girl?" A third female voice chuckled from behind Marjatta just before the owner materialized behind her. Dressed in elaborate and ornate midnight black and violet robes and dress fit for a master spellcaster or witch with a matching hood that covered almost all of her head, Medea, the Witch of Betrayal materialized with an amused grin on her face.

"I believe she is referring to involving those uninvolved in order to gain a minor boost in energy." A fourth female spoke up from behind Luvia with a voice near identical to the third's, only less condescending and more regal. Soon enough the owner appeared behind her own master. "And I personally agree with her opinion."

She was dressed in an elaborate, yet simple in design white tunic that covered her body, arms and legs, with a light grass green sash over her hips that held many pouches and pockets. A golden fur shawl with grass green trimmings was draped over her shoulders covering the top half of her body and held together by an ornate golden medallion.

Medea, the Princess of Colchis appeared, staring disapprovingly at her counterpart. Her getup was more sturdy and simple looking than her other half's, allowing her full use of her legs and showing more of her rather generous figure. While she also possessed a hood, she did not have it over her head, allowing her beautiful features to be seen with her pale lavender hair cascading down her back over her pointed ears and nearly flawless face.

"Humph." The witch snorted. "Even after all this time you still hold onto such stupid optimisms. No wonder we ended up the way we did."

"What happened to us was the result of petty gods, which no longer exist in this era." The Princess countered calmly. "However we must rise above the path that they had set for us so long ago. What is happening here is the result of a servant and master. Whom, I know not, but they must be stopped none the less before things get taken too far."

Luvia nodded. "I agree Caster. We must address this issue posthaste. Not only will it allow us to stop this fool from gaining us more attention, but it will prevent them from growing in power as well."

"I take it that you will also use it as another opportunity to show up Miss Tohsaka in the aftermath as well?" Sebastian asked with a dry tone before turning to the servants. "Do you desire anything to drink my ladies? I am not sure if what we can supply can compare to what you were used to, either back when you were alive or on the throne if it was there, but I will try to accommodate you to the best of my abilities."

"Don't overwork yourself Sebastian. They live off of our prana. They don't need anything." Marjatta yawned, causing her servant's lips to twitch very faintly.

"Sister. Don't be rude. It is only proper courtesy to treat our servants with respect while they are with us." Luvia frowned as she drank some tea.

"I admit it is a tempting offer, however I must decline for now." The Princess bowed apologetically to the elderly man. "I am going to spend this morning finishing up my territory defenses and setting up our observation spells."

"It is as my master said butler. I have no need for food or water." The Witch stated in an almost monotone manner, what little mirth in her voice from before clearly absent.

"Should either of you two change your mind, please do not hesitate to ask." Sebastian nodded kindly before turning to Luvia, ignoring the lighter version of Caster as she disappeared with a faint smile on her face. "My Lady. You still need to prepare for School."

The blonde girl nodded. "Indeed." She turned to her servant. "Stay here and finish your preparations for your observation spell while I am gone. You do not have to worry for my safety. No master worth their salt would dare fight out during the day in the middle of a crowded area. Tonight we will finally spy on the other masters and servants and gather suitable information for our assaults."

"About time." Marjatta snorted as she finished her coffee. "I don't want another incident like the one with Lancer again…"

"Indeed. We were fortunate that we surprised them with the fact that we have two versions of Caster and the noble phantasm of mine." Luvia nodded.

The younger Edelfelt clicked her teeth in irritation. "You are lucky that your version has the stronger Noble Phantasm sister. Had my Caster been yours, I could have handled the situation by myself…" The girl turned and left the room in irritation, leaving her servant, butler and sister behind.

"Hmhm. My my. I have such an impatient and jealous master, don't I?" The dark Caster chuckled in amusement.

"She is merely frustrated. Please forgive my sister's words." Luvia sighed tiredly.

"It is no issue at all. My master is correct after all. We are nothing but tools for the war. My other self and I more so than the others. We cannot truly be considered the one that was once Medea of Colchis, only different aspects or reflections of her." The witch smirked. "Now if you will excuse me, I will accompany my master as she researches some more…"

Sebastian looked blankly as the servant disappeared as did her presence. "My lady, this may be out of place for me to say this, but I do not feel comfortable with Lady Marjatta's servant."

The elder Edelfelt sighed. "do I Sebastian, however she is an ally as of now and thus she will be treated as one. There is nothing else we can do about it for now."

Elsewhere in the mansion, the youngest master there grunted as she overlooked some books again to look for tactical advantages in the war.

"Your family is rather concerned about you… or rather, me." The Witch chuckled as she appeared behind the girl.

"As they should be." The blonde replied without turning around. "I am of much higher value in the grand scheme of things than you are."

"Indeed you are." The woman nodded aridly before turning to her luggage. "… So when will we use your little spoil of war?"

The girl frowned and glanced at the case that held the body of some noble twat that she had discovered to be the last master of the War. The idiot had been bragging about it for weeks in the Association about being chosen before Marjatta had come up to him about teaming up and then killing him, preserving his body and the command seals on his hand in the process without anyone knowing any better.

What was his name again? Stanbrush? Pitwell? Whatever, it wasn't important anyways.

Marjatta knew that she and her sister would be summoning Caster months in advance in order to prepare for their job more accurately, and as such she assumed that a servant with a higher knowledge of the arcane arts would be able to summon their own servant with the right tweaks and materials. With a third servant under their command, even if it consisted of two Casters and maybe an Assassin, it would pose a strong enough force to threaten a Saber classed servant.

The only issue now was finding the right time and place to summon their third tool.

"Not yet." The girl stated calmly. "You and your other self are still setting things up. We want to at least gain some information on the other servants and what locations are safe before we conduct the ritual. When everyone is occupied with one another, then we can summon our personal servant to take out the others with their back turned…"

"Hmhmhm. Such a devious master I have." The witch chuckled darkly. "Very well then. I will follow your orders. I have high expectations of you…"

o. o. o.

In a Hotel in Fuyuki:

"Man this is the life." Lancer grinned as he laid back on the bed. "You future guys don't know how good you have it. Back in my time people would have killed for beds like these. No joke."

"I figured." Bazett sighed as she stepped out of the shower dressed in nothing but a towel. "Do Heroic spirits sweat, because if you do I will use up a command seal to make you take a shower before you stink up the room if needed."

The Irishman smirked. "Bathing is relaxing and nice, but conveniently enough us spirits only break a sweat against other spirits, and even then it goes away as soon as we go into astral mode and then come back. You need to relax more."

The woman frowned. "I can do that when Berserker is beaten. I've heard stories about strong servants, but Heracles as Berserker of all classes? Even you couldn't put a scratch on him."

"That little snowflake of a master of his was pretty impressive too." Lancer pointed out. "Normally that class has a tendency to drain their master's dry long before the war ends, but that little girl didn't even seem bugged about how much that guy was fighting." He scratched his chin casually. "Though she didn't seem human when you looked at her. Red eyes. White hair. Was she an Ancestor or something?"

"She's a homunculus. An artificial human." Bazett frowned and crossed her arms. "Which means she's the master representative for the Einsbern family."

The blue man looked at his own master skeptically. "And… that means what exactly?"

The enforcer frowned at her servant for a moment before blinking a few times and then looking to the side thoughtfully.

"You have no idea do you?" The man looked at her with a dry grin.

"Yes I do!" The woman snapped childishly. "It's… um… oh right!" She hit her fist into her palm as if she just remembered the answer. "It means that they have a castle outside of the city that's heavily protected…" She paused before she realized what she was saying and her mood darkened. "… Which means that we have to wait for them to come to us in the city if we want to fight them again… or else we would have to encounter them on their own home turf."

"Sounds like fun." Cu Chulainn grinned, clearly not experiencing the same feeling of dread as his master. "I need to pay back that giant bastard anyways. We can do it after getting back at those Caster bitches too."

"Two Casters…" Bazett shook her head in disbelief. "I don't even know how that's possible."

"Hey, more fun for us. I have B ranked magic protection and A ranked battle continuation. Unless the Saber of this war is some kind of anti magic juggernaut, I'm probably their biggest threat right now." The man shrugged. "The black one wasn't that hard for me to deal with. It was the lighter one that caught us off guard. It won't happen again."

"It better not." The enforcer frowned. "Letting the second Caster gain steam nearly got us killed and caused a ton of damage to the area. I don't even know how Kirei managed to cover that incident up as well as he did."

Lancer frowned for what seemed like the first time that conversation. "Yeah, that priest nut is something interesting all right…"

Bazett rolled her eyes. Ever since she had brought Lancer to the Church to register for the war, she had noticed that her servant always got rather twitchy whenever the place or Kirei were brought up. Admittedly she did get a bit of an odd feeling from both the man and his dwelling, but she trusted him. "So what do you think would be the best thing to do tonight?"

The male shrugged. "No clue. Both Caster's will probably be in hiding for now, Berserker's out unless we think of a way to kill him by tonight, and we don't know how many of the other servants have been summoned yet."

"Scouting it is then." The woman sighed scratching her head before going to put on some clothes. Lancer had already seen her naked before on their trips when they had to share a room, so she wasn't bothered by the possibility of him seeing her.

"Sounds like fun." Lancer yawned. "Almost makes me wish I was a Caster or Archer class. They'd have less trouble finding the others…"

o. o. o.

Shirou could tell that there was an underlying tension between everyone that was aware of thaumaturgy these days. He had no doubt in his mind that they all knew of the war coming, but none of them wanted to bring it up or else it would shatter the brief time of peace that they had now.

Rin and Luvia were more reserved and on more than one occasion he had noticed them give him, Sakura, and surprisingly one another looks of what appeared to be concern when they thought that no one was paying attention. On more than one occasion the girls had attempted to say something to him in private, only to hesitate at the last second and brush aside the meeting as not important.

Rin so far had almost twice the number of attempts that Luvia did, but he honestly didn't know why the two girls were so hesitant to tell him about the war. It wasn't like he was defenseless. Heck, he was probably one of the few humans on the planet that could actually kill a servant without any prior preparation time needed… keyword could. After viewing Waver's memories, Shirou was fairly certain that he at best would be able to beat a servant if he was horrifically lucky…

Watching Gilgamesh actually destroy the previous Rider's Reality Marble with that… that THING that was called a sword… it sent shivers down his spine for a whole slew of different reasons. How on earth anyone could stand being near it let alone wield it like a weapon was beyond him. He had to deal with massive headaches after watching that memory for a good two days before it finally went away.

"…rou?"

Then there was the sudden spike in murders and "gas attacks" that have occurred in the past week. He brushed off the first one or two of each since there really was a chance that they could have been just coincidences, but three times a charm, and he was counting on six each now. Granted the murders had started three weeks ago as opposed to the "gas leaks" and were fairly spaced apart, but he still blamed himself for allowing things to get this far.

"He… ention sen…"

Screw waiting for Zouken's signal to start the war now. He was summoning Saber TONIGHT. He should have done this earlier, but since he and the worm user had agreed to team up and summon their servants at the same time, the idea of dragging Sakura into things prematurely had left a bad taste in his mouth. How stupid of him to think like that.

He also pretended not to remember that he was most likely going to have sex with Sakura right before she summoned her servant "just to be safe" since they didn't know when they would have another opportunity to do so…

"Oi! …ke up!"

Actually there were already a bunch of other things that he didn't like about his current situation. Rin had already pegged him as a master, and he didn't know how she would react the next time she encountered him alone. They were good friends yea, but she had a magus' pride and that was something that he never was too fond of encountering on the battlefield.

Then there was the info he had received from Sirius and Waver recently which left him a whole new slew of headaches. He already knew that Berserker was Heracles and was summoned by Illya from his father's letters, but learning that Bazett-nee was the one who summoned Cu Chulainn as Lancer threw him for a loop and dropped a stone in his stomach. According to Kiritsugu's dreams, Kirei had killed Bazett long before the war started and stole Lancer in order to play with the war, but Sirius had claimed that he had already warned the servant about the priest… so he didn't know what could happen now.

It wasn't as if he could just call her and ask if Kirei had ripped off her arm or something.

The old man had also mentioned that the Association had another master in the war. Some kid that he used to teach that had been gloating about being chosen for a few days before mysteriously disappearing. If Shirou hadn't been more worried about what could have happened to the new master, he would have been a bit irritated with the old man for seemingly not caring about the guy's well being.

Waver on the other hand had texted him at three in the morning about a week ago to tell him that he had helped the Edelfelt siblings summon two versions of Medea of Colchis as two different Casters. This was mixed news since he did need Rule Breaker to avoid several potential snafu's in the future, but having another additional servant in the war would horrifically complicate things in the long run, especially if two were already teaming up and could significantly boost one another's power like two Casters could.

Last but not least was the fact that Gilgamesh knew that Saber was going to be summoned again and that he was being gunned at by at least one party in the war. If he wasn't so busy trying to figure out a solid way to get the drop on a King of Heroes who was actually expecting an attack, he would be actually worrying about how badly things could turn out if the golden servant told the priest…

WHAM!

Shirou grabbed his head in pain and looked around to see what the hell just happened frantically, only to see Fujimura standing above him with a confident grin and a book in her hand, the spine pointing at him. "Glad to see you're back among the living Shirou-kun." The English teacher spoke in fluent, albeit slightly accented, English.

Shirou made it a point after then to not dwell on plans for secret wars during class ever again.

o. o. o.

"So where are we scouting today?" Lancer sighed as he stretched his limbs and watched the sun go down.

"The residential part of town across the river." The enforcer replied as she put on her gloves. "Hopefully we'll have some luck there for once…"

"Hey it's not my fault I have E ranked luck." The blue man grumbled as he faded from sight.

o. o. o.

"Master, the scrying room is complete." The Princess of Colchis bowed as Luvia entered her home. "With it, we can observe any significant activity of prana in a range of ten kilometers without them knowing."

"Good." The blonde nodded sternly. "We shall begin our reconnaissance tonight and begin to make plans with regards to the other masters and servants."

"I hope it won't take too long." Marjatta yawned. "It would be unbecoming of us to stay back for the entirety of the war only until the end." She blinked. "Why are we not killing Emiya yet like we were hired to do?"

Luvia paused momentarily. "I discovered that he's a master, but he hasn't summoned his servant yet. For the sake of the war, we should at least let him summon it first before we take his life…"

o. o. o.

Shirou yawned widely as he walked back home from Copenhagen at nearly eleven at night. Despite the fact that he had committed himself to the war now, he had still promised to help out Neko (her real name was Otoko, but she hated being called that), with moving the last of a large shipment of wine that night even though he wasn't obligated to do so. Since it was probably the last time he would be able to work there, he felt it was the least he could do.

The extra bit of money he had received from his work was nice, not something he would have accepted under most circumstances since he really did the work out of obligation, but Neko had been adamant on giving it to him, and he had long learned that saying no to the woman was a bad idea when she was stubborn. Besides, from his father's notes, it sounded like Saber's stomach was a bottomless pit, so a little extra cash would help out a lot there.

Granted his extra work with the Association and Rin had earned him a fairly nice stash of money as well stored in several private multinational accounts, but he was trying to stay away from using that particular stash of money unless there was an emergency. In his case, one would qualify as either needing a new identity, place to stay, or living on the lamb from the Association. It was a small trick he had picked up from his father's notes, but needed if things after the war went to hell.

Because it was winter now, not many people paid him much attention as he walked through the city and over the main bridge of Fuyuki with the trench coat Sirius made him. Ever since things had been picking up in town, he had decided to begin wearing it whenever he had to go to work alone or stay out late. While it wouldn't do him much good against something along the lines of a Servant, it would at the very least increase the odds of him surviving an encounter with one. It wasn't like his casual black and blue clothing underneath it was going to help much. The shroud underneath that… maybe.

Reaching one of the main intersections on the residential part of town on the side of the river that he lived on, Shirou looked up the road that leads to the western houses. More specifically Rin's and Sakura's homes. He had no desire to fight against anyone to be honest, but unfortunately the odds of that happening weren't likely. Sakura had told him after class today that Zouken decided that now was the time to summon their servants, as if reading his mind across town and agreeing with him for once…

Still, Shirou's greatest time of magical power was virtually midnight on the dot, and he was supposed to summon his servant first, so he was in no rush to get to Sakura's place until a few hours later.

He sighed and rubbed his temple. All this excessive thinking was driving him nuts. He had to calm down if he wanted to get anything done. This was just like preparing for his apostle and designate hunts. Breathe in and out. Repeat. Clear your mind. Don't worry about the what if's. They will only get in the way. Just focus on the task. On what is confirmed, and what needs to be done. Let your nerves calm down as your body takes in the cool prana saturated air around you and…

Wait. Prana saturated air?

"You don't look so good onii-san." A young female voice laughed lightly from down the road, causing all mental functions in Shirou to stop at once. Her tone was light and playful like a fairy's, but there was the slightest hint of a predator's presence behind it as well. "You better summon it soon, or else you won't live that long looking like that." The owner laughed heartily, though with more of an edge this time.

Looking up the road and instinctively reinforcing his eyes, Shirou laid eyes on her. Eyes red as blood. Hair white as snow. A small body that belonged to maybe a thirteen year old at the latest, yet one without flaws. He watched as the girl skipped playfully down the street without much of a care in the world, dressed in a thick coat and hat that while appropriate for the cold weather this time of year, seemed out of place for this part of the world.

She was exactly as Kiritsugu's said she would be…

… Including the shrewd and confident look in her eyes as she looked down upon him.

"O-Onee-san?" Shirou's voice escaped his throat in disbelief. "Illya-onee-san… is that really you?"

The girl who had been nearly dancing on her feet with a knowing grin on her face suddenly stopped in place and looked at Shirou with a look of shock and incomprehension, as if she could not comprehend or believe the words that her step brother had just uttered. "What… did you just call me?"

Had Shirou paid more attention, he would have noticed that something was wrong about Illya's reaction to the way he addressed her. Had Shirou paid more attention, he would have noticed the girl's sudden flux of prana. Had he paid more attention, he would have noticed the small but extremely potent spike of something horrifically dangerous and deadly coming from the direction of the girl…

"Onee-san… you're really here. You look exactly like dad said you would." Shirou continued on, too happy to finally see his sister to notice that something was wrong, or that Illya seemed to have twitched somewhat violently when Kiritsugu was mentioned.

The woman in a girl's body looked at him with uncertainty and fear, slowly raising her hands up in front of her in a gesture that indicated that she was on the defensive, though there was a small fire that began to burn in her eyes. "H-how? How do you know my name? How do you know who I am? This isn't right. You're not supposed to know who I am. They said you didn't…"

"Dad told me." The younger sibling replied gently, not knowing he was adding fuel to the fire. "He never forgot about you nee-san."

"But he never came for me…" The girl whispered, her hands slowly clenching into fists.

"He told me so much about you and how much you meant to him." The Faker continued.

"… But he betrayed mama and me…" Illya muttered to herself in a half growl.

"There's so much I have to tell you, about the war, about the grail, about Kiri-"

"How dare you!" Illya cut him off with venom in her voice, surprising the taller sibling. "How dare you bring up that man in front of me? How dare you call me your sibling when you have not done anything to earn such a right, leaving me abandoned in that place without even attempting to come into contact with me? You even denied my existence when you were in the Clocktower!" She glared at him with utter hate and loathing that was only matched by Louvre.

Illya's rant snapped the Magus Killer out of his joy and made him realize that his sudden family reunion was going south fast. "Dad DID try to save you multiple times from the Einsberns, but the wounds from the war prevented him from getting to you!" He argued. "Please believe me! Even though he tried to hide it, I could tell that he cared about you far more than he did about me! I had to hide the fact that I knew of you or else the Einsbern's would have…"

"Lies!" The homunculus shrieked hysterically while grabbing her head frantically with tears going down her face. "He never came for me! You never came for me! I was abandoned to be another sacrifice for this war like my mother was! I won't trust myself to anyone this time like she did! I won't be thrown away again!"

"Illya! Please listen…" Shirou tried to argue with his sibling, but to no avail. The girl's life had been nothing but pain and experimentation ever since word of Kiritsugu's betrayal had reached the Einsberns. In addition to constantly having her body altered, she had been fed lies that she had been abandoned. That Kiritsugu had forgotten her for her new brother. That her new brother was now upholding her father's legacy in her place. That her new brother had no desire to learn of her existence or believed that she did in fact exist. For ten years the lies and facts had piled onto one another into a foundation that had made up the girl's mindset and life… a very delicate mindset.

With Shirou's initial admittance that he knew Illya right off the bat, he had already destabilized that fragile mind, and his attempts to calm her down only made things worse. Things had indeed been shaken loose, but the sudden shock to the girl's view on the world had been too much for her to try and pick up the pieces to try and make sense of it all. She was now questioning what was true and what was lie, and in the chaos that was her mind right now, it was all but impossible to do. As a result her basic instincts took over and caused her to violently lash out at the source of the inconsistencies…

And while she herself could not do much to stop the offender from making things worse, she had something that could…

"BERSERKER! KILL HIM!"

o. o. o.

Bazett turned her head as she suddenly sensed a massive source of prana appear nearby.

"Oi." Lancer spoke up, still in spiritual form.

"I know." The woman frowned as she made way to the source. "Berserker."

o. o. o.

"Master, we have a source." The Princess frowned as she and her allies sat around a rather large crystal ball, which seemed to be displaying a picture that was gradually clarifying by the second. "… Odd." She muttered.

"What is it?" Marjatta asked. "Is something wrong with the signal?"

"Of course not master." The Witch smirked. "It is only that there is only one servant fighting… meaning that they are probably going to feast again…" Her smirk fell as the globe's image clarified even more to reveal the large frame of a massive man with muscles made of stone and horrifically dark skin. "… No… no it couldn't be him…"

"H-Heracles…" The Princess whispered with a pale white face as the black giant roared incomprehensively with enough blind rage to send shivers down all of their spines. "Out of all the servants and classes possible… Heracles was summoned as Berserker?" A massive feeling of dread was felt by all in the room as they realized just how outgunned they were, even if they were teamed up.

Both Casters in particular felt dread and some remorse, as the Argonaut was one of the few legendary figures in history that had stood up for their original self when they were alive. As such the giant man was one of the few individuals that "Medea" actually liked… though she did fear his power as much as the next individual who had witnessed the demigod's wrath up close and lived to tell the tale.

"Who on earth is the unfortunate fool that is his target?" Luvia whispered as the globe's view of the scene panned out slowly to give them all a better view of the situation… only to show…

"Emiya?"

o. o. o.

Death.

That was the only sensation that Shirou could confidently determine was emanating from the monster in front of him. As much as he wanted to address his sufficiently hysterical sister right now, all of his senses and attention had been ripped from what they were focused on in an instant to address the giant in front of him. Everything else was insignificant.

Just by merely standing there, the beast with a human like appearance made Shirou certain that he was going to die. No previous experience he had had in life could even come close to this monster's glare upon him. Louvre? Hah! That fool was nothing compared to this embodiment of destruction that was just about to come at him with that THING that was more like a giant stone club with an edge than a sword. How anyone could perform a technique as complex as the one it had in its history he would never know…

"▅▅▅▅▅▅!"

The monster bellowed like some kind of human monstrous beast hybrid at a volume that would have made Shirou wonder how people would ignore such a thing if he wasn't too preoccupied with the pain in his ears from listening to such a call.

He could not win. Shirou Emiya did not stand a chance in hell against such a monster. If he fought he would die. If he ran away he would die. If he stood where he was he would die. There was only one thing he could do in a situation like this and that was to try to live by any means necessary…

Thump!

The beast's foot slammed down upon the asphalt of the street, launching it forward at its prey that its master had commanded him to kill. Indeed, the monster was more of a dog now than a human with its mad enhancement robbing him of any higher thought process it had in exchange for a massive boost to his already legendary physical strength. In less than three seconds he had already crossed the hundred feet that was between the two parties, and in a fraction of one his weapon swung down and…

"RHO AIAS!" The target roared defiantly and conjured up a seven petal bounded field in between the two forces, defending the smaller male just in time and repelling the giant almost violently back to the halfway point.

"What are you doing!?" Illya yelled, more angry then she was confused as to how on earth a normal human magus could create something that could force the strongest heroic spirit to ever exist back. "Kill him!"

Shirou panted heavily as he regained his bearings. He had almost not been able to project the shield in time due to his initial shock of being in Berserker's presence… a rookie mistake and he had almost died already because of it.

"▅▅▅▅▅▅!"

Berserker charged at his shield again and this time hammered on it hard with one arm, his altered mind preventing him from trying to go around the shield and urged him forward through it like it could virtually everything else. The impact of the unstoppable force and the unmovable object was deafening as the resulting shockwave broke some of the nearby fences to the homes next to their fight to the death.

Shirou could already see some thick cracks on the first petal of his shield. Cracks that would only grow significantly in the next few blows.

He had no choice, he had to use his other shield as soon as possible if he wanted to get out of this.

"My body is made of blades." The Emiya grunted as Berserker hammered upon his shield relentlessly like a raging insane lumberjack and broke the first petal within seven more strikes that lasted less than a fraction of a second each. He felt the shield's resonate with his body as several of his muscles spasmed under the damage. His chest was growing warmer by the second as he risked a glance at the near hysterical Illya who was still calling for his death. "Process select. Model identified. Sequence start."

Eleven models made. Ideally he needed at least fifty in order to hold back the giant efficiently…

Another petal shattered under Berserker's chaotic assault. He was fairly certain that a couple of his bones were now at the very least bruised by this point. Twenty three copies fabricated and loaded.

A third and fourth petal broke not even ten seconds later. Forty nine models made. He wasn't sure if the pain in his heart was from his shield or from his crest searing into his body.

The fifth petal broke, nearly shattering Shirou's ability to stand as his tendons in almost all his limbs began to snap. He would most likely have to rely on reinforcing his body to move after this, however this would be the last barrier to be sacrificed in the preparation.

"I've had enough of you…" The Magus Killer growled irritably before thrusting out his barrier at the unsuspecting servant and forcing him back before dispelling his shield. While using Rho Aias, the user was forced to stay in place, however it did not prevent him from moving the shield as he wished.

"Synchronous fire set. Trace…" The younger sibling raised his right arm at Berserker, who had rebounded almost instantly at its target.

"▅▅▅▅▅▅!"

Berserker howled, not pleased or happy, but… content that the annoying red and gold wall that had prevented it from killing its target was gone. Just an instant more and the fool that caused its master such pain would be nothing more than a red splatter on the…

"… Null."

In an instant over seventy swords materialized around the raging giant in a dome like fashion. Beyond all known logic that stated that such tiny weapons should not be capable of holding back such a monstrosity that was Berserker, the blades did just that with ease.

"▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅!"

The strongest servant yelled in frustration and rage as he stepped back from the wall of swords that, while not even scratching him somehow prevented him from achieving his goal which stood not even a few meters away from him. Roaring angrily, Heracles swung his massive axe club onto the barrier, intent on breaking it like anything else would under his mighty strength…

… However the swords remained in place. Granted the shockwave produced by the blow was still violent enough to throw the target away a good dozen or so meters, but despite his display of near apocalyptic power, the servant had yet to be freed.

"Wh…what?" Illya stared in shock at the abnormality that was in front of her, not even paying attention to the coughing and slowly recovering teen that had been until just moments before the target of all her rage and animosity. "How on earth… could you stop Berserker so many times?"

Such a concept was unimaginable in her mind. Berserker was the strongest. There was nothing that a mere human magus could produce that could stand against a single swing of the giant's club. It simply just wasn't possible…

And yet… and yet this sickening boy that had claimed her father for his own had done just that not once, but twice!

Her gaze turned from the almost imaginary sight of her servant being stuck in a trap to her hated target, only to momentarily flinch as she made eye contact with him. "What are you?"

Picking himself up from the ground and coughing up a large amount of blood, the teen glared at his sister with a face that was completely different from before. Gone was the teen that was happy at the sight of his sibling. Gone was the boy that was concerned for her welfare. In front of her was none of those things, but a man that had killed. One that had willingly stepped into the throws of death and done things that would crush other people.

There was no doubt in his eyes. No fear. No hesitation. No regrets.

"I am your brother."

The cage that entrapped Berserker consisted of common swords that Shirou frequently used when he didn't need a specific task to be done. They were cheap to make, easy to project, and simple in design, hence they were easy to adjust inside Unlimited Blade Works…

… Such as when he needed to remove the conceptual progression of time from them.

An object with no concept of fire could not burn. An object with no concept of water could not get wet. An object with no sense of light could not see colors.

So it was only logical that an object without a concept of time could not change. It could not grow older and accumulate history. It could not develop. It could not move. It could not grow more powerful. It could not be fixed…

… and it could not break.

Not physically at least. Unable to understand the concept of progression, for good or for bad, the projected weapons were permanent fixtures of reality and would remain so until the maker either dispelled them, or until a magical existence of some sort disrupted the magic that held them up in the first place. Gaia itself could not dispel them due to the fact that it could only chip away at the irregularity of a well made projection's existence gradually over time. Without "time" to give it an opening into the structure of the object, they were more or less untouched... or they at the very least degenerated at a "rate" that was outside of human comprehension.

Shirou had spent years perfecting the conceptual removal of time manufacturing process inside his reality marble with this exact use in mind. He had hit a slight snag along the way when he first attempted to project one of his products. Apparently if he wasn't careful, the items made would be isolated from Gaia's sense of time as well, causing the sword to truly stay in place in the universe while the planet moved, causing Shirou to accidentally cut his arm off when he moved past the blade at the speed of the planet traveling around the sun while spinning on its axis.

Hence the need for projecting objects in the G.E.O. coordinate system so that the weapons were established as a part of Gaia's system and stick with the moving of the planet. It wasn't until years later when he became a member of the Association that he managed to solve this issue.

The timeless blades were Shirou's personal major achievement of being a magus. He had been guided by his father and Sirius when it came to his original projecting methods through his father's dreams, and after that Waver and Sirius had aided in his general magical education, but the timeless weapons were his personal achievement that he had made by himself. While he didn't consider himself a real magus, he felt that if anything this spell was the sole landmark that he could say was his own. In fact, this had been the first concept that Shirou or Sirius had managed to truly remove from an object while they had originally been studying the process in the first place.

Permanent Projections.

Swords that would not move or break regardless of what was thrown at them physically, their existence anchored to reality through the very laws of Gaia itself. An atom bomb. A hurricane. An avalanche. Nothing as simple as those could possibly affect weapons of this make.

Only an act of god or something that surpassed the might of Gaia would be able to break them through pure physical means…

Crunch…

Or… apparently… an act of a being with an A ranked Divinity and A plus ranked strength.

"▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅!"

"Impossible…" Shirou whispered in disbelief as he watched Berserker hammer on his previously assumed unchangeable weapons relentlessly and, against the laws of physics and thaumaturgy itself, slowly break his way through.

"Don't stop!" Illya commanded, realizing that she wasn't defeated yet. "Kill him!"

Realizing that he had only a few more seconds to save himself, Shirou frantically resorted to the only other method he could think of to stay within speaking range of Illya without leaving himself completely helpless. It was a tactic he had developed almost a year earlier and had served him well during one of his apostle hunts.

Wordlessly he pulled out the largest weapon he had in his Reality Marble. It was a massive, but otherwise simple, two sided broad sword with a leaf shaped blade the length of Berserker's club and twice as wide, hovering parallel to the earth nearly a foot off the ground. While not really useable as a weapon or as a projectile, it instead was used as a mobile floating platform for Shirou which is why he had asked Sirius to make it for him in the first place.

Ignoring the screaming protests from his body from Rho Aias' backlash and being thrown back by Berserker's interrupted blow, the Magus Killer jumped onto the weapon and instantly willed its "position with respect to Gaia" to change to rapidly increase its altitude. The teen knew that if he overdid the height or the speed, he would be severely crippled by the sudden change of pressure, suffering from the "bends" as many aviators or scuba divers liked to call it, however being disoriented was significantly preferable to being killed violently by a giant stone axe sword.

Higher. Higher. Higher.

He rose through the sky with tremendous speed. He could not consider what he was doing flying. Flying was the action of keeping off of the ground. A process. What he was doing was merely adjusting the position of where he was and keeping the object he was on a constant in Gaia's realm. His changing in location was merely applying a velocity to the constant that was the sword he had made. Using his projection in this method came at a higher mana cost, and required more concentration to use, however the benefits of higher ground were at times nearly infinite depending on the adversary it was utilized against. As such he was moving higher and higher.

He did not notice that his lungs were not taking in enough air. They were already having trouble with that due to the wounds he had suffered. He did not notice the damage his body had undertaken since Berserker was still there. He did not notice the danger he was in… since Illya still did not know how little she truly knew of the war…

"▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅!"

With a final earth shattering swing, the black giant broke through the unchanging phenomena that its prey had erected around it. Wasting no time, the servant charged forward, hunched down, and then launched itself up into the air at the rising boy at speeds that would kill a normal human being.

"Shit." The Emiya swore as he saw the servant rapidly approaching him at a velocity that nearly shattered the sound barrier. He had put enough distance between the two that he had thought that he might have been out of reach… however he had once again ignorantly forgotten about how little Berserker's existence seemed to care for the laws of rationality and physics. As it stood, Shirou would only have a few more seconds before he was caught unless he did something quick… and only one thing came to mind.

"Time Alter." He grimaced, preparing his already battered body for the strain that was about to hit him. "Triple Accel."

How he managed to stay on all fours and not black out or break his limbs as his platform rocketed towards the sky at over eleven G's of force he would never know, but that was exactly what had happened. The moment his spell took hold, Shirou's entire being felt like it was being crushed and his vision momentarily went white from the strain. Breathing was a luxury as the sudden unwanted pressure on his body forced his brain to focus on ensuring his vitals could still function properly in its new environment, even AFTER he had reinforced his body beforehand.

Instantly tripling the speed he had been moving before, Shirou literally just BARELY managed to get himself out of Berserker's reach before gravity finally took over and pulled the mad servant back down to earth.

Feeling the ever present killing intent slowly weaken, Shirou instantly let go of his time enhancing spell and unsurprisingly felt weightless as his projection shattered under the corrective forces of Gaia, catapulting him straight up nearly six hundred feet in the air. Still in some control over his actions however, the teen managed to produce another one of his platform like blades right underneath him just as he hit the apex of his flight, allowing him to collapse right on top of it and cough up an unhealthy amount of blood.

Back on the ground, Illya stared in disbelief as her adopted brother hovered above her, having escaped her seemingly undefeatable servant.

Impossible.

There was no other way to describe what had just happened but that. A mere human teen had managed to hold off her Berserker twice and escape his reach. Not completely unharmed mind you, but ALIVE. That alone should be unimaginable. Only a small handful of humans were even capable of putting up a fight against a normal servant, let alone hold one off… and her servant was anything BUT normal…

A sudden thought spawned itself in Illya's mind. Was this what Kiritsugu saw when he first laid eyes on Shirou? Was this the reason why he abandoned her? Did he leave her because she was too weak?

She glared up. Her target was too far to reach by normal means now. Sure she could use one of her command seals to force Berserker to reach him and be done with it, but it would be too much of a waste. Not only that, but the reports on his abilities said that he was horrifically dangerous with projectile magic and with a bow and arrow. As much as she loathed to admit it, as of right now, her brother had her in a stalemate. The moment Berserker would move to attack his target, the teen could bombard her area with weapons and most likely move out of the servant's way. In short, if she separated herself from Berserker, she was instantly defenseless, something she vowed to never be again.

As much as Illya did not want to do so, retreating was the smartest thing she could do now. She would have other times to kill her brother… and she needed time to think about what he had said anyways…

"Berserker." She snapped angrily at her servant before turning around. "Come. We're leaving."

Ignoring the growls from her insane familiar, the girl began to walk away…

SHINK.

Much to her surprise, a pitch black sword with yellowish brown veins and blood red edges embedded itself into the ground a few meters in front of her.

"O… Onee-san!" Shirou's voice rasped out from far overhead. "You may not… believe me now… but at least listen to this! Take that sword! Find the connection… between it and… Fuyuki Memorial Park… and then come to me! Once you do… I will tell you the truth! I will tell you why… Dad threw away the grail!"

The girl with snow white hair resisted the urge to turn around to look at her brother… and instead focused wearily at the weapon in front of her. Something about it seemed familiar… yet at the same time she could tell that it was heavily cursed. The weapon was dangerous and yet… for some reason she couldn't help but employ the urge to humor her stupid younger brother's wishes… for now at least. He had made her curious…

"Berserker. Take it." The girl commanded stiffly and watched her servant follow her order, though she made a mental note of when the giant actually seemed to hesitate touching the weapon for a moment before grabbing the grip. To her knowledge, she had never seen the insane man hesitate in anything after she had robbed him of his mind for the pain he inflicted on her body by merely existing.

Not bothering with looking back, the daughter of Kiritsugu Emiya walked away with her legendary protector, not at all in the mood to deal with anything else for the night…

o. o. o.

The Edelfelts and their servants watched their scrying sphere silently as the black giant walked away from their prey, each one processing what they had just learned and all coming to the same conclusion…

They would need help if they were to overcome Berserker and survive the war. Shirou Emiya was no longer the current priority.

o. o. o.

"Archer. Is something wrong?" Rin asked warily as they stood on top of the tallest building in the commercial district of Fuyuki.

The red and black knight frowned as he looked across the river at something so distant that even he wasn't sure if he was seeing things right. "I'm not sure." He replied honestly. "It may have been a servant battle, but we're too far for me to tell."

o. o. o.

Lancer chuckled amused on the rooftop of a medium sized inn as he watched Shirou slowly lower himself back to the ground after Berserker and his master left. "I gotta admit master. Your student definitely has some decent skills to hold off Berserker like that. When I first saw that brat sic Berserker on him, I could have sworn that kid would end up a red smear on the road in three seconds flat."

Bazett grit her teeth angrily as she glared at her servant. "You are not the only one… and if we were allowed to help him out, he wouldn't have been left in such a bad situation in the first place." Her eyes shot over to her other side where the person who prevented her from helping Shirou out sat casually.

"Please don't look at me like that. He's still alive and in one piece isn't he?" Merem Solomon smiled innocently. "You have to admit, things are turning out much more interestingly than you originally thought, aren't they?"

o. o. o.

A/N:

Let the Games Begin.

Once again, Thank you Maximorph1 for betaing.

Sorry for the larger than normal length. I just wanted to get to the damn war part done and over with before I could go back to the smaller chapter pace again.

Ok. Let me just say this. I just had my first full two day weekend in almost half a year, and in it, I wrote practically half this chapter. Dear. Fucking. GOD. I missed these. The ability to rest a full day and then have a full day to yourself while being fully rested is indescribable. I will not lie… I almost cried due to how good it felt to me.

So we are finally at the war people and trust me things are only going to get more chaotic from here. More than half of the servants are summoned. Shirou's already nearly been killed once, (heheh, I laugh because we all know he's going to be pretty much everyone's rag doll at some point in this), a few chekhov's guns have been fired, WAY more are going to be set off in the oncoming chapters, Illya's gone nuts, EMIYA was summoned, and Merem is going to play the role as the neutral troll in the war.

On the subject of EMIYA though, I know that people are going to complain that "he's not a part of this timeline, he shouldn't be able to be summoned". In most cases, I would agree with you, however I will use the following as my excuses. First, Rin used both the Shroud of Martin (complete with traces of Shirou's blood and sweat), and her father's amulet as the catalysts for the summoning, even though she didn't know the latter was a factor. EMIYA has both of those objects all of his life.

The other part of my argument is a bit more flakey, but here it goes. There is more than one dimension in the universe, parallel worlds… Kaleidoscope. The thing is, technically, any person that has ever existed on the face of the planet has the potential in at least one world to become a heroic spirit, which would then be stored in the Throne of Heroes and kept outside the bounds of standard time and space. That being the case, why aren't they summoned, or why couldn't say, a dark version of Arturia be summoned when Avalon was used as a catalyst?

My answer is rather simple, the grail sends out, if there is no other influence, the most standard copy of that individual possible within the Throne of Heroes. For Shirou Emiya, of which there could be possible versions of a heroic spirit, EMIYA was summoned due to the grail recognizing him as the most standardized and recognized version of the future heroic spirit Shirou Emiya.

Now having EMIYA as Archer in a war with his memories is one thing, having him in the war with his memories and people actually recognizing him… well… you'll see.

Hold onto your hats boys and girls. The show is only just starting.

So onto less interesting things. I got nothing really to go on about. No new fanart. The TV tropes page hasn't been revamped in a while. Just… meh.

Just a note though, a personal goal for now is to reach 2k reviews by ch. 25.

So… REVIEW! WORSHIP THE LOG! SOMEONE KEEP A COUNT OF HOW MANY TIMES SHIROU WILL GET PHYSICALLY OR MENTALLY TRASHED! AND REVIEW AGAIN!


	23. Chapter 23

Chapter 23: Assembly

I do not own Fate/Stay Night and stuffs:

o. o. o.

He hurt.

No, that was an understatement of what he was experiencing. Shirou breathed heavily and slowly made way for his home, limping down the street while using whatever he could to support his body. Every dozen or so meters he had to stop and cough out some blood from his lungs, proof of how badly he was wounded.

He hurt, therefore he was alive.

Despite the logic that said that no modern magus save for an extremely select few could escape the wrath of Heracles summoned as Berserker, Shirou had somehow managed to done so. He had managed to avoid getting killed by the strongest human legend in history, one that was only further strengthened by magic and insanity. He had little doubt that the black giant had most likely been the strongest Servant ever summoned in the history of Heaven's Feel based on pure raw power alone.

Five Petals. The monster had broken through five petals of Rho Aias in less than half a minute through sheer physical force alone. Each of those petals had the defensive power equivalent to an entire fortress wall. Breaking through just one was akin to attempting to plow through a small mountain of stone. Breaking five petals so quickly, the sheer idea of what just happened had been incomprehensible to Shirou until then.

The most Rho Aias had ever been broken was the two or three petals that went during his fight against Louvre and the one time when he tested his limits with Merem. While the backlash back then had been bad those previous experiences, they had been nowhere near this damaging or painful. Had he not been used to being pummeled into the ground by Bazett, Sirius, and Waver, and had he not been so adept at reinforcement magic he would have most likely been forced to crawl back home.

At the moment, however, he did not care that he had lived, that he had not died, or that he had fought a legend brought back to life,

Because he had still lost.

Illya would not listen to him. That much was obvious. He had vastly underestimated just how badly the propaganda the Einzberns had fed his sister regarding Kiritsugu and himself, and his words in the Clocktower had only fed fuel to the fire. And considering that said fire had a massive black giant of death, destruction, and madness on a leash, it could only mean more troubling times lay in store for him.

He needed Saber if he wanted to see anything get done from this point onward, otherwise he would most likely be killed by the end of the night. He had read enough of his father's past jobs to know that right now he would be a prime target to anyone who was trained in the art of killing, though he would admit that this sort of situation did remind him of some cartoons he used to watch as well. (Waver had been adamant on making sure that he had also spent some time to relax and read some comics whenever he wasn't training so he wouldn't completely lose his childhood. Super hero based, of course.)

Because of this, Shirou was almost certain that his bout with Berserker had been watched by at least one outside party. Did not every hero who ever pulled out a trump card in a battle end up being watched by at least one observer in every story? It was so cliché and overused, but relevant to his current situation that he was convinced that it was more likely to happen than not. Besides, it wasn't as if Berserker was trying to be stealthy when he was trying to kill him.

So forward he walked back up the hills of the area to his home, under the moon in the sky. It was roughly a week or so till the next full moon, so it was mostly full, a "waxing gibbous" in lunar terms.

He had taken off his shroud and put it in his coat pocket when he first landed after Illya left. As much as he hated to admit it, he needed the boost from his tainted side in order to get back home and conduct the ritual and it helped. If Avalon doubled his natural healing abilities as it was without feeding it more prana, than exposing himself to the moon without the Shroud of Martin there to block the influence the moon his healing had doubled again at the very least. It would have quadrupled if it was a full moon, but he was not that fortunate at the moment. Of course, even if a person healed four times as fast as normal it would still take a significant amount of time to recover from torn muscle tissue and bone fractures, but it help make his half-assed healing spells work a bit easier on his legs.

As for getting the strength to get back home in the first place, well, he was at the very most a half step behind Sirius when it came to reinforcement. A mile walk wasn't beyond his abilities in this condition, even if he was trailing blood with every step.

The state of the body was never a factor when it came to the summoning, only the amount of prana he could conduct and the catalyst were needed on his end, and he had both all ready and set up. The circle was already in place in his shed and he had spent the last few weeks memorizing and reciting the aria needed to conduct the ritual. If he needed any extra juice he could always just tap in a bit into the jewels in his belt. Granted he would most likely pass out from exhaustion after summoning anything of that level in his current state, but it was of little consequence at this point.

Everything would be better after Saber was summoned. Avalon would be activated in his body, all but ensuring his complete recovery by morning according to his research and his father's letters, and he would have something to keep the other servants and masters from killing him on sight like Illya did…

Actually, now that he thought about it, maybe he should think about how to approach Saber about the whole "corrupted grail" situation. If he dumped the bomb on her without any explanation or proper preparation, then things might turn out as badly as it did with Illya. Rin always did tell him that he had issues with tact…

His body lurched and his lungs ejected another glob of blood. Judging how long it took for him to cough it up, he assumed that his body was already dealing with much of his internal injuries to a significant degree. That was good. It would put less of a strain on Saber when he used Avalon to heal.

Shaking his head to clear his thoughts, the teen focused on the road again and ignored the wounds from his one minute battle with Berserker. He could worry about them later after he summoned later. The pain of his exhausted body was irrelevant to his goals.

Just...gotta get home, one slow, agonizing step at a time.

o. o. o.

Edelfelt Manor:

Something was not right.

Luvia could feel it. Something was happening behind the scenes of the war and she had absolutely no idea what it was.

"_I will tell you the truth! I will tell you the reason why dad threw away the grail!"_

If there was ever a reason to be wary of the war itself, that was it. Ten years ago was the last Grail War. Ten years ago Kiritsugu Emiya had apparently taken part of it and _won._ And yet… he threw it away…

"Master?" Caster appeared behind her summoner as she went over her notes on the infamous Magus Killer. "Are you well? I am aware of how shocking it is that Berserker is Heracles but…"

"Heracles is indeed a problem Caster, however I believe that we may have a bigger issue at hand." The Edelfelt interrupted in a direct tone as she continued to look at her notes on Kiritsugu, primarily the ones that related to ten years ago to the present.

The Princess blinked in confusion before looking at the papers curiously. "I'm afraid I don't understand what you are referring to Master. What else was there in the event that we just witnessed to take note of?"

Luvia didn't hesitate. "The boy we are supposed to kill, the one that was just attacked, is named Shirou Emiya. His father's name is Kiritsugu Emiya, otherwise known as the Magus Killer. He was, when active, an assassin on a level of which the current magus world has yet to ever see the equivalent of. Unorthodox. Precise. Cruel. Prideless. A true killer. In essence you could consider him the modern day version of Hassan-I-Sabbah for the magus world."

"The parent of those two masters…" Caster nodded stiffly before realizing something. "Wait, the boy mentioned that he threw away the grail…"

"What few people didn't know about Kiritsugu Emiya however..." Luvia continued. "…Was that he absolutely despised killing. The very act of it made him sick, and in his eyes, most heroic spirits and legends were counterproductive to their cause. Their very existence promoted and inspired others to perform violent acts onto others to prove and excuse their cause without truly lamenting about them afterwards. The reason why he killed was simply to save as many lives as he could. He killed those that would be directly responsible for the deaths of tens, or hundreds, or thousands of others. Magus or not."

Caster remained quiet for several seconds. "He sounds like a man with many pains in his heart. However, I still have yet to see where this conversation is going."

"Caster." The blonde frowned. "He dreamed of a peaceful world where people wouldn't kill others en masse for such reasons. He dreamed of never having to witness or be exposed to genocide again. He wished for no one to experience the pain he had suffered as a child… so why did such a man, when given the opportunity to have his greatest wish granted right then and there, not take it?"

The Princess of Colchis briefly made a gesture to answer before pausing and thought harder on the subject. "… I see your concern. This is indeed troubling, and before you ask I do not have any advanced knowledge on the Grail's system. That was beyond the information given to Servants when we were summoned, and my magic is not entirely appropriate to gather such information. My counterpart on the other hand…"

"It is best that we do not inform her of this." Luvia interrupted. "As much as I would like to trust my sister, I am afraid that she would not consider or realize how grave the situation could be and ignore our warnings. As for your counterpart, to be blunt I do not trust her alone with such a task."

"I unfortunately agree with your decision." Caster nodded. "Something may have been withheld from us regarding the grail, or at the very least something unexpected happened to the system. To progress with the war without learning anymore could be disastrous."

"I agree." The master sighed as she looked some more at her notes. "While going directly to Shirou to talk about the subject would cause more problems than it would solve, I do believe that we have another objective to inspect that can give us hints."

"That park he mentioned." The Servant concluded with a nod. "I must admit, I am curious as to why that location would be significant…"

"You've never been there." The blonde shivered, recalling that dead area of land. "Supposedly the entire area was engulfed in flames during the end of the previous war. By what means I don't know, but even approaching it gives me an uneasy feeling so I tend to avoid it when possible. It wouldn't be far to assume that the place is cursed to some degree…" She paused before looking down at her notes again and widening her eyes in realization. "Cursed… It couldn't be…" She muttered as she ruffled through the pages of interview material she had from Shirou.

"Is something the matter?" The Princess asked curiously.

"Kiritsugu Emiya died roughly five years ago, publicly due to an unknown cause from the last job he ever took." Luvia explained as she went through her notes. "The truth though, was that he was slowly killed off by a curse, and a bad one." She licked her dry lips nervously. "I remember Shirou saying that this job took place, time wise, ten years ago… the same time as the previous war…"

"There are far too many coincidences to simply ignore, even if the man was not as pure hearted as the boy made him out to be. Though we are heroic spirits, I cannot think of any that are capable of cursing an area as large as you described. Not without aid." Caster stated sternly. "What it means I do not know, but I doubt it is pleasant."

"My thoughts exactly." The Master nodded as she filtered through some more papers. "Though it may be risky, I suggest that you follow me to school. Tohsaka already suspects I'm a master anyways, but it's an unspoken agreement that no one fights during the daytime. Afterwards we'll go to the park and see what we can get from the curse there. If it has truly contaminated that area for ten years without recovering, then we must be on guard for whatever it is that made such a thing in the first place…"

o. o. o.

On a rooftop somewhere:

"So now that the threat is gone, can you please tell me why we aren't helping my student?" Bazett crossed her arms in irritation as she stared down the twentieth Apostle Ancestor. "Better yet, why on earth are you even here Crown?"

"I was bored." Merem shrugged casually. "And to answer your first question, there is simply no need to. Shirou is perfectly capable of returning to his home without aid and will no doubt summon his servant when he does so. Giving him any more protection at this point would be superfluous."

"Mhm." Lancer raised an eyebrow skeptically as he watched the shorter male lean side to side while casually inching his way towards him. "And the reason why you keep on fidgeting whenever you're near me is because?"

"Ah…" The vampire laughed sheepishly. "That's a bit more embarrassing really."

"By all means tell us." Bazett stated in a dead even tone. "You made it clear that we have the time to talk now."

"Yes well." The young looking vampire shifted nervously. "I'm afraid it is because Sir Lancer here is of divine decent and… well, I have yet to partake in any blood with such quality in nearly a millennia."

"Wait, are you saying that because I'm part god my blood acts like an aphrodisiac to you?" The blue man stepped away nervously.

"No. More like an extremely tasty and rare meal that is literally impossible to obtain in this day and age that has nothing that can possibly match it. It is rather addicting to those who are fortunate enough to have ever tasted such an unrivaled blessing on the organ that we call tongues. Not to mention the rush we get from drinking blood of such quality is indescribable to those who do not share our physiology." Merem corrected. "Blood of your particular quality is unheard of in this day and age. I have no doubt that Van-Fem would be willing to pay a small fortune for just a single well preserved bottle of yours."

"Well it's good to know that Apostles have good taste in people, but I'm afraid that my neck is not…" Lancer paused as he noticed the way Bazett was staring at him. "Oi, Master? What exactly are you thinking?"

"A small fortune…" The enforcer that is always in a bit of a monetary crisis muttered to herself. While normally conducting business with other apostles is forbidden and looked down upon since vampires normally don't back up their part of the bargain, Van-Fem, the fourteenth Apostle Ancestor preferred to earn his horrifically vast wealth through human methods alone and was a well known businessman. If he made a deal with anyone, you could expect him to keep his end of the bargain so long as you did yours and didn't try to screw him over.

"Ok. Hold up. Both of you." Lancer raised both his hands in surrender, while backing up juuust a bit, and attempted to not get drained dry of his bodily fluids. He didn't care if his Battle Continuation might make him survive the experience, he was not going to serve himself to the undead elite for any price. "Can we get back on track please? For example that half dead kid who nearly got killed by one of the strongest legends out there on magical steroids is still out there."

"Ah. Right. How selfish of me to ignore my friend's current situation." Merem shamefully looked away.

"Friend?" Bazett blinked in confusion. "I didn't know that you and Shirou were on such good terms."

"That is because I told him not to tell anyone since it would no doubt cause the both of us problems that we would rather not deal with." Merem smiled happily.

"So your idea of helping the kid out was to leave him to the wolves?" Lancer raised an eyebrow skeptically. Not that it was unheard of to Cu Chulainn, he had seen and experienced that logic first hand back in his own time. Still, it was rather cold considering the kid had just managed to hold of Heracles of all people.

"Yes, but that is due to my utmost confidence in his abilities." The vampire confirmed. "On the few occasions he and I have sparred, he has shown a most tenacious will to survive despite the overwhelming force I present to him."

"Wait… you actually fought Shirou? And he lived?" Bazett blinked in disbelief. Merem was among the more powerful members of the Ancestors, so much so that it was rumored that he could handle fighting three of the weaker ones at once without much issue.

"Not really fought as much as it was… test." The shortest of the three admitted nonchalantly. "I'm afraid that his overall potential will not significantly increase until he becomes more involved in the war."

"Overall potential?" Lancer echoed confused. "Why would this war make him stronger in anyway? Is he one of those types that for some stupid reason gets stronger every time you wail on him, because I really hate those masochists. All they have to do is _live_ and they get a power boost. They don't do any real work to get stronger in the slightest. It's really unfair when you compare that to what we _real_ heroes gotta do in order to get as good as we are."

"I would be the best one to tell him." Merem told Bazett, ignoring the blue man's ranting. "He is a master after all."

The purple haired woman grunted and rubbed her temple wearily. "I was hoping he wasn't one." She muttered before continuing. "Shirou has the ability to memorize and create projections of any weapons he sees, powers and all. This includes, believe it or not, Noble Phantasms."

The Irishman blinked in disbelief. "Projecting actual working Noble Phantasms? Seriously? That worthless spell actually has that kind of use?"

"You saw it yourself." Merem pointed out. "While not many people would be able to tell, the Shield of Ajax, Rho Aias is indeed a conceptual weapon based Noble Phantasm. Even Louvre, its previous owner, did not recognize its higher quality of existence. In addition to that, both Ms. Bazett and I have seen him make a near identical copy of the Mace of Odo, power and all right in front of us in an instant."

Lancer clicked his teeth in irritation. So this was what that old drunk Sirius was warning him about when he told him that keeping the kid alive was one of their best shots at beating Gilgamesh. He had been wondering how the hell some kid would be useful in fighting the god damned King of Heroes, and here was apparently his answer. Still, for some reason the ability of copying Noble Phantasms sounded suspiciously familiar to him. "The Mace of Odo huh? Isn't that supposed to be the godfather of all maces? So I guess that means that I can't show Gae Bolg in front of the kid or else he'll be using its power against me?"

"Not very likely." The Vampire argued. "Shirou is incredibly loyal to those he considers his friends. So long is he knew that you were Bazett's servant, he would most likely try to get away from you and try to understand why you were attacking him in the first place. Fighting back probably wouldn't even cross his mind." He shifted on his feet lazily. "As for why I said that it would be best not to aid him… well… I believe that something is amiss in this war. Call it a feeling I occasionally get due to being a Planet Terminal. I can feel when the boundaries of reality become unstable or heavily manipulated, and while that is to be expected here, there is something… unpleasant, underlying the standard contortions of the ritual. I do not know what or why that is, however I am certain that is the case and I wish to find out what it is. I believe that the best way to do this is to not reveal myself as of yet to the others."

"A Planet Terminal eh?" Lancer muttered under his breath, clearly interested in the boy. "Never thought I'd ever get to see one of those. Even the old bat Scatach's never met one in person."

Much like how the term "pyromancer" is used to identify magi who use fire thaumaturgy, or more realistically used to describe magi with "fire" as their elements, a "Planet Terminal" was used to describe a person who had great potential as a magus and the extremely rare "sixth imaginary element". It was frequently what was used to actualize wishes and summon creatures from imaginary planes. "Average Ones", like Rin and Sirius, which were considered miracles in themselves, were significantly more common than "Planet Terminals", turning those that fell into the latter category into an extremely highly valued commodity in the Clocktower.

The odds of encountering a Planet Terminal were just as likely as the odds of encountering an Incarnation. Not damn likely.

What they were truly capable of was unknown, however among their suspected abilities was the increased sensitivity to the fabric of reality and the ability to anticipate where future major disruptions may occur. Apparently that was what dragged the little blood sucker to the grail war.

"If that is the real reason why you are here, why did you come to us? Why not Shirou if he is your friend? Better yet, why not tell Kotomine?" Bazett frowned, ignoring her servant's mumblings.

"The answer to that is simple Ms. Fraga." Merem smiled. "Shirou is simply too honest for this task and Kotomine is untrustworthy. Likewise I do not trust any of the other masters for one reason or another. You are the only one I can trust with this as you are experienced enough to act in an appropriate manner."

"Wait. The other masters?" The woman asked surprised. "You know who they are?"

"For the most part, and where they are stationed though there are a couple that I have yet to witness. I suspect that not all the servants have been summoned yet which is why I have only found most of them, however it is the servants I am more concerned about for a variety of reasons." The shortest one there nodded. "Even I am not comfortable about my odds fighting against one of your kind recklessly. What I would like to do is stay hidden in the background and gather information to figure out what is going on, only intervening slightly when needed."

"Yeah, that's nice and all, but the thing is I wanted to get summoned to actually fight for once. I don't care about the damn grail or wish or whatever's being given out to the winner." The Hound of Ireland grunted. "If you try to stick me on spying missions, you'll have to convince my lance to go with it, and it likes blood as much as your kind does."

Merem raised his hands in forfeit. While Apostle Ancestors were indeed capable of fighting toe to toe against Servants, the odds were on average slightly in the Servant's favor. Of course that was excluding individual Servants and Ancestor's abilities. "No. By all means stay with what you were doing. I was actually going to undertake the spying tasks myself since my abilities are more suitable for it. All I was going to suggest was that you hold off on being as proactive when it came to fighting for a while so that we could get more information."

Bazett looked down on Merem skeptically. On one hand, if he really was a friend of Shirou's then he might be telling the truth and something really might be off about the war itself. As far as Ancestors go, the teenaged looking immortal was rather straightforward and he did work for the church after all. On the other hand he could be lying and setting her up for some kind of twisted trap. Apostles weren't exactly known for their benevolence after all. "Lancer. What's your say on this?"

Cu Chulainn grumbled irritably as he looked back and forth between the human and the vampire. "Damn it. I just wanted to get in a few good fights for once." He shook his head. "I'll play along with mini blood jr's plan for now since he's not telling me to sit out when a fight presents itself, but if you start giving me orders that I don't like and you don't have a damn good reason for them, I'll kill you myself. Got it?"

"Of course!" The young looking vampire nodded happily. "Now I believe that it is human tradition to drink to a deal being made…"

"For the last time, you're not drinking my blood!"

As the three debated about bodily fluids and drinking habits, countless tiny four legged creatures began moving in the shadows, heeding the call of their king.

o. o. o.

Emiya Residence:

Shirou sighed as he looked at the booklet his father left him regarding the details of the war and the servants that should be showing up on it. If he ever needed any proof that his father's visions were correct, his experience with Berserker had proven it. All the giant's stats he had learned from his first encounter were all written down exactly in the book, special skills and Noble Phantasm included. Heck, the moment he had gone over the God Hand in the book, it had shown up inside his mental status of the monster as well, so that only proved Kiritsugu's validity even more…

A massive throb of pain echoed through his body, reminding him that now was not the time to marvel at his father's visions of the future.

"Trace. On." He muttered as he slowly pulled out the most valuable and complete object within his Reality Marble out into the real world and in the center of the summoning circle. He figured if he passed out and Saber was attacked by Gilgamesh, as little as those odds were, Saber could use the EX ranked Noble Phantasm to defend against him.

He would have taken out the original Avalon itself but his throbbing body made it hard to focus on doing so safely. It was easier and safer to make a projection. If the copy broke after one use, he'd just give Saber the original later after he woke up.

Despite the fact that theoretically projecting any object made in Unlimited Blade Works should all cost the same (give or take) seeing as the act of "projecting" the objects was merely moving them from one reality to the next, Avalon always seemed to cost significantly more to do so. While he had talked about the subject with Sirius hypothetically, seeing as he never told the old man that the legendary scabbard was in his body, he had only come up with a few hypothesis as to why that was.

The most logical one he had come across was simply the fact that he did not truly understand Avalon like he could his other weapons. To put things into context, in Sirius' words, there were two major factors that determined how well a solid blacksmith could make anything. The first was the blueprints that they followed. Lengths. Measurements. Spells. Etc. Basically what anyone would need in order to make something even remotely complicated without issue. This could be attributed to enforcing its "physical stability".

The second factor though was a bit more in depth. It was how well the blacksmith could understand what they were making. How it was going to be used. Its machinations. Its very life functions and purposes. Hell, even the nature of the ones that used the thing were put into account. This was something that normally took years for anyone to gain when working on a lone object, and only the best blacksmiths could achieve this kind of awareness when it came to new objects that they have never made before. This was used to enforce a projection's "conceptual stability".

When it came to comparing his normal projections and Avalon, Shirou's issue could be simply explained using these. Due to his reality marble, he had the second best blueprints and understanding of almost everything stored there. Since they were made on Gaia and thus understandable by its native's minds, they were easy and simple to put together and thus put from his world into the real world. In short, second best conceptual and physical stability were incorporated here.

Avalon on the other hand was a different matter. On one hand he had the best possible blueprints of the scabbard and its magic possible seeing as the real thing is inside his body. His very blood and soul knew the thing's structure and making better than possibly even the Fae themselves.

On the other hand, Avalon was created by the Fae and followed rules beyond human understanding and logic. Granted it was designed to be used by a human in the first place so there were _some _spots in its purpose and magic that he could get without issue, but for the most part true comprehension of Avalon's inner workings were beyond the teen. He just knew how to make that particular setup. Thus, the significantly smaller conceptual stability and the higher prana cost.

In essence, making Avalon to him was like making a mechanical box that could do all sorts of wondrous things. He could make it and the parts, but he had absolutely no idea what the heck most of the individual parts were, what they did, or how they interacted with one another. That lack of familiarity was the cause of the higher prana cost in order to truly make them, similar to the alchemy of the Einzbern.

That wasn't to say that he wasn't doing something about it. Over the past year and a half or so, he had been researching fairy magic whenever he had the time and compared what was in the books to Avalon. If Shirou had to put the experience into words, he would say that human thaumaturgy was akin to writing on a piece of paper, in two dimensions, while Fae magic was like somehow writing in three with blocks and swirls going wherever they pleased yet still somehow fitting together. It had rules and patterns, of that he had no doubt, but the sheer complexity of it in general was beyond staggering.

His studies regarding Fae magic could be compared in the following. Shirou had the rough equivalent of one of Shakespeare's plays in both Fae language and its direct human translation inside of him. He knew that they equaled one another, but he didn't know how the translation process worked. In actuality, no human truly did. Fairy magic was considered on the level of True Magic, completely beyond human reach or influence by most standards save for small bits of knowledge gathered over the centuries by lucky researchers. So he used all the ancient tomes he gathered from the Makiri library and tried to piece together whatever he could to make sense of it all.

As an end result of all of his time spent reading old moldy books when his reserves of energy were all but exhausted or when he was traveling for Association purposes, Shirou was fairly certain that he now had enough knowledge of the Fairy language to qualify as one of their kindergarteners, if they had such a grading system.

Whether he was one of the smart ones or the dumb ones he had still yet to determine.

On a side note, he was fairly convinced that no human would ever be able to pass the fourth grade mark with this sort of magic since he noted that every once in a while some of the deeper rules he found in Avalon seemed to change randomly and he had yet to see any sort of pattern to it, or if there even was one in the first place.

While that did not seem like much, the teen was confident that through his research he had discovered at least twenty to thirty new undiscovered rules and patterns to the magic of the Fae that matched up with Avalon. Not only that, but as his understanding slowly grew, the cost of creating the legendary scabbard inversely began to drop. It was still very expensive to make, but Shirou didn't feel like he had just ran a marathon every time he made a copy now.

So in short the rule he discovered was simple. The more he truly comprehended his tools, the more complete they were. The more complete they were, the less flaws they had and the more natural they appeared from Gaia's point of view when he brought them out, in turn making the reality transfer process smoother. As such they would end up costing less to bring out and take longer to be erased by Gaia. It just so happened that truly comprehending Fairy magic had merely not been done before by humans.

It made sense when he compared his theory to the blades his father left him. Natalia, Maiya and Kiritsugu all cost far less to produce than most of the other weapons in his Reality Marble. If he attributed his connection, understanding of his father's wishes, and intentions into the mix, it all supported his estimations perfectly.

Shirou had to hold back a laugh as he recalled his success in his research while putting the copy down into the circle. Once more he had done something that would without a doubt either earn him a Sealing Designation, cause Rin to get incredibly annoyed with him, cause Sakura to give her equivalent of a scolding, or any combination of the three.

Breathing out slowly and ensuring that the circle was perfect and that the time was just about midnight, Shirou allowed himself to collapse to the ground. He needed every remaining unit of prana in his body to conduct the ritual so the energy he had been using to ensure that he could stand needed to be diverted to more important purposes. Standing and pride be damned, he needed to fight in a war, not look good.

As a last second thought, he allowed the letter Kiritsugu left for Saber in the arm he wasn't holding out. It would give his partner something to do in case he passed out and she needed something to do until he woke up.

"_Silver and iron to the origin. Gem and the archduke of contracts to the cornerstone. The ancestor is my great master Schweinorg.  
>The alighted wind becomes a wall. The gates in the four directions close, coming from the crown, the three-forked road that leads to the kingdom circulate.<br>Shut (fill). Shut (fill). Shut (fill). Shut (fill). Shut (fill).  
>Repeat every five times."<em>

He could feel all of his circuits bursting with prana, trying to keep up with the ritual's high demand for energy. Even the small crest on his chest was occupied with feeding the hungry summoning, causing his heart to burn for the second time that night. Still his focus didn't waver in the slightest. He had felt worse in the flames ten years ago. The memory of that experience pushed him forward, pushing him to prevent such a thing from happening again, pushing him to save Illya, Sakura, Rin, Luvia, and everyone in Fuyuki from a fate that they had no idea was coming if he didn't act soon.

He would for the only time in his life, live up to be the hero his father dreamed of becoming.

_"Simply, shatter once filled.  
>I announce.<em>_  
>Your self is under me, my fate(doom) is in your sword.<em>_  
>In accordance with the resort of the Holy Grail, if you abide by this feeling, this reason, then answer.<br>Here is my oath. I am the one who becomes all the good of the world of the dead, I am the one who lays out all the evil of the world of the dead.  
>You, seven heavens clad in three words of power, arrive from the ring of deterrence, O keeper of the balance!"<em>

The circle in front of him glowed a deep blue, channeling so much power that sporadic discharges of electricity shot out along the circle's design. Had his nose not been so preoccupied with dealing with the air being supersaturated with prana, he might have been able to smell the traces of ozone lingering about.

And so slowly she appeared with sharp green eyes and blonde hair regally tied into an elaborate bun, the infamous King of Britain and wielder of the holy sword Excalibur appeared. Her battle armor was unique in design, being suitable for battle with the heavy metal encompassing her arms, chest lower torso, while at the same time regal with the blue fabric that made up the flexible parts of her armor and the wide dress like bottom that hid her legs from view.

"By your summons I answer. I ask of you, are you my master?" The young looking girl asked sternly down at Shirou who couldn't help but laugh despite the pain it caused him.

"That I am Saber." He chuckled as his vision started to fade. His injuries from fighting Berserker along with the strain of getting back to his workshop and summoning Saber finally managed to overwhelm him, even as he felt Avalon work its magic inside his body.

"Welcome back, King of Knights."

o. o. o.

Saber's temporary moment of surprise was not long enough to prevent her from catching her master's collapsing frame as it fell the short distance to the hard concrete floor of the workshop. She had been summoned only a couple of times beforehand, but she could confidently say that this was the most unique introduction to a war she has had yet. Her master had not only not been surprised by her gender being different from her legends, but he seemed to have been expecting it and… relieved, for lack of a better term.

Keeping her senses up in an attempt to detect any enemy servants or masters, the deceivingly small king inspected her apparently wounded master. Oddly enough, while he did show signs of injuries, he did not seem to have any marks of what could have been used to cause them in the first place. The only lingering traces of prana on him were his and some small traces of hers. No signs of a curse or lingering spell. She suspected that he may have gotten lucky with an encounter with Assassin, however she shouldn't make any conclusions until he woke up and told her what happened. Fortunately though, he seemed to be in possession of some sort of strong healing magic as his body was already rapidly recovering from his injuries…

She stood back up and inspected her surroundings. Even though she was clearly in a magus' workshop, she was on guard and would not pass up a chance to see what she could use to her advantage in the future.

A few seconds later Arturia's initial impression had already been made. Her master was different compared to normal magi, much like her previous one who shall remain unnamed for the time being. Swords floated above her in different patterns and sequences for reasons she could not determine. Papers, mechanical parts, tools, and jewels strewn over benches in barely organized sequences. Random machines whose purposes were alien to her were lying in out of the way places, their cases open in a way that indicated that the owner of the place had spent at least a fair amount of time inspecting their insides. On the whole the workshop was kept in some form of order, however it was nowhere near the standards of what she expected magi of noble decent.

Then there was the oddly large object in front of the large doors of the building, covered by a large drape of some time. For some reason she felt as if she should recognize the shape from somewhere, but she could not remember why…

And yet despite these signs of a magus that was not of nobility, she could feel that she was receiving a very healthy amount of prana from her master. The wounds indicated that he was capable of some form of self defense, which was reassuring, and his healing meant that even if he was caught in a poor position he would not be a liability for long. Truly she was in an unorthodox situation. Not unfavorable, but different…

A flash of gold made her freeze, making her turn back to her summoning circle and gaze upon something that she thought she would never see again. "Avalon?" She whispered in disbelief as she approached the golden scabbard as if it was a lifelong friend that she had not seen in years, which in some ways it had. Reaching down to touch the tool slowly, she had all but forgotten how magnificent her most prized gift from the Fae had been. Every detail was there. The magic was there. The markings of the Fae was there. The connection to her very soul was there…

But somewhere in the back of her mind, Saber could tell that something was amiss. "This is not your Avalon." It told her. "It is indeed a perfect twin, right down to its very concept, magic, essence, and making, but your legendary scabbard it is not."

She ignored the warnings as she picked up the scabbard and held it close to her chest to experience the familiar euphoria of its magic course through her body once more, like a gentle yet comforting hug from a beloved grandparent that one had thought dead for many years. A copy it might be, but there was no mistaking the magic for anything else that existed in the world. Slowly she absorbed it into her body after a brief inspection to make sure that there was no hidden curse or alterations done to harm the user. Even if it was not truly Avalon, it acted so much like it that she didn't really care at this point. Just thinking it was back with her gave her more comfort than she had in a very long time.

She turned back to her master curiously and inspected him further. A young boy, not even a man, with moderately tan skin and red going white hair. An odd appearance, however she was not one to comment. She was after all at least in her mid thirties and still appearing to be even younger than her master.

His cloak seemed to be of fine make though she could not identify the materials it consisted of, and his hands indicated that he was no stranger to wielding a sword… and bow. Another uncommon combination. The calluses on his hands showed significant practice with both, with the swords being of the one handed variety and appearing on both hands, indicating ambidexterity, maybe even proficiency in dual wielding. Further inspection of his body indicated no lopsided muscles, proving her dual wielding theory was more accurate than she had anticipated.

How peculiar. It was extremely rare for a normal human to be able to dual wield and fight with a bow efficiently. The various strength requirements for one almost ensured the impossibility of being proficient in the other. Trained archers in general tended to develop lopsided muscles in order to use their bows. But a magus? True, thaumaturgy and the miracle arts may aid a person in being able to perform both without instigating issues in the user's body, but compared to learning more about manipulating the elements and the world around them, such a task's results would seem meager. For what reason would a researcher of the arcane arts spend so much time on such basic (from their perspective) skills?

Her further inspection of the boy was interrupted as she saw a letter grasped in his hand by his side labeled "Saber".

"What's this?" The servant frowned as she picked the envelope up and began to open it. It couldn't be a dying message. Her master was, while still wounded, in relatively fine shape and getting better by the second. She saw no signs of disease or sickness. Come to think of it, the parchment looks like it has aged somewhat since its sealing, so its purpose must have been far older than that. But who on earth would want to…

Her musings were cut short however as she read the first few lines.

_Arturia Pendragon,_

_By the time you read this letter, I, Kiritsugu Emiya will have been dead for at least five years._

Kiritsugu? Why? Why of all people would she be receiving a letter from her traitor of an ex master? Why would memories of that man not leave her alone even after he caused her to forfeit the grail just as it was in front of her?

Her inner rage was instantly stopped as she read the next two words.

_I'm sorry._

He knew. The man knew. How she did not know, but he somehow figured out her situation. He determined that she was not some spiritual copy of the legendary King Arthur, but the original King of Knights himself. There would have been no need for him to apologize to her in the slightest had he thought she was another copy like other servants were to their originals.

Almost as bizarrely was the fact that he had apologized. Her master barely even talked to her, let alone apologized. In fact, he never even apologized for all the people he killed. Lamented yes. Grieved yes. Regretted yes, but never apologized…

Something was off. Something was terribly not right with the situation. Swallowing heavily, she continued reading.

_Due to the circumstances of the war and the grail, and how little time there was, I was unable to explain to you why I did what I did, though given our relationship, I am somewhat certain that even had you lasted past destroying the grail, I would not have explained my reasons to you up front. For the purposes of this letter and what you need to do in the future however, I will be blunt._

_The Fuyuki Grail is corrupted._

_Stained black in the third war by the remnants of a servant called Angra Mainyu, a living incarnation of all the evils in the world. Due to his unfiltered taint that has lingered in the greater grail since his defeat, any wish made on such a grail would take form in only one shape. Complete genocide and absolute destruction. The proof I have is this curse running through my veins that as I write is slowly killing me… and Fuyuki park, the location of where the war ended for us. The land there is permanently tainted to a degree that even those not attuned with magic instinctively stay away from its grounds._

Saber's stomach dropped and her face went pale. No. No that couldn't be right. It was impossible. The Grail was supposed to grant her wish. It was her only hope to restore Britain to its true glory and correct the mistakes made under her rule. If what Kiritsugu said was true then… then why had she been fighting all this time? What was the point of fighting in the war? With all that she had sacrificed…?

Her stomach lurched again as her mind went back to Kiritsugu. Irisviel had been sacrificed to conduct the ritual for the grail. He had in the end sacrificed his wife personally for nothing. Iri had sacrificed herself for her husband for a lie she wasn't even aware of.

_When I encountered the spirit of the Grail and rejected it after seeing it for its true nature, I was inflicted with the curse. Even now I can feel its power slowly causing my body to seize up. It hurts to move now, my vision is barely passable, and I have long since lost my ability to use magic. It is a fitting end for someone like me who has done nothing but killed people all his life._

Arturia felt ashamed. Not even a few minutes ago she had been all but cursing the man's existence, when in reality he had probably saved not only her, but her entire country's existence and countless lives, and not asked for a single thing in return. She still could not say much about his personality, methods, and character, however he was at the very least a man who stayed true to the path he chose for himself.

_Do not forgive me. I do not deserve it. I do not want it. I do not need it._

_What I do need is your help correcting my mistakes and for you to ensure that the grail war you are in is the last one. I had originally set off some explosives in a fashion that would naturally destroy the leylines of Fuyuki in a few more decades, however I did not put into account the way I forced you to destroy the grail and as a result of that it has started far earlier than anyone had anticipated._

_Likewise, I did not anticipate the backlash of abruptly destroying the complete grail while it was still full of corrupted energy. The destruction I saw, the corpses that lied there… they will haunt me for the rest of my short life._

_A couple of years ago I began to have dreams of the fifth war, starting fifty years in advance. Since they have started, I have witnessed various routes that it could have took, both good and bad. I have learned much of the grail's system, the servants that are to be summoned, the masters involved, and other issues that are if anything as concerning as the corruption of the grail._

_If everything has started as I have seen, you are reading this letter ten years after our war. The boy that has summoned you is named Shirou Emiya. He is my adopted son and the only person I managed to save from the backlash of forcing you to destroy the grail. After everything that has happened… I can unfortunately say without hesitation that he is my sole remaining anchor to sanity. Had it not been for him I am certain I would have killed myself years ago._

A small shiver ran through Saber's spine. She had always known that Kiritsugu had been overly stressed with the war and what was on the line, but this was her first glimpse of how dangerously close to the edge his lifestyle had truly pushed him.

_I have given Shirou all the information I have gathered from my dreams and devised appropriate ways to deal with each of the issues I have identified, however seeing as I have no doubt created a new timeline by doing this, I doubt that many of my solutions will be applicable when the time comes._

_I have informed him of all possible threats he should expect from this war and how he should address them._

_All but one, which I will tell only you in confidence._

The Servant frowned, not liking where this was going. After all that she had learned from this letter, even if what she read was even half true, Saber felt that whatever she would learn next would not be comforting.

_Shirou is fundamentally broken due to being dead center of the destruction of our war's conclusion. I found him in the dying flames barely clinging to life, and used Avalon to keep him alive. It was from the way that I found him that convinced him to be a hero of justice. My happiness of finding and saving just one person from that hell was so overwhelming to me, that it made the hollow child I saved envious of both me and what I did. He is absolutely unable to prioritize his needs above other's, whether it be minor plans, homework, major projects, or even with their very own lives, he would give up his own for others in a heartbeat without even thinking about it. If a person didn't know him better, they could easily pass off his behavior as suicidal at times. Had I not known how badly that would have turned out, had I not known what that would result in, had I not dreamed of the outcome of my actions, I would have unknowingly supported that ideal of his without much issue… unaware of the fact that doing so would have cursed him with a fate worse than what has befallen either one of us._

_He would have gone throughout his life with his limited magic saving others, unable to live with the idea that somewhere in the world there were people crying in misery. Going into wars to end them. Going into unstable areas to save the innocent. And if at some point he found himself in a position where he couldn't save all the people he could see in front of him, he would give himself to Alaya in an instant to save them._

The blonde was stuck in her spot. Berserker, Lancer, Rider, heck, all of the other servants could have barged in on her right that moment and she wouldn't have noticed them.

_He would have broken even further than he already is now Saber. He would have had to fight and fight and kill and kill without looking away after he died, being blamed for a war he had fought to stop by people he had saved in the first place. In the end he would have been betrayed by the dreams that pushed him forward all of his life. The boy, who wanted nothing more than to stop people from crying in misery, would be forced to watch humanity cry for all eternity._

_And if my fears are correct, he would have been summoned as Archer for this war due to his status as a Counter Guardian, desperate to kill his younger self in order to possibly remove himself from the throne of heroes and escape his personal hell, effectively "saving" his younger self from the hell that he could not escape._

_I pointed the only person I had ever truly saved down a gold and crimson path to hell knowing what would happen to him, yet even I underestimated how truly cruel it was to those who traveled to its farthest reaches._

_Even if my plans for this war do come to fruition, even if everyone innocent in this war is saved, I have already failed where it has mattered. I focused too much on what was in front of me to notice or address what would happen after I had died. _

She didn't know why she was still reading the letter. It was almost like a fictional play at this point, a sad mockery of a bard's work, but she knew. Deep down she knew that it was true, and that in a way Kiritsugu was warning her about her own decisions of completing her deal with Alaya. Warning her of what would happen to her should she become a Counter Guardian…

She had not believed that her resolve would have been so clearly shaken the next time she had been summoned so early on. She had not believed that she would be summoned for another purpose other than for the Holy Grail. She could not understand why someone who had in essence despised even the sight of her and what she stood for would trust her enough to protect what was precious to them.

Once more, the King of Knights' mind had faded back to words spoken of and to her in different times and by different noble people. _"The King does not understand Human Feelings."_

"_You saved them, but you never led them. You never showed them what a King should be. You abandoned your men when they lost their way. Then alone and untroubled, you followed your own petty little ideals."_

The parallels between her and her old master were staggering. Both had strived for a better world, though going on different, yet equally bloody paths to do so. The first, a lonely flawless king of an island nation. The other, an emotionless assassin cursed by the memories of killing loved ones for the better good. Both had sacrificed their humanity for others. Both had sealed away their emotions to save as many lives as possible. Both loosing just about everything they held dear in the cruelest way possible…

And both had placed their last hopes on a tainted Holy Grail.

Perhaps, in some sick way, there was another reason why he had managed to summon her during the previous war…

_I have tried my hardest to at least alter my son's mentality in order to prevent this outcome from occurring, however I believe the best I could do was focus his entire being into solving the issues that can be addressed in the war. That being said, I must warn you that it is most likely that Shirou will throw himself in harm's way in order to save those precious to him to the point of acting like a complete fool. I do not know how bad it will be by the time you are summoned, however you must keep this possibility in your mind if you desire any chance of avoiding Armageddon._

_Never the less, you must be wary of Archer should he be dressed in a red shroud and black armor, with tan skin and white hair. His weapons of choice are Kanchou and Bakuya, black and white Chinese Falchions, however he also uses a black bow that is strong enough to fire Noble Phantasms. Talk to Shirou about how his magic works for details and what to expect. Due to who summons him and the way things could play out, he could pose as your greatest ally, or your greatest enemy._

Kanshou and Bakuya… Saber frowned in frustration. For not the first time since she had been summoned as a servant, she had cursed the fact that she was not like a true heroic spirit and did not have her original self inside the throne of heroes. If she did, she would have at least been able to access the unlimited, albeit randomized pools of information there and gained more intel on the weapons and other hero's legends. As it was, she could only remember the identities and legends of only the most frequent and common heroic spirits of the current timeline and her own time.

_I have one last request to add onto what I have tasked you Saber. Shirou will no doubt tell you, but I wish to let you know myself as well. My daughter Illya is the container for this war's grail. Try as much as I could, I could not rescue her from the Einzberns, and because of that I was helpless to stop them from experimenting on her even more than they already have._

_When I last saw her, my eight year old girl weighed less than my sniper rifle. By the time you read this letter, she should appear to be just reaching puberty despite being nearly an adult by now. Should she survive the war, she would not last a year without aid._

Saber noted that there were faint drop like stains on the paper near this section. She had little doubt of what they were, and proved once again that her old master was far more human than she had ever given him credit of being.

It was ironic. She had fought alongside him in deadly situations in an entire war, yet she had learned the most of him and his heart through this simple piece of paper. Normally many would argue that the opposite would have been more logical.

Still, she remembered that tiny girl that could make her depressing master happy. In fact it was only with her that the servant had remembered Kiritsugu smile. To know that she was to be sacrificed for a false cause without knowing, just like her mother. Saber had no idea how much grief that information caused the man… only that it must be akin to what she was feeling right now knowing that the grail here was a lost cause…

_Save them Saber. Please save my children. I have bet everything on you and Shirou to make things right where I have failed, where I have gambled everything on a lie and gained nothing but destruction. Every other attempt I have had at trying to make someone close to me happy and live has ended only in death, violence, and sending them on the path of ruin._

_Please._

_Please give me a reason to believe that there is worth in heroes one last time._

o. o. o.

Matou Manor:

"He's late." Zouken stated casually as he sat in the living room with Sakura. It sounded more like a whimsical observation to most, but to the girl that had lived under his "care" for over a decade he was underlying some sort of consequence.

"There must be a good reason why he is taking so long grandfather." Sakura replied in a soft but firm tone. "He would not abandon the agreement unless something was amiss. He is not the sort of person that would turn away from his promises."

"Indeed he is not." The worm user nodded. "Indeed the very thought of that boy suddenly going back on our arrangements is preposterous. He showed far too much vigor and steel in his eyes to think otherwise… he really should learn to not wear his emotions on his sleeve. It makes him far too easy to read at times."

"Some people find that to be an endearing quality grandfather." Sakura stated, not going any further than that.

"Indeed. There are many foolish people in the world and even more who are attracted to such fools." The man chuckled from his wet throat before standing up and turning to the hidden staircase that led to the crypts below the building. "Come. Regardless of the reason why the boy is late, you still need a Servant to protect you during the war. We had postponed your participation in the war long enough due to my curiosity, but if our ally has been attacked before he could summon a servant then there is a chance the same could happen to you."

Sakura's heart fell through her stomach at the realization that Shirou could have been killed before summoning his servant, but soon enough she quickly recovered herself. "While that may be a possibility grandfather, I have faith in Shirou-kun's ability to survive long enough to summon his servant. There is a reason why you asked for his assistance after all."

Zouken grinned, feeling the girl's spirit shift just slightly from his comments. Truly neither the girl nor the boy knew of how bad one had made things for the other. "Hahah. Do not worry Sakura. I was merely joking. I have faith that the boy is alive and well. In fact, I believe that he has already summoned his servant."

The girl's eyes widened surprised. "He has summoned his servant?"

The old man nodded. "Yes. I have my ways of keeping tabs on the system much like the Church does, but to keep things short, Saber was summoned a little more than an hour ago. Given how the peculiar the boy's magic is, there is little guess as to who summoned it."

"Shirou-kun summoned Saber…" Sakura breathed out relieved. Out of all the servants, Saber was the most sought after class. Giving Shirou of all people Saber almost ensured him the grail war…

But then, why had he not arrived yet?

"I am ashamed Sakura." The sadistic man shook his head disappointingly. "The boy is strong and loyal. You should believe in him more. Like you have said, he must have a perfectly reasonable excuse as to why he has not come." Another small rippled echoed through the girl's soul. "Now come. It would be in poor form to put off on summoning your servant simply because your ally hasn't come yet. What would he think if you appeared and looked like you were not willing to defend yourself?"

He didn't bother to wait for her reply as he walked down the stairs. The contortions in her soul were enough of a reply.

o. o. o.

Tohsaka Manor:

For the first time in a while, Counter Guardian EMIYA was without a doubt confused as to what the hell was going on.

This wasn't his first time going through the fifth Grail War and odds were likely that it wouldn't be his last… but this was to his knowledge, the first time that his identity had been pegged less than a second after being summoned without him letting something slip. The facts that he was summoned correctly and had all his memories were merely a convenient add-on as far as he was concerned.

Or, at least this is what he would like to say.

In an infinite multiverse with infinite possibilities, the likelihood of something happening only once was small to the point of actually being impossible. The only problem was that he couldn't seem to recall any memories from the Throne of Heroes that matched what he had already experienced right off the bat. This was both frustrating and relieving in the fact that all he had to do was read the first few metaphorical lines of each of his summoned self's experiences to see it if corresponded to his situation. If it mentioned him losing his memories or Rin not identifying who he was within the first "page" or so, he could just toss the memory away and go for the next one.

On more than one occasion he breathed a sigh of relief that he was summoned with his memories. Managing his movements and preventing bad outcomes in the future seemed to be much easier now that he knew where to look.

Plus with access to Rin's kitchen, he could cook all those meals that he had forgotten in those other summonings. How he managed to live with himself every time he was summoned without such important information and activities was beyond him. Most of the time when he came out into the world it was straight to _work_ killing people by the hundreds if not thousands without an opportunity to stop or do some non violent good.

However, he could already tell this world was not the one he had come from. In order to kill off his existence to create the paradox, he needed to kill his original self from his original dimension, not an alternate self from an alternate world. From the memories of his time as a master, he remembered that Rin always seemed to be annoyed and confused with both him and her servant.

If this Rin Tohsaka was anything like the one he had grown up with (and by all means, the evil grin she put on her face whenever she reminded herself that Shirou Emiya was her Servant indicated that she sure as hell was), then there was no way she would have passed up an opportunity to mock the both of them if she knew the two were one in the same. Hell, so far he had yet to go a few hours without having the Tohsaka make fun of something personal of his, although a few comments seemed to go over his head and leave the girl dejected or confused when he didn't apparently react the way she expected. Things like "you owe me for the kitchen" and "I wonder who you picked in the end".

So, in order to prevent the girl from being even more confused and raising some questions that would cause some issues, he simply remained quiet and gave her a few roundabout answers while maintaining his aloof and more mature personality up, just like when he was summoned without his memories.

For example, when she first asked him questions on the future, he merely replied that it was pointless if he answered such questions, since if he told her then things would turn out differently. And even then his answer would only be correct if he was summoned in the exact universe that he originally came from. Going over how the Throne of Heroes worked and how vast the multiverse truly was seemed to settle his argument and keep the girl from going overboard with her interrogation.

It helped that he had during his lifetime studied a little bit of the Kaleidoscope's lectures and basic summaries of his magic. At the time he was really doing it to get a better idea on how servants could be summoned from the throne into different timelines, but random bits of knowledge does have its uses in unexpected places.

When it came to the masters and servants of the war, he replied honestly that he didn't know the true identity of some of the masters since some had been using proxies and others had been killed before he even entered the war… which wasn't much of a slip since Rin already knew his other self was a master. His existence proved that he didn't die in the war, which also seemed to be good news to the girl. He further claimed, honestly, that he did not know of all the identities of the other servants in the war since they died before he could figure them out.

So while his master digested some of the sparse information that he had given her, he had done the same with the situation he was in. He was in an alternate version of the fifth grail war. He was still summoned by Rin, and his alternate self was still raised by Kiritsugu. Said alternate self was far closer to Rin than he had been at the time, and from what he could tell was also a semi competent magus.

… One that still had borderline suicidal tendencies at times for the sake of saving others. The fact left a bad taste in his mouth. If his alternate self was making the same mistakes he did, then he would be obligated to end him before his dreams to become a hero betrayed the teen like it did him…

A piece of cloth slapped him on the face and hung over his head, snapping him out of his musings as he reminded himself of what he was doing now. He looked down at his master as she rummaged through some of her father's old clothes and belongings. "Remind me again why we are doing this instead of continuing our search for the enemy servants?"

"Because we should have done this before. You're too easy to identify. At least half of the masters here already know at least half of what you can do and how you do it. We need something to return everyone to even ground again." The Tohsaka answered sternly without looking around. "If you are identified by a master other than Sakura or me, MY version of you would be locked up and experimented on the instant word got back to the Clocktower."

Ah yes. He had forgotten that in this world his other self had somehow been practicing tracing at an early age to the point that his hair was already going grey and his skin was tanning. No doubt that meant that the teen's circuits had not atrophied and crippled like his did. How convenient.

Still he was somewhat confused as to how on earth more than just the magi in Fuyuki would know about his abilities. He hated being the center of attention and always tried to keep his relations to the Church and the Association to a minimum when he was alive, save for his contacts. What could have happened in this world to make his alternate self so well known?

"My mistake." He shrugged as he picked up the dull grey cloth and inspected it with minimal interest. "I believe that at some point the grail may have played with my memories in order to not remember all events regarding the war." He paused for a moment before tossing the cloth behind him and altered the red cloth that was draped around his arms and back and wrapped it around his head so only his eyes showed. "Would this work?" He asked honestly.

Rin turned around and looked at him curiously for a grand total of half a second before she looked at him as if he was an idiot and went back to going through her father's stuff. "You're right." She grumbled under her breath. "The Grail did screw with your head…"

Judging from her expression, Archer knew that he had missed something that otherwise would have been obvious, something akin to a bad joke, but he honestly didn't know what it was. Returning his shroud back into its original form, the man silently sighed and waited patiently for his master to find something that would solve their current problem.

"Ugh!" Rin threw up her hands in frustration and standing back up. "I give up. There's nothing useful in here for you. We'll just have to resort to plan B."

"Plan B?" The heroic spirit asked skeptically, suddenly developing a sinking feeling in his stomach...

"Yep!" The girl smiled in an all too familiar way. "We obviously can't do anything about your skin, so we'll have to mess with something else. That hair is way too easy to identify, so we're going to have to get rid of it, and since you can make any sharp object you have ever seen without issue…"

Even without getting into any fights yet, Archer had already decided that he hated this new world.

o. o. o.

He dreamed of a grand kingdom.

Noble men donned in great iron armor and bearing sigils and crests of all designs fought beside ordinary men in leather and chainmail below beneath tattered banners waving in the breeze. On horseback. On the ground. With spear. With sword and shield. With mace, morning star, axe, and all manner of varied forms of weapons designed for hand to hand combat…

And they were all proud. They were proud of their strong country. They were proud of their strong homes, keeps, castles and people. Of their land, their proud heritage, their mighty warriors…

And most of all, they were proud of their King. The "Once and Future King" they called him. A man who had been blessed by the Fae and Gods such that once chosen for the throne he had yet to age a single day. A "Holy Youth" they had initially called him when he began his reign. A King that elevated their broken and damaged kingdom into a golden age that would surely last a thousand years. Chosen by destiny, tested by Stone and battle, ruled with fairness and justice, and spoke of greater days yet to come, surely he was the greatest king that ever lived...

And yet, as time went on the wonder in the King slowly began to give way to distrust. The King was flawless in his judgment, never making a mistake. The King was unsurpassed on the battlefield, always leading the charge into the enemy and always killing the most out of all his men. The King was fair with his people, never killing more than was needed and always taking everything into account whether it be politics or war…

The King was perfect, flawless… and as such not truly human to his people…A being impossible to understand, to sympathize, and to ever truly love as one of their own.

Always undertaking the weight of his kingdom onto his shoulders, he stood apart from his people. What little time he did have to relax, he spent on more work instead of mingling with his subjects and fellow knights of whom he claimed and believed to see as equal. When someone left his service, he trusted their judgment instead of questioning them, trying to know their reasons and perhaps aid them in what led them to their decision in the first place…

The King was truly the reason why the kingdom had been so great and so stable. Spoken of in legends and times millennia after his demise… However, despite the majesty of his rule, all things must eventually come to an end. And with the fall of the pillar that supported the most weight, the Kingdom had crushed what was left that had attempted to carry on without its magnificent but seemingly inhuman ruler, for there was no one who wanted to or could ever take the place of him…

o. o. o.

"Mrgh." Shirou grunted as he regained consciousness, feeling every ache and knot in his body as he realized that he was laid out on the hard floor of his workshop. A further inspection of his situation told him that his head was lying on some cleaned rags that he used for mechanic work and his body was lying on his coat like a makeshift mattress.

"I see you are up master." An unfamiliar and young, but cold and calm voice stated evenly from his side, jump starting his mind as he tried to comprehend what had happened to him last night.

It took him a few seconds to recall his encounter with Illya and Berserker, and his subsequent summoning of Saber.

"Somehow." The Emiya sighed as he sat himself up and cleared his eyes to look around. As expected, not all of his paperwork and equipment had stayed put for the summoning. Notes and small object littered the floor randomly, but as far as he could tell nothing was broken. At best it would only take him an hour or so to clean the mess up. Looking at a clock which thankfully had not been moved or broken, he saw that it was five thirty, the standard time he normally woke up if he had not been doing experiments all night long and completely exhausted himself. While he did indeed do the latter that night, falling asleep at midnight was a rarity for him, so the extra rest did him good.

Turning to the source of the voice, Shirou prepared himself to look at his servant with a pleasant smile. Now that he wasn't on the verge of exhaustion, he could take in all the details of her appearance without issue, and he was not disappointed. Her posture and image were as expected of a King. Proud. Flawless. Regal…

Yet he could tell that something was disturbing his Servant. The woman's eyes showed hints of uncertainty. Of what he didn't know, but it was enough to snap him out of being in awe of the woman in front of him.

"Thanks for setting me up on the floor." He started lamely, trying to get a conversation started. "I know I probably didn't give you the best first impression as a master but…"

"On the contrary." Saber interrupted, her young voice did nothing to hide the commanding authority that it held. "Even though you were unconscious shortly after my summoning, my initial impressions are quite positive. Not only did you manage to properly summon me in such a state and are providing me a suitable supply of prana, but you seem to be quite experienced in combat as well. Given what time I have been summoned in, I did not expect my master to be an experienced bowman and wielder of the sword in addition to being a magus. It is comforting to me in a way that you practice in arts that I am familiar with." It was also comforting to Shirou for some reason to hear her praise him.

"Glad to hear it." The Emiya smiled sincerely before looking around and noting that his produced copy of Avalon was gone, no doubt taken into possession by his Servant. Another thing he noticed was that the letter that he had meant to give to her was not on his person either. "Um, did you happen to see a letter on me when…"

"If you mean the message that my previous master had written for me, then I have read it, and afterwards destroyed it to prevent such information from getting into the wrong hands." The King of Knights interrupted tersely. Shirou saw the girl's muscles stiffen and her eyes shift to the side at this statement. No doubt it contained information that she had not been rather comfortable on discovering.

"I see." The Master nodded in understanding as he slowly picked himself up. "No doubt you have a bunch of questions you want to ask me. Dad left a small notebook on everything he could before he died." He took out the small leatherbound book from one of the pockets of his coat he had grabbed before starting the summoning ritual and held it out in front of his servant. "I've been studying it for several years now, so I know most of the material already. You can read it if you want."

Saber blinked surprised at the offering. Could this boy really have been raised by the Magus Killer? Not only has he said more to her already than his father did throughout the entire war, but his very demeanor is the opposite as well. "Perhaps later." The King of Knights declined. "I would prefer to learn what is different now than what Kiritsugu has described in his visions, in addition to learning why you were in such a state when I was summoned."

The red going white head nodded understandingly as he pocketed his book and stretched his limbs. "Sounds reasonable. Just let me do my morning exercises first and then we can talk about everything over… breakfast..." He froze as remembered that he was supposed to have met with Sakura and Zouken last night after summoning Saber, the former of the list often helping him make said meal in the first place.

"Is something the matter Master?" Saber asked curiously, noting the teen's sudden look of shame and horror.

"About those unplanned changes that Dad never saw coming…"

o. o. o.

"There is a servant here." Rider stated with a hint of worry as Sakura walked to Shirou's home, the sun just up enough to not be considered dawn anymore. "A strong one."

"I am not surprised Rider." The young girl replied calmly to her servant. "Grandfather told me last night that Saber was summoned last night. Given how Shirou-kun's magic works, I would be more surprised if he summoned a different class save for Archer."

"And if the servant should attack us?" The servant in spiritual form asked warily, much like a dog waiting for a reason to be on guard and bare her teeth.

"Shirou-kun will not attack us." Sakura corrected her familiar with sincerity as she walked up to the front door of the Emiya residence, rang the doorbell, and then let herself in with the key that Shirou had given her years ago. Still unconvinced about the situation, Rider prepared to leap forward at a hint of a threat and deliver her nail like weapons point first at the enemy...

… Only to encounter the smells of breakfast already cooking in the kitchen, and a small blonde girl in blue and steel armor, standing in the main hallway expectantly and on guard.

"Sakura Matou and her Servant I presume?" The noble looking servant asked formally, but clearly on guard for any possible signs of a fight. There was also a hint of something else bothering her, but it appeared to be unrelated to the new guests.

While none of the visitors were aware of this, Saber was slightly uncomfortable in her current position. It had been years since she had been pushed into the position of a mere welcomer. Not since the days of her youth in Sir Ector's keep as a Squire had she done something like this. Normally she would have argued against being in such a situation, however the moment Shirou had begun cooking and the smells of breakfast reached her nose, her will to go against his suggestion seemed to wane greatly.

"I am." The human nodded with a smile. "I take it you are Shirou-kun's servant? It's a pleasure to meet you." She bowed as she spoke.

"And you." The blonde bowed politely in return before turning around and walking to the dining room. "Come, we can discuss matters over food. I have my own questions to ask my Master that need to be answered."

"Saber! Is it Sakura?" Shirou's voice shouted from his kitchen curiously.

"Yes Master." The blonde replied as she sat down in the living room. "She has brought her Servant as well."

"It's a good thing I made extra food then. And I told you to call me Shirou Saber! Master is too formal and makes me feel uncomfortable!" Shirou called out casually.

"There is no need for him to bother with us Servants." Rider stated, still in spiritual form. "We feed primarily on prana. We do not need food."

"Rider's being a bit shy Shirou-kun. I don't think she wants to show herself." Sakura translated her partner's statement much to her amusement.

"That's not what I said Master." The Servant grumbled.

"We're going to be fighting alongside one another soon enough anyways. She might as well reveal herself to us so we can understand one another better and get used with each other's company." The Emiya said calmly as he began taking food out of the kitchen and laying it in the middle of the dining room table where four sets of dishes had been placed. "Speaking of company…" He muttered to himself before walking to one of the walls of his home, muttered something under his breath, and channeled some prana into it.

"What did you just do Ma… Shirou?" Saber asked curiously as the teen went back to the kitchen to bring out more food, though Sakura and Rider both noted that the blonde was having trouble taking her eyes off of the dishes that had already been placed in front of her.

"It's just a bounded field that Shirou-kun has on his property that makes it so that people without training in Thaumaturgy will enter his home." Sakura casually stated as she began to serve herself. "Occasionally Fujimura-sensei comes over for breakfast unannounced, so the field makes her and any normal person approaching his main doors remember something important they have to do and motivates them to address it. Since we have much to talk about this morning, it would be best to not have her around to cause distractions." She turned to her side where her servant was still floating without a body. "Rider, please don't be rude. Shirou-kun worked hard to make us breakfast."

"Indeed." Saber nodded as she began to give herself rather generous portions of rice. "It was said in my homeland that only fools insult the chefs of the dwellings they stay at."

"Wow, even back then people said that? I thought it was only a joke made in the past couple of centuries." Shirou blinked surprised as he came out with the rest of the meal before sitting himself next to his servant.

Rider, knowing she was not going to win against her master given the look she was getting, briefly sighed in defeat before materializing next to the girl in her seat in the kneeling position.

Had Shirou not known what the woman looked like beforehand from his father's notes, he would have most likely have done something foolish like stared, choked on his food, or dropped something valuable. While Saber was indeed a beauty with her blonde hair, sharp eyes, small frame, and noble bearing, Rider reflected the darker side of appeal towards the opposite sex.

Dressed in black and dark purple, the woman's attire left little to the imagination. Her toga like dress displayed a generous amount of her impressive cleavage and hugged her body tightly, ending in a skirt so short that he briefly wondered if she and Rin had at one point talked fashion. Her arms were covered in sleeves disconnected from her toga that began at her biceps with bands keeping them in place and ended in handcuffs around her wrists. Her legs were donned similarly with black leggings that went up to her thighs and black boots underneath, further increasing his suspicions that the woman had similar dress code standards to Rin.

Her eyes were covered by a purple bondage like headband that matched colors to the choker she wore, and even without focusing hard he could tell that the odd choice in attire was a Noble Phantasm of some sort. Completing her physical appearance were her absurdly long magenta hair that traveled on the floor for a good distance, and the red marking on her forehead. Had she been standing straight up, he was willing to bet that at least a few strands of her hair would still be brushing against the floor.

All in all, the woman's very existence screamed the darker side of sex appeal. Where Saber was purity of female nobility and goodness and what all good men wish for in heart in the long run (given she physically aged a few more years so she wouldn't be mistaken for jailbait), Rider could be considered the epitome of their darker desires with taboo's included, embodying what all straight men wish for in body if they let their minds wander the gutter for the better part of a second.

Regardless of what sort of women they may be though, Shirou had little doubt that either one of them could kill him as easily as breathing if they truly wanted to. The power radiating off of either one of them was enough to confirm that suspicion.

It was only after all this had passed through his mind that he remembered that sitting in front of him was the Legendary Gorgon Medusa.

"Glad you could join us." The Emiya smiled truthfully. "It makes me feel good when I can feed people that visit and make them feel more welcome."

"I am only joining you because it is what my master wishes." Rider replied stiffly before serving herself food. How she managed to do that with her eyes being blindfolded Shirou had no idea, and he wasn't going to be rude and ask.

"You…" Saber growled annoyed. How dare this servant insult her master after he served her food.

"Now now." Shirou sheepishly calmed down the King. "She is quite right. There's no need for anyone to fight. We're supposed to be on the same side, remember?"

"Only until there is no one else left." Rider added calmly, getting looks from the other females in the room.

"Oi. Can we at least eat something first before arguing?" The host grumbled as he sat down and began to serve himself. "I haven't had anything since lunch yesterday."

"Really? You didn't eat last night?" Sakura blinked in surprise as she began to eat, giving the Servants the signal to start themselves. "Why's that?"

Shirou pretended to not notice both of the heroic spirits pause in surprise after their first bite before continuing their meal at an increased pace. Clearly they both approved of his cooking. Thankfully his father had warned him of Saber's stomach in his notes, otherwise he wouldn't have had enough food in the house to last a day with her in it, let alone an entire war. "I spent a good portion of last night working at Copenhagen since it might be the last time I might have the chance to do so."

"You're still working there?" Sakura asked curiously, not taking note of Rider's or Saber's sudden increase in appetite. "The people that own it are nice, but I thought that the Association pays you quite well for your work hunting Apostles."

_Apostles?_ Saber took note of the comment as she downed her rice at a fast pace. While the meal was in essence simple, consisting of large portions of fish, rice, vegetables, and seasonings, it was made to much higher qualities than what she was used to when she was alive. The blend of seasonings and unique textures danced upon her tongue extravagantly while the rice she ate seemed to soak it up and fill her to satisfaction.

She had not fought with him yet, but Shirou had already earned himself a solid position on the list of people that have summoned her. If the comment on the Apostles was anything to go by, he would no doubt be a solid partner to be back to back with in addition to being an excellent chef.

"I do, but I honestly don't want to touch that money unless I'm working on something big." The only male there shrugged casually. "You know, personal projects, experiments, maybe college if I manage to get enough free time from the Association."

"I don't know about that. From what you've told me, the Vice Director seems pretty adamant on having you full time under her control once you finish high school." Sakura replied dejectedly, knowing that once that happened she might as well say goodbye to him forever.

"We'll see." The Emiya mumbled as he began feeding himself. "I still have a little over a year to come up with something, and it's not like I don't have some negotiating room with her. Not much, but definitely a place to start. It's not like I enjoy going on the hunts in the first place, but someone's gotta do it."

"Master." Saber spoke up, having finished her first rather large bowl of rice and plate of fish and vegetables. "Can we please speak on topic again? I am rather curious as to why I found you injured as you were when you summoned me."

"Injured?" Sakura stopped eating at once and focused her attention on her fellow human, who was currently pouting and glaring at Saber childishly. "What did you do this time?"

"This time?" Saber raised an eyebrow and glanced at her Master, recalling Kiritsugu's warning that Shirou had a tendency to do reckless things for others.

Rider pretended not to notice and continued to eat her meal without anyone paying attention to her.

"I uh… I may have inconveniently come across one of the other masters when I was walking back home from work. And this master MAY have some past grudges against Dad and me… and then sicked her servant on me." The Emiya answered sheepishly while trying to play off the entire thing by eating again.

"You fought a SERVANT?!" Sakura gaped at Shirou, voicing out what Rider and Saber had been thinking quite clearly. Saber's hand gripped her chopsticks to the point of breaking. Apparently, Kiritsugu wasn't understating the situation about Shirou's personality if he was so nonchalant about nearly dying last night. She was going to have to do something about that soon.

"I am more impressed that he lived through the experience." Rider stated in her usual calm tone, though she had stopped eating at Shirou's declaration. "Who was it? Caster? Since you are still alive, it must have been one of the weaker classes…"

Shirou remained quiet as he focused completely on eating, pretending to ignore the temperature in the room drop for every second that he did so.

"Shi. Rou. Kun." Sakura smiled in a way that reminded him far too much of Rin. When exactly she started acting like Tohsaka, he had no idea, but he would bet money it came about from them spending more time with one another since the Louvre incident. "Which Servant did you fight?"

"…ker…" The sole male there whimpered with his mouth full of food, clearly trying to ignore the very intent stares of all three women at the table. Honestly he had hoped that he would have been able to deliver the news in a darker and more serious environment with him in control. Right now he was clearly outnumbered, out gunned, and terrified out of his mind. What was it with him always gaining the attention of angry and or powerful females? Every instinct in his body screamed at him to run or find some sort of miracle to get his ass out of this situation.

"You seem to be having trouble talking Master." Saber looked at him in a skeptical and suspicious way, returning to her initial name for him in order to voice her irritation. "Perhaps you are choking? I know of several means that can dislodge food from your lungs… though I must admit they are not among the most pleasant to experience…" Her smile looked so innocent, yet so deadly at the same time, like a snow storm about to bury him six feet under... or Illya.

Shirou shrunk even further under the pressure and swallowed heavily. "Berserker." He attempted to laugh to lighten up the mood but failed miserably, coming out more like a whimper. The chilly air in the room suddenly dropped to below freezing temperatures for drastically different reasons.

"Berserker?" Rider faltered, clearly not expecting a human to survive an encounter with the unstable yet powerful class. Regardless of how the teen had managed such a feat, he had without a doubt been raised several notches on the heroic spirit's threat meter.

"How on earth did you manage such a thing?" Saber asked bewildered, recalling when she had encountered Lancelot in the previous war. Even without his mind, the Mad Knight had been one of the most unstable and dangerous contenders, definitely not something a normal human would be able to escape let alone fight.

Sakura on the other hand sat back down and looked at the boy carefully. "Shirou-kun… how many petals did Berserker break?"

The Emiya faintly smiled before starting to eat again. "Before I managed to throw him off me, he managed to break through five of them in less than a minute." He didn't bother to mention that Berserker had somehow broken the laws of reality and shattered blades that literally could not be physically broken after he had used Rho Aias. No one knew about his other major defense's mechanics other than Sirius and Waver and he wanted to keep it that way for now.

"Petals?" Rider asked curiously, noting the paling look on her Master's face.

"Shirou-kun has the ability to replicate weapons and shields right down to their magic." Sakura explained. "His greatest defense is the Shield of Ajax. Rho Aias. It is powerful, but its physical state is reflected upon its user, so the more damage it takes, the more the user does as well. It possesses seven bounded fields, and the most I have ever seen it damaged was three broken petals."

"Rho Aias?" Rider stiffened in surprise, no doubt due to her familiarity to the shield since it came from the same part of the world as she did. Granted she had no part in that particular artifact's legend, however she was aware of how powerful of a defense it posed.

"I see." Saber's eyes narrowed. "That makes sense. When I first found him, his body possessed no external wounds, yet many of his bones, tendons, and muscles were heavily wounded in one way or another. Thankfully your healing ability addressed them all by the tie you woke up this morning." She stared at her Master warily. "On the matter of the enemy master and servant, did you manage to find out their identities?"

Shirou looked around at the females before sighing and decided to tell the truth. He was a horrible liar and even on his good days Sakura could peg him on a fib without even trying. Who knows what she'd do if he even tried to lie. Who knows what Rider and Saber would do? "It was Heracles."

"The Hero of Greece?" Saber whispered with her eyes wide in shock. While her knowledge of all heroic spirits was a bit limited, there was no way she would be able to overlook THAT name. "Are you sure?"

Shirou sighed before mentally pulling out a copy of Berserker's massive stone sword from his Reality Marble and projecting it behind him, surprising everyone else there. "To put things into perspective, he uses the thing behind me with one hand, and it is, in fact, proportionate to his body." Another second passed before he canceled out the spell and the slab of stone behind him shattered like glass with no remains.

"This does not bode well." Rider grit her teeth in frustration. She was confident in her abilities yes, but even she was wary of the prized half breed son of Zeus, whose strength was said to rival the gods when he was sane. She was somewhat hesitant to face the giant even with Saber, who she could feel was extremely powerful in her own right.

"What do you think we should do?" Sakura asked nervously. "If Berserker's master wants to kill you…"

"It should be fine for now." Shirou waved his hand lazily. "I barely managed to get away with my life and I could tell right off the bat that I couldn't scratch him, but some words were said between me and his master which makes me believe that they won't make any real moves against me for at least another few days." Or at least he hoped so. Illya's mental state was questionable to say the least. "Of course if they do show up again, my best recommendation is to run away and get backup. He is definitely not a servant that we can handle one on one."

"Who is Berserker's master Shirou-kun?" Sakura asked warily.

The male didn't flinch at the question as he began eating again. "Illyasviel Von Einzbern." He stated calmly, getting a flinch from Saber.

"Einzbern. That's one of the founding family's names." Rider noted as she put on a thoughtful pose. Apparently in addition to knowledge about the rules of the war and of the standards of the modern world, the Servants were given a brief history lesson on who made the war possible in the first place. No doubt there was a bit of Magus hubris fueling that decision.

"Grandfather said that with Rider and Saber summoned, six of the seven servants are now out." Sakura stated. "The only one left is Assassin."

"Humph. A coward's Servant coming last. How fitting." Saber snorted as she finished giving herself seconds and began to eat.

"Don't be like that. Considering I'm possibly the most dangerous Master in the war, Assassin might be the most dangerous Servant for us to deal with." Shirou stated calmly. "If other masters knew that I was one and had summoned Saber, they might try to team up just to get rid of me alone."

"You sound quite confident in your abilities boy." Rider commented. "Why is that?"

Sakura shifted in place. "Shirou-kun's known in the Magus community as the Magus Killer, and the Queen's Silver Dog. Even though he's not really violent, he get's sent out on jobs hunting very dangerous Dead Apostles, Sealing Designates, and he even killed a Dead Apostle Ancestor once. He's feared and hated by a good number of people."

"Magus Killer?" Saber raised an eyebrow at her Master, recalling the title that had once belonged to his father.

"It was an unfortunate chain of events that led to that happening, something that no one could have predicted." Shirou stated calmly after swallowing another bite of food, getting the idea across to Saber without telling Sakura or Rider what he really meant. "Personally I don't like fighting or killing anyone, but I was left without a choice in that particular case. Thankfully, most of the things I kill are undead or the bastards that made them in the first place. The few designates that I'm sent after though… well I try my hardest to make sure that they're alive when I clash with them."

"Such a reputation would indeed garner unwanted attention." Rider nodded, somehow grabbing seconds and already in the process of eating it when no one was looking. "So what is the current plan of action? I only know that the Masters here arranged for some sort of deal to be made before the war."

"We'll finish up preparations after school today. There's not enough time right now to do it." Shirou replied, pretending not to notice Sakura's discomfort with the subject. "Saber has an unfortunate condition that prevents her from going into spiritual form, so she will stay here and protect my home while Sakura and I go to school with Rider defending us. After that we'll come back here before going to the Church to get properly registered for the war and then go to Sakura's home to finish with our arrangements."

"That is, under the assumption that none of the other Masters attempt to attack us." Rider frowned.

"There's an unspoken agreement that no one fights during the daytime to avoid unwanted spectators." Sakura pointed out. "By the time we join up with Saber again and go to the Church, we should still have some daylight left."

Rider's silence was interpreted as acceptance to their explanation.

"Shirou, I must protest you leaving me here." Saber spoke up with a frown. "I am supposed to protect you at all times. Should an enemy servant appear…"

"Then I will have Sakura and Rider to help me out." The Master smiled sincerely. "It's only during the school day Saber, and if I am able to hold back Berserker to defend myself, then I am certain that I am able to hold off the others until help arrives. I have no doubt in my mind that I don't hold a candle to the other servants, but that doesn't mean I'm unable to defend myself to a degree. If things get truly bad I can always just use a command seal to teleport you to me."

"I would prefer it if you didn't have to risk using the seal at all for something that could have easily been prevented in the first place." The swordswoman grunted, only to get distracted by Sakura laughing. "I fail to see what is so amusing."

"It's nothing important." The girl smiled innocently. "It's just that things like this happen quite often with Shirou-kun. Even though you just met him, you're acting like one of us whenever he gets something in his head. It's like you've been here for a while already."

"Sakura." Shirou pouted. "It's not dangerous. I've taken everything into account. It's not like that time with Louvre. I know what I'm doing. I promise I really am taking my well being into account here."

The servants noticed Sakura's posture stiffen momentarily at the mention of the incident. Clearly something unfavorable had happened at the time. Neither had missed the underlying comment about his safety either, though both had different reactions.

Saber stared at her master angrily with her emerald green eyes for several seconds before relenting. Seeing as this wasn't the first time something like this has happened, there was little chance she would be able to convince her master to go with her plan. Granted, his logic was not unfounded, and from what she could tell, Shirou was at least aware of his suicidal behavior to occasionally put them into account, but she still did not like putting her master under the protection of another servant.

Rider on the other hand was taking in everything she could about her potential future opponents. Saber was indeed a major threat. Medusa had little doubt that the small blonde was at the very least one of the strongest servants in the war, if not the strongest… but it was her master that truly made her the most curious and nervous. The boy seemed to truly trust her with his life for some odd reason.

It was not a case of overconfidence. Perseus was overconfident. Granted he DID kill her in the end, but the fool could not have done such a thing without at least a dozen different blessings and gifts from the gods themselves in order to pull it off. She knew what overconfident idiots looked like, and the boy in front of her was without a doubt not one. It was more simply the fact that he did not suspect her of intending to harm him, thus he had no reason to be afraid.

She was curious at this. Why did this child, who apparently was one of the most notable human warriors of this era, trust her so completely without even saying a handful of words to her? Such senseless gestures could and would easily get a person killed or worse, yet he does so without hesitation. It wasn't even the fact that she was her Master's servant, though that may help the situation. No. She could tell that the boy trusted the both of them to the point that he was not at all worried for his well being.

As an individual that had been scorned by the humane and the divine alike for centuries on end to the point of actually turning into a monster that killed her siblings, Medusa was not exactly used to such treatment. She wasn't happy per say, though such trust from strangers was a pleasant rarity for her. In fact she would prefer it if she didn't develop any sort of attachment to the boy. They were in a war. Sooner or later they would be fighting on opposite sides to the death. Emotions that could get in the way of such a situation were better to be abandoned before they could take hold.

Curious. Yes. That was a good way to describe what she felt for the child in front of her. It was an emotion that was neither positive, negative, and could easily be thrown away if needed while still posing as a meager link to him. That would suffice for now.

"Sakura." The blindfolded woman spoke up, getting everyone's attention. "Is it your wish for me to protect him during school in addition to you? I cannot ensure his safety if you are both attacked. You will have to use a command seal if you wish for me to put his life above yours if that happens." There. She made it perfectly clear that she was willing to help him out to some degree while stating that her loyalties were still strictly to Sakura. No one could hold it against her if things did go wrong now.

"Yes." The girl nodded without being bothered by what the woman said. "I understand you perfectly Rider."

"I would be more concerned if that wasn't the case." Shirou shrugged as he ate some more. "Servants were summoned to protect their masters after all, not other masters. To hear that you are still willing to help me out even a little bit makes me relieved."

"I'm not defenseless anymore Shirou-kun." Sakura pouted. "Rin-sempai has been training me, remember? I managed to even beat you that one time. I mean I did get lucky and you didn't know what I had been doing at the time but…"

"Luck is a part of battle too you know." Shirou pointed out, not at all dejected by his loss. "In the end, if you won, even if was to luck, you still won."

"Agreed." Saber nodded in a sage like manner as she finished her second serving and began to give herself another portion. "When it comes to battle, a victory is a victory. Factors change all the time. Those who use luck or other things as an excuse when they either win or lose should not have the right to enter the battlefield in the first place. A good warrior knows when to adapt to such adverse conditions and never blames such things that were out of both their and their opponent's control."

"Couldn't have said it better myself." The sole male there smiled before noticing that most of the food he had put down on the table was gone. He was certain that he had put down enough for Saber's and Sakura's rather large appetites, and he on average ate a good amount for himself as well, but he had only had one portion, which meant that the miscalculation was made when it came to…

"Is something wrong?" Rider asked in an even but slightly curious tone as she served herself another bowl of rice and the last of the fish there.

"N-no." Shirou squeaked and laughed nervously, waving his hands in defense. If he had learned anything while growing up with multiple females with varying personalities, powers, and ages, it was to NEVER make a comment on their eating habits lest you wish to die a horrific and painful death. "Nothing's wrong! Nothing at all! Well would you look at the time! We have to clean up quickly if we want to get to school! We have to start cleaning up now." He quickly began to reach for the dishes, only to be stopped by Saber as she reached to give herself another serving.

"I wasn't finished yet Master." The smallest female in the room stated in a factual tone that allowed for no arguments.

Sakura laughed lightly before realizing that Saber was once again serving herself. "Now that I notice it, you do eat quite a lot Saber." She stated, not seeing the chef's body suddenly shiver in fear. "I'm kinda jealous. Where to you put it all?"

Shirou's hopes for surviving that morning dropped significantly as the conversation steered towards the subject he had been trying to avoid in the first place.

"When I was alive there were many wars that I took part in." Saber stated factually. "I worked frequently to keep in shape, so my body rarely took on weight. Though to be truthful there are other factors that are in place that explain my rather young appearance."

"Lucky…" Sakura mumbled as she looked down at her rather large breasts. "I always have to be careful when I eat these days or else I start to explode. The problem is when I do I always seem to be hungry." She turned to her Servant and her rather generous assets. "What about you Rider?"

Said black and purple servant, who seemed to be the only female there who noticed Shirou's presence and his awareness that this conversation was not something that he should be present for, remained quiet for a moment before speaking. "I have never had much of an issue with my eating habits. I find that my body's proportions are rather balanced, though I must admit they did alter a bit when my appetite became a bit more demanding. From what I recall, many males find this sort of body type appealing."

At once the three women turned to the token male, whose mind was frantically attempting to think of any possible excuse to get away from them at the moment. He put the minor thought that Rider may have something against him to the side, as the remains of his self preservation instincts kicked into overdrive.

"You know, I do believe I didn't triple check everything inside my workshop after I summoned Saber to make sure nothing was broken or altered." He lamely apologized before standing up and quickly walking to the door. Cleaning be damned, he would be killed if this was a conversation between three normal women, but between Medusa, Arturia, and Sakura? He merely put other's well being before himself! If no one else was in even a remote amount of danger, he would do what any other normal human being would do and get the hell out of dodge. Despite what Rin would claim at times, he wasn't _that_ stupid. "I'll be just a moment…"

Several seconds after Shirou left, Sakura turned to Rider. "You did that on purpose didn't you?"

Rider shrugged as she began to eat again. "Even if I knew what you were talking about, I did not see you do anything to stop it master."

Saber remained quiet as she too finished up her meal. She wasn't exactly sure how this particular joining of forces had started, but she was certain that she would learn more of it later. Regardless, from what she had seen so far, she was convinced that there shouldn't be that much of a problem leaving her Master under the protection of Rider if it was only for just that day.

o. o. o.

Tohsaka Residence:

Rin gasped as she woke up with a start an sat up in her bed, sweating profusely.

She had dreamed of fire that night. More fire than she had ever though she could ever encounter in a single location, and she had gazed into the heart of the inferno no less…

It was the fire that had ruined and created Shirou ten years ago, melting down whoever he was before the event and giving birth to Shirou Emiya afterwards.

"You seem to be pretty energetic in the morning for once." Archer chuckled amusingly as he approached the girl with her morning coffee. Despite only being with her for a few days, the pair had already gotten into a morning routine where the Servant would prepare a light breakfast and coffee to energize the Master just before she would wake up at around six thirty in the morning. Apparently, while Archer's memories were frequently put into question by his master, he had unfortunately remembered that the girl was more like an undead than a magus when she normally woke up in the morning.

Rin blinked as she returned to the real world and looked at the white haired man in front of her. Shirou had indeed told her of what the fire was like once or twice, of how he passed by countless other dead and dying people around him while just barely managing to keep himself alive in the process. She had known that it was a terrifying event. She knew that many people had died in it. Heck, she had seen some somewhat similar situations herself when she occasionally went traveling with Kirei to explore the world and hunt down a few minor heretics for the Church…

But what she saw was not controlled in any sense of the word. It was without a doubt an absolute hell that reigned indiscriminately upon those unfortunate enough to be caught in its wake. Men, women, children, elderly, infirm, strong, weak, all were consumed in that nightmare. To assume that even a single person managed to survive from being caught in the dead center of such an event could be considered a miracle in itself.

It was little wonder to her now as to how Shirou managed to break as badly as he did… no, it was only during the dream that she began to realize the true degree that Shirou did break. To possess a reality marble one required to run on significantly different logic than the rest of the world. Rin just never knew how different until then. It was the only way he could have managed to hold on as long as he did before Kiritsugu found him.

He had to have broken, if not already _be_ broken to have even the slightest chance of survival. No normal human could keep walking with a body as ruined as that. No one could have even thought of him as human from those injuries, those devastating wounds that he held across his entire body. Any other human would have fallen to the ground, screaming, wailing, whimpering, or fall into silence before being consumed by the flames. Instead, he had kept walking. Past the bodies. Past the screams and wails. Past the quivering bodies and the thrashing limbs Past the ruins that had been the homes of people he no longer remembered or would ever see again, moving ever forward through that seemingly never ending nightmare that kept shattering at his mind again and again with every step he took.

And just when even that inhuman resilience finally gave in and he collapsed, he was found by that man. At the brink of his life, he was saved, miraculously pulled from that nightmare to gaze upon that smile. To think that the Magus Killer of all people would have such an expression just from the thought of being able to save a dying child in that hell… to be THAT happy upon saving a single person… That smile, that beautiful, shining beacon in the middle of hell...the girl would never question Shirou's idolization of the man ever again. Not after that.

The girl silently made a promise to herself to let up on her comments of Shirou's personality. Before she had deep down assumed that the teen's mind frame could be corrected or at least improved with some common sense lessons, assuming that she could restore a human mentality back to him. Now, she knew that was pointless. Without a doubt, she knew that Shirou was and would forever be broken. He was who he was, and there was nothing she or anyone else could ever truly do to fix the damage he endured. The best she could do is try to make up for his deficiencies, and tolerate his mistakes to some degree.

"Master?" Archer raised an eyebrow, bringing the girl back to reality. "Is something on your mind?"

"N-no. It's nothing." Rin shook her head to clear her thoughts. Now wasn't the time to elaborate on how messed up her romantic interest was. Breathing deeply and regaining her Tohsaka stature, the girl calmed down and took the coffee that her servant brought her. With the first sip of black caffeine going through her system and waking up her mind, the brunette looked at the clock to see that it was fairly early. "I see I got up earlier than normal…" She glanced at her servant. "So did you see or remember anything while I was asleep?"

The man from the future shrugged casually. "I didn't remember anything, however I did briefly go out to check that odd signature we sensed on the way back. There appeared to be a brief fight that took place there, and at least one of the participants was a servant. The few marks on the ground were clear evidence of that, and whoever it was possessed a great deal of strength and mana. He made no efforts to hold back the power he held."

"So I assume that the victim was killed?" Rin questioned coldly. She expected there to be a new police report about a murder now if it really was a Servant targeting a normal human. She wasn't disgusted with the fact that so many murders and events were happening as it was happening on her property. She was technically responsible for managing the coverup and making sure that there wasn't attention turned to their direction. Sure Kirei may technically be the one that is in charge of doing it for the war, but in the end, it was her name on the dotted line.

"That was the surprising bit." The tan man mused, catching the girl's attention. "There was a victim, however he seemed to have survived given the blood trail he left behind. Unfortunately, going off on my own when my cute little master was sleeping defenseless did not leave me with good feelings, so I could only see what general direction it was going, which was deeper into the residential part of town."

"He lived?" The girl blinked in surprise, ignoring Archer's comment on her being cute for the time being. She had long noted that this future version of Shirou was far more sarcastic than his younger self, and that wasn't including the childish jabs he threw into conversation from time to time. She just assumed that it was a result of him spending far more time with her in the future.

Onto more important matters though, if masters and servants were becoming more arrogant in their approaches then things were starting to heat up. She had, much to Archer's surprise, been going to school without her servant under the assumption that no one would be dumb enough to start a fight in broad daylight. Since Shirou was a master as well, she didn't want to raise tensions between them so soon with the addition of his darker future self. The fact that Kirei had offhandedly told her that Assassin had yet to be summoned was also somewhat supported this idea since she wouldn't have to worry about being backstabbed without protection…

Now though, now she would have to admit that things were too dangerous to go anywhere without protection. Granted she still wouldn't start anything in the middle of a giant crowd, much less the school, but if something did happen, it would be better safe than dead. Besides, it wasn't like servants and masters could see other servants in spiritual form save for the ones they were bound to. They could only sense them.

"Lived, but injured. The trail indicated limping and leaning against walls for support." Archer shrugged. "Still, whoever it was was lucky that he survived in the first place."

"But how did he survive? Wasn't he attacked if the master was aiming to strengthen his servant? They would have their soul consumed if that was the case…" Rin frowned.

"Who knows?" The red knight mused, though there was a tinge of something in his voice that she couldn't identify. The fact that he didn't really seem that concerned about the wounded individual was also something that slightly worried the girl, but she put the thought away for later.

Finishing her coffee and getting out of bed, the girl yawned and walked towards her bathroom. "We'll talk about this later Archer. Since I'm already up, I might as well take a shower and get clean."

"Then I shall make sure that the breakfast is still nice and warm for when you finally get to it, otherwise you will no doubt be crass with me." The man smirked. "My pity goes out to anyone on the wrong side of Rin Tohsaka's ire."

"Keep talking Archer. I have three command seals and I know how to use them." The girl grunted as she moved towards her bathroom. "At least I know that you aren't dumb enough to follow me into the shower and peek at me naked like some kind of anime idiot."

The man rolled his eyes. "Please. Even if I have seen you naked before in my lifetime, our current ages are too far apart. I am not a pedophile."

Rin froze in midstep before turning to him and smiling in an all too familiar manner. "… Could you care to repeat that Servant?"

Archer paused for a moment before realizing what he had just said and edged away from the teen fearfully. "N-now Rin. Be reasonable. I'm from the future remember? Considering our relationship, is isn't hard to believe that such a thing may or may not have happened at some point that I happen to only vaguely remember- and what are you doing with that jewel?"

Had anyone been able to get past the privacy bounded fields that surrounded Tohsaka Manor, they would have been able to see flashes shine through a good number of the windows on the upper floors that morning in addition to hearing the sounds of a certain man yell in surprise and fear.

o. o. o.

Outside Fuyuki Highschool:

"_Master, there are several servants at the school…"_ Caster warned Luvia as she walked onto the school compound from her limo, which was driven by Sebastian and had Marjatta in the back seat.

"I am not surprised." Luvia replied quietly. "It was only a matter of time before Tohsaka and Matou managed to summon their servants…"

"_But what about the boy?"_ Caster asked. _"Why didn't you count his servant among the fold?"_

"He is too injured to come." The blonde answered, approaching the main building. "He knows better than to go to class in such a state. His healing abilities are subpar at best, and even with a good medic it would more than a night to recover from what he had obtained…"

Despite the fact that going into an area where there was more than one enemy servant with just a fragmented Caster class servant was akin to suicide in most situations, Luvia was not worried. Rin was smart enough to not start anything big in the middle of school, and the Matou girl in general preferred to stay out of everyone's line of sight save for Rin's and Shirou's.

Her conversation with Caster however was brought to a halt as Luvia opened the door to the school and saw Rin standing by the nearby stairs and staring intently at the entrance. The moment the two met eyes, they instantly came to an understanding. Both had brought their servants, both would not do anything about it… for now.

The tense energy between the two was enough that any and all students nearby instantly developed unpleasant feelings and moved away from the females as quickly as possible.

"Edelfelt." The brunette stated calmly.

"Tohsaka." The blonde replied in kind.

While Caster remained quiet throughout the entire ordeal, she couldn't help but notice that the enemy servant hovering over the master in front of her was fidgeting nervously. It was almost as if he saw something that not only caught him off guard, but made him extremely uncomfortable, but she couldn't guess why. Maybe he was a pacifist heroic spirit, or one with an advisement to harming females. Regardless of the situation however, it was clear that he was not eager to start a fight, which was comforting.

"I see you've finally decided to take things seriously." Rin started off this latest war of words in a casual and calm tone, almost as if she was friends with the girl.

"Funny, I was about to say the same." The blonde shot back in an equally sickeningly sweet tone. "Considering the position you are in, I was surprised why you didn't do this earlier. Those in your situation normally need as much help as they can get, correct?"

Archer shifted around even more, but was only noticed by Caster as his master was too busy dealing with Luvia.

The Tohsaka took the insult in stride and put on a confident smirk. "Oh I may have started late Edelfelt, but believe me it was worth it. With what I have, this entire thing is in the bag."

Memories of what she had witnessed the previous night flashed through Luvia's mind, the unstoppable black giant and the lone human teen that managed to out maneuver it despite the impossibility of it all. "Had you truly known what the others are like, you would think otherwise Tohsaka."

The smile on Rin's face dropped for a moment, clearly understanding that something related to the war had gotten underneath Luvia's skin recently, but before she could say anything more, her and Luvia's servants alerted them to the presence of a third Servant approaching.

"Oi. Could you two at least wait until lunch before starting this?" Shirou sighed as he walked towards the pair with Sakura and the girl's servant hovering above them. Unlike Caster and Archer, Rider was stiff and ready to fight at the first sign of trouble, never taking her attention away from the other two resurrected beings like an attack dog just waiting to be set loose. "In the main entrance to the building too. You two do realize that doing your thing here would just cause all sorts of trouble for people right?"

"Even I have to admit, this is pushing it." Sakura added disappointedly as she walked with him, no doubt indicating that they both had come from archery club.

"Shirou-kun…" Rin froze as the memories of the fire flared in her mind again, reminding her of the teen's broken origins.

"E-Emiya?" Luvia's reaction was more distinct as she gaped and stared at the teen in bewilderment. She had seen him get trashed by Berserker not even twelve hours ago, yet here he was standing and talking to them without a single scratch, cast, or bruise. Sensing the fact that the new servant was hovering over Matou protectively made it clear that it was the girl's… so that meant that the foolish idiot was standing literally in the middle of three forces of nature summoned with the purpose to kill one another…

"Honestly, could you guys have picked a worse time and place to start this? No, it's my fault for not keeping an eye out in case it got this far…" He sighed and looked at Sakura who was nervously shifting her gaze between her elder female schoolmates. Then he turned to look at the students who were lingering a fair distance away but still watching curiously as to what the school idol and the foreign beauty would do to one another this time.

Rin was the first to snap out of her stupor first and quickly donned an irritable expression. "Stop jumping to conclusions Shirou-kun. Edelfelt and I were just having a personal conversation. Whatever assumptions you made were clearly blown out of proportion." She paused to look at Sakura warily before putting on a wry grin. "Speaking of overblown conclusions though, one has to wonder why you two are coming in together?"

"Archery club." The pair replied in perfect synchrony without any hesitation, causing them to get a few odd looks from the others.

"Really?" The Tohsaka put on a sickeningly sweet grin on her face that fooled no one there. Since her perfect cover had been blown, Rin had made it a habit to occasionally let loose her evil side on occasion. Of course she did so in a calm, and upright manner worthy of her family name. "Of course you two were. There is obviously no way that someone as noble as Shirou-kun and as innocent as Sakura would ever consider doing things behind everyone's backs together. Why the very thought of it is simply fictional. Don't you agree Edelfelt?"

Luvia, having managed to snap out of her delirium moments earlier, decided to play along for the hell of it. The nervous looks of the two in front of her were just too good to pass up. "But of course Tohsaka. Everyone knows how poor of a liar Emiya is, and young Matou is just too soft spoken an upright to do such a thing. If they had teamed up for something scandalous, we would have learned of it oh so long ago." She put on a wry grin. "Or at least I would have. I'm not too sure about you Tohsaka. You do seem to be a bit absent at times when it counts…"

Rin glared at the European with cold eyes while still maintaining her noble posture, ignoring the nervous and unsettled states that Shirou and Sakura were in from the teasing. "Funny, I seem to recall that a certain foreigner is at least several ranks below me on the grade's listings… the smallest dogs do bark the loudest…"

Lightning sparked between the two female's eyes. "You know well that is only because I am unfamiliar with this country's history Tohsaka, otherwise it would have been clear that I am easily at the top of the class here. Obviously such a fact was beyond your notice."

"Hm yes, a fine excuse. It's perfectly suitable for someone in your position." The dark haired girl smiled confidently with the hint of a predator.

Despite the childish antics that the masters were engaging in, Caster couldn't help but notice that the dark haired girl's servant was still now. In fact the spirit had stopped moving around the time that the third party came. While she couldn't make out its features, she could tell that her future opponent's attention was claimed entirely by the boy for some reason. Why? She did not know, however judging from how tense the spirit was now compared to before, there was little doubt that there was something about the child that bothered the spirit so greatly that it didn't even notice its real enemies right in front of it. How odd… Had he watched the battle with Berserker with the fabled eyes of the Archer Class? Admittedly, the boy had displayed a great deal of skill, but to focus this much on the boy when there were two other servants nearly an arm's reach away?

"Oi. Guys. Can you two at least do this somewhere else? Or at least wait until lunch? It's too early for this." Shirou asked, somewhat relieved that neither Rin nor Luvia had realized that Rin was onto something when she was teasing him and Sakura. In all honesty he was getting a pretty bad headache from all of this happening so early in the morning. It was almost as if he couldn't even sort out his thoughts as easily as he normally could.

Rin and Luvia looked at one another warily before turning away from one another at the same time and pretending the other didn't exist. It was the standard behavior the two displayed when Shirou normally managed to reason them to stop fighting. Normally the pair would finish things off by letting off some last minute jabs, however…

"…at late late Late Late Late LATE LATE I'M LATE!" Roared a familiar tiger like female as she burst through the school doors, barreled past the group nearly knocking them down in the process, and bolted up the stairs without noticing anyone she passed.

"Ugh… I forgot that she did that…" Luvia grunted as she picked herself up.

"Why do you think I warned you not do start arguing here?" Shirou grumbled from the floor.

"How on earth can anyone be so energetic in the morning?" Rin asked out loud as she leaned against the wall. "It's not human."

"Your guess is as good as mine Sempai." Sakura laughed nervously from the sidelines, being the only one that managed to get out of the way on time.

As they watched their masters recover from their near death experience, all three servants silently agreed that that it was most likely that they would not be doing any fighting anytime soon…

o. o. o.

Emiya Residence:

Saber frowned as she read the short list of notes that Shirou left her on what was different about this timeline from what Kiritsugu witnessed. While she was proud that her master was so capable under pressure, she was not happy with the fact that a boy had to be thrust into the world of politics and facing Apostle Ancestors at such a young age. Given the comments he left on the side, it was clear that his increasing infamy had made it significantly more difficult to convince his sister that he was trying to help her…

At the very least the information he seemed to have left Shirou was accurate to some degree. Kiritsugu's description of Rider was exact, making the revelation of her identity and her powers even more surprising to the once and future king. The lingering doubt she had about the man's messages were progressively decreasing as she continued to read more of what her old master left behind.

She was currently dressed in her public clothing that the boy had obtained prior to the war. Apparently Kiritsugu had managed to keep an extra of the suit she had worn in the previous war and got the measurements from that to give the teen a reference of what to get when he was taking care of her. Seeing as her colors were blue and white, the teen had gone with that when he chose her current ensemble.

Relaxing in the boy's workshop, the King of Knights wore loose blue jeans that didn't restrict her movements in case she needed to move, combined with a white collar shirt over it, she looked fairly modern. The outfit wasn't supremely sophisticated like her previous getup, but it wasn't a cheap and sloppy ensemble either. Had she truly wanted to look more proper, she could have just put on the suit left over from the previous war, which was hanging in the closet that Shirou had prepared for her when she arrived…

While her Master did mention that she would look good in a dress, he said that she would need pants in order to use the thing in the workshop properly for the war…

Speaking of which…

Saber's eyes lifted from the list to see the covered object in front of the garage doors of the workshop skeptically. While her master did say the object was a surprise for later, he never did tell her that she couldn't have a look at it, and to be fully prepared for the war it was best to be as familiar with all factors under your control as possible. The constant nagging at the back of her head telling her to see what the mystery object in front of her was didn't factor into the equation one bit.

It only took several hours for the former King's curiosity to get the better of her. From what she could tell, her master was a kind and understanding individual, surely a peek wouldn't do anyone any harm…

o. o. o.

(A/N: All Servant stats will be revealed from Shirou's perspective.)

Servant Stats:

Saber

ID: Arturia Pendragon

Alias: The King of Knights

Master: Shirou Emiya

Alignment: Lawful Good

Strength: B

Agility: A

Mana: A+ (Avalon's presence increases her capacity, otherwise A)

Luck: B

Endurance: A

Noble Phantasm: A++

Class Skills:

Magic Resistance: A

Riding: B

Personal Skills:

Charisma: B

Instinct: A

Prana Burst: A

Noble Phantasms:

Invisible Air: C

Excalibur: A++

Avalon: EX

o. o. o.

Berserker

ID: Heracles

Alias: The Hero of Greece

Master: Illyasviel Von Einzbern

Alignement: Chaotic Mad

Strength: A+

Agility: A

Mana: A

Luck: B

Endurance: A

Noble Phantasm: B

Class Skills:

Mad Enhancement: B

Personal Skills:

Battle Continuation: A

Bravery: A+

Divinity: A

Eye of the Mind (Fake): B

Noble Phantasms:

God Hand: B

o. o. o.

Rider

ID: Medusa

Alias: The Gorgon Queen

Master: Sakura Matou

Alignment: Chaotic Good

Strength: B

Agility: A

Mana: B

Luck: E

Endurance: D

Noble Phantasm: A+

Class Skills:

Magic Resistance: B

Riding: A+

Independent Action: C

Personal Skills:

Divinity: E-

Monstrous Strength: B

Mystic Eyes: A+

Noble Phantasms:

Bellerophon: A+

Blood Fort Andromeda: B

Breaker Gorgon: C-

o. o. o.

A/N:

Once more, Thanks Maximorph1 for betaing.

This would have gotten out at least a week ago, but my friend lent me the first Borderlands and I have a habit of trying to do all the side quests that meet my gaze whenever I play a game.

On a side note, I've had the same electrical board either burst into smoke or flames or both at least twice in front of my face within the past week and it wasn't my fault. Gotta love a job that keeps you on your toes.

Twitch. Twitch. Over. 250 reviews. In. One. Chapter. Dear. God. That is by far, a personal best. Ever. Of all time.

I don't even know WHY people responded so well to Shirou Vs. Berserker. It was just Shirou barely living and getting his magic pummeled. Was it the black boxes that made up Berserker's roar? Was that it? Seriously, can someone explain why people loved that chapter so much? I'm honestly terrified of what the reaction will be when… no, never mind. No spoilers.

…

Fuck it. Lets break the 2k mark by this chapter folks! Come on!

So! Notes!

Sorry that this chapter was full of exposition and no action, but I honestly had to do it in order to get some of the multiple back plots moving. While some of the things I mentioned do seem irrelevant, I assure everyone that they actually do serve a purpose in the long run. Just please be patient.

I'm probably going to get flack for my explanation of what a Planet Terminal is since there obviously is no real explanation that exists, HOWEVER! Please bear with me on this! After reading Merem's profile and then reading up on the Sixth Imaginary Element, the same stuff that makes Medusa's eyes, I found that the two have SO much in common that there is no possible way that Merem's powers could work without utilizing this element. I am probably wrong in the exact definition on what a Planet Terminal is, but I will bet money on it being related to the sixth element.

Shirou learning bits and pieces of Fairy Magic and making Avalon cheaper, yeah. I went there. I always did wonder why in the end of Fate all of Shirou's circuits lit up just to make that single construct when producing virtually anything in UBW should cost roughly the same. This is my explanation for it. It's not perfect. People are not going to like it. And it's probably wrong in one point or another, but it makes sense and it explains many things such as why Kanchou and Bakuya cost a third of the cost to make compared to Archer's other projections, in addition to Avalon's high creation cost. Just for the record, no Shirou is never going to magically be able to understand or cast any form of fairy magic he sees. At best he would be able to understand what they are supposed to do with a few extra bits and pieces, but not how it works exactly. The best he can do is produce fairy made weapons to the same degree as most of the other weapons in UBW, and even then they will be a bit inferior to the others.

One of the things that bugged me in the Visual Novel was the fact that so many of Rider's abilities were skimmed over in all three routes. I am going to try and address all of them (for better or worse) throughout FFD to truly exploit her character for all she's worth. Muahahaha.

(Begins to dance and sing horribly) Who's gonna fuck up Canon? I am! I am! Who's gonna screw Shirou over? I am! I am! Who's gonna want to kill me? Everyone! Everyone! Yaaaaaaay!

(Returns to being semi sane). Not much on the bad guy's side of things here, but I will without a doubt be making up for it in the next chapter or two… or five.

I know that some people are going to be bugged that I changed Saber's appearance, but I found it was needed for the plot so she could do some things… so… yeah. Shitty excuse but that what I'm sticking with. All in all it's not a big change, just imagine her standard casual clothes in fate, only instead of a blue dress its blue pants, and her shirt is like a modern white buttonup that's sharper and crisper than that poofy one she wears. I really, REALLY don't like that shirt for some reason. It just doesn't seem to fit her character design for me.

As for why Saber's mana ranking is so high with Avalon, it's a reference to the VN. It says at one point that with Avalon, she could fire off Excaliblast four times before she would need a recharge as opposed to the single blast limit she normally had with cannon Shirou as a master. I'm just taking that into account.

So that's about it folks! Believe me when I say that things are going to get horrifically chaotic and pure awesome real soon! Thanks for bearing with me!

So Review! Worship the Log! Always be wary of being distracted by the main enterance of a local high school! And Review Again!


	24. Chapter 24

Chapter 24: Starter Pistol

I do not own Fate/Stay Night and stuffs:

o. o. o.

Fuyuki Highschool Roof:

"So I assume that you all know why we are here?" Rin asked calmly as she opened her lunch on the rooftop, sitting equally distant from Luvia and Sakura who also had their lunches out.

"I think so." Sakura nodded somewhat hesitantly. "We're setting up rules for the war between us aren't we?" She looked around. "But then, why isn't Shirou-kun here with us?"

"Ryuudou needed him to fix more of the school equipment." Luvia sighed aridly as she unpacked her own rather extravagant and flashy meal in front of the others. Had it been anyone else, her food would have been the envy of everyone there, however since Rin and Sakura had both been testing their cooking skills against Shirou's the quality of all three meals were pretty much the same. "Honestly that boy has no sense of priority. He's involved in a secret war and despite everything he drops what he's doing to help out others when asked out of the blue. Someone really needs to correct that."

Sakura and Rin winced at the comment, both knowing that such an achievement was next to impossible.

"We can deal with that later." Rin sighed, shaking her head and trying to ignore the memories of fire that weren't her own while at the same time ignoring the servant behind her trying to play innocent. Bastard. "Personally I'm astonished that he hasn't summoned his servant yet."

"He has." Sakura pointed out as she began to eat her rice. "It's just that his Servant has an odd condition, so he decided it was best to leave her at his place for now."

"Her?" Luvia raised an eyebrow. "You've seen his servant?"

"Why the hell didn't he bring her with him? He could get killed at any time!" Rin grunted. "He was literally surrounded by three possible enemy Servants this morning!"

"Well, he was only going to go to school and then go straight back home, and since no one is reckless enough to start fighting in broad daylight he wasn't worried." Sakura answered honestly.

"She has a point." Luvia nodded as she drank some of the iced tea she brought. "Though it pains me to admit it, while we are enemies for the war we are also responsible that things don't get out of hand. By that logic he is correct."

"You obviously haven't researched the previous war then." The brunette of the group growled. "Caster and his master of the fourth didn't care about hiding the existence of magic and went on kidnapping children from this and nearby cities for their sick amusement. I was told that in the end everyone save for Berserker had to team up to destroy Caster when he summoned a massive demon and nearly unleashed it upon the city."

"So are you suggesting we team up, or that we should agree to keep to ourselves with the war unless such an event happens again, and in that case unconditionally cease fire between our parties until the issue is addressed?" Sakura asked skeptically.

"Probably the latter. The recent "gas attacks" are obviously a servant and master attempting to gain more power for the war. Judging from how many people are affected and how frequent the attacks are, I'm guessing either Caster or a very talented master who knows how to use bounded fields and siphon energy from others is behind them all." Rin sighed. "Though if Shirou-kun finds something's wrong with the war before any of us, the odds are likely he'll try to deal with it by himself."

The other two girls nodded, knowing that it was just like their male interest to try and help out everyone without asking for help.

"So we are in agreement? Enemies at night, and neutral during the day unless the situation provides otherwise." Luvia asked in an authoritative tone.

"Obviously." The Tohsaka rolled her eyes before eating some more of her lunch. "Not that either of you stand much of a chance against me." She commented with a sly grin, flicking her eyes to where her Servant stood for a moment.

"Humph. Overconfidence will be your undoing as usual Tohsaka." The Edelfelt smirked. While the actual war had taken backseat to finding out what the back story to the previous war was, she still wouldn't back down from a challenge if needed.

"I don't think I would be beaten without some effort either. Please don't underestimate me." Sakura frowned.

Rin just grinned knowingly. "Oh believe me, it would be far too disappointing if the war was won too easily considering all the effort my family had put into it. I look forward to destroying both of you one by one." She looked at Luvia. "And do try to stay alive Edelfelt. It would be bad business to kill my main source of income after all."

Luvia scoffed. "How amusing Tohsaka. I was thinking along the same lines. I guess the only difference between us is that I have the self control to hold my tongue."

"Calm down both of you." Sakura chided. "Save the fighting for the war. Sometimes I wonder who is the youngest of all of us here."

Rin and Luvia grunted before stubbornly stuffing their mouths with food to prevent them from making things worse. Everyone noticed however when Rin turned around and glared at where her servant was supposedly laughing at the situation.

Peculiar. That was the word that ran through both Caster's and Rider's minds as they watched the entire event play out in front of them. The grail war was supposed to be played out violently between seven parties, each one using whatever means they had available to them to achieve victory regardless of the time or place. Yet here three of the parties were, sitting and eating a peaceful… well, somewhat peaceful lunch with a fourth party nearby, alone and exposed, that knew of what was happening yet didn't seem to capitalize on it. Neither servant knew if they liked or disliked their current situation, but the sheer difference of what was happening as opposed to what was to be expected when they were first summoned was rather discomforting.

The following few minutes were filled with nothing but idle banter, more jabs between Rin and Luvia, and the occasional attempt for one of the masters to try and gain information on the other's servant to no avail. All in all it was not that momentous, until…

"On the subject of Emiya… I am rather curious about something." Luvia brought up casually as she looked at the last of her iced tea. "Has he ever mentioned having a sibling before?"

Sakura and Rin blinked in confusion before turning to one another expectantly and seeing that the other didn't know either. "Can't say that I have." Rin shrugged. "Unless you're talking about Fujimura-sensei, Waver-sensei, or Bazett-san, I don't know anyone that Shirou would consider a sibling. He was the only actual kid I've seen live in his place.

"Same here. Shirou-kun's never mentioned anything like that. He doesn't have memories from before the fire started by the Fourth War, and I don't think that Kiritsugu-san had children of his own." Sakura tilted her head to the side confused. "Why do you ask?"

Rider and Caster on the other hand both noted that Rin's servant had suddenly stiffened at the comment.

"Is that so?" The blonde frowned as she looked at her reflection gazing back at her from her drink before she drained it and smiled lazily. "Oh well, I guess that's that then. If he never told you, then I guess that mean's it really was just a rumor."

"Rumor?" The two separated siblings blinked in confusion.

Luvia nodded though deliberately not making eye contact with either of the girls. "Yeah. I am researching the Magus Killer correct? To adequately gain more research material, I happened to have spent a moderate amount of resources to confirm what Emiya-san has told me about his father is true. Well, that and hopefully find out anything else that he might not have known or told me." She yawned. "Unfortunately, virtually everything I've gotten in that second category is nothing but wild speculation and guesswork that's either been blatant lies or wild fantasies. This was just another one of those."

"I see." Rin nodded as she continued to eat. "That makes sense. When it comes to Shirou-kun, Sakura and I know everything there is to know about him." In reality, she really didn't and she knew that much. She had thought she had known, had thought she had understood everything there was to know about him. Yet, after seeing that dream, could she really have such a claim?

"Shirou would have told us if he had a stepsibling." Sakura agreed as she finished up her meal. Really, the thought of him hiding anything from Rin or her was absolutely fictional. Why would he see reason to hide something from them after all they had been through? If he trusted them with the knowledge of his Reality Marble, then he would have trusted them with the identity of a lost sibling if he had one…

o. o. o.

Marjatta waited outside of the rudimentary school that her sister was wasting her time for the past six months. No one really noticed her since she had a small bounded field set up that made people that weren't attuned to the flux of prana to just look past her as if she wasn't there, and she preferred it that way. She didn't want to bother dealing with the mundane masses that wouldn't know what a person of higher birth looked like if they were standing right in front of them and making eye contact.

She wasn't worried about being pegged for a master. Caster was far enough away that none of the other servants would be able to detect her unless they had some sort of ability to do so, yet close enough to watch or step in if needed. Any magus that found her would assume that the mana she was gradually leaking out was simply to maintain the cloaking mystery she had around her. Those who knew who she was would merely assume that she was there to help out Luvia in the war. In fact she was counting on the other masters making that assumption.

Really, why her sister had spent so much time here was beyond her. Taking proper surveillance of a city and all its potential points of assault for an event like the Fuyuki Grail War was an important task, but more suitable for Sebastian or one of the branch houses to do, and the time it would take to familiarize with the information would only take a month tops. Honestly she had yet to go one day outside without spying a rat crawling somewhere and eating some sort of trash. Such a disgusting city.

True, they were attempting to kill the Magus Killer in his own home town, a very stupid idea to most who were familiar with the title's legacy, however the sisters were not inexperienced commoners. They were Edelfelts. The most elegant mercenaries above ground, and they had the skills to back up that claim. While they did not get along a lot of the time, Marjatta was quite certain that there were few that could stand up against them when they worked together…

"Master." Caster spoke into the girl's mind. "Another servant and master are approaching from the school. It is not our other halves…"

The girl rolled her eyes. "Let them come Caster. There is nothing they can do with the sun up, and you are able to keep tabs on them far easier than they us. It will be to our advantage to see who our future potential opponents are. In fact it would be to our advantage if they tried anything later since they would probably assume that they are only going up against one servant…"

Her conversation was cut short as what seemed like the tenth wave of students passed by the exit of the school, eager to get back home, ignore homework, and hang out with friends… and leaving behind a curious but on guard Sakura Matou staring at her in the process.

The two females stared at one another for a short amount of time before Sakura broke the silence. "So you are involved in this too."

"Did you figure that out yourself?" Marjatta sighed aridly with a hint of mild irritation. She hated speaking in any language that didn't originate from Europe. Even if her thaumaturgy took care of the translating, speaking in backwater tongues always left a bad taste in her mouth. For a moment she thought she was in danger, but in reality it was only the Matou girl. One look at her screamed of inexperience, naivety, gullibility, and low birth. The only things going for her were that she had circuits and she seemed to at least carry herself appropriately. "Honestly if you are one of the masters in this war, then things will certainly be easier for us in the long run. Founding family member or not, oblivious magi like you are usually woefully substandard compared to the higher houses."

"Is that so?" Sakura replied looked at her with only mild interest. While she did not display this side of her personality often, it could be easily noted that she resembled a certain Tohsaka when she was irritated. "Funny, for a moment it sounded as if I was talking to a head of a family."

The obvious jab at the legitimacy of Marjatta's claim to her family's craft did not go unnoticed. However the blonde girl had enough experience and self control to not lose herself. Caster's chuckling at the comment however did not help things. Whether she allowed herself to be heard or not could be discussed later. "Humph. As expected from an uneducated country. You are not even aware of my family's Ore Scales." She exposed her right arm to reveal the large magic crest on it. "Our blood allows us to have two heirs per generation for our crests and make copies of it."

Sakura gazed upon the circuits with neutrality. "I am very much aware of how lucky you are Edelfelt, and I am not in the least impressed." She didn't bother to pay attention to the gob smacked expression Marjatta had on her face. The blonde had occasionally heard people downplay the value of her family's sorcery trait before, attempting to expose potential flaws in its concept or covertly trying to learn more about it in order to possibly recreate it… but never had she heard someone flatly tell her it as if it was near useless.

"Personally, I feel that Ore Scales is just a way to ensure that your family's legacy is not accidentally wasted on a child that could ruin their work with a single stupid mistake." Sakura continued. "It allows you to be more reckless and unrefined with your research as there is a backup should you foolishly kill yourself. The fact that you parade your inheritance only enforces my suspicion that you are the risk to your family's work. Thankfully, your sorcery trait and the fact that you were not born first ensure that the Edelfelt name and crest will continue on. Of course, that train of thought merely applies to those that possess limited magus perspectives." She lazily looked away as if she was observing something vastly more interesting. "I'm honestly curious if you'll even manage to produce anything moderately significant to contribute to your crest should you live long enough to pass it down."

Caster's laughing grew slightly in volume. Clearly her loyalty to her master did not extend to defending her honor.

"You…" The blonde girl growled with absolute loathing at the girl who was looking down upon her with a combination of pity, distaste, and disinterest. "How. Dare…" It was only due to the many years of training with her family that she managed to reign herself in, albeit with a long shaky breath. As much as she hated to admit it, she did have a slight anger issue when it came to being looked down upon.

A combination of a superiority and inferiority complex had left her disliking those that she considered below her and those that she had difficulty accepting were stronger than her. True she would back away if one from a nobler house or from a higher political position challenged her, but otherwise she saw herself as above everyone else and believed that they should see it too. Those that didn't match the criteria in any way got on her exceedingly short nerves.

It should be noted though that this issue was quite prevalent among those in noble houses in the Magus community. As such it was fairly obvious to many that the Noble's way of addressing these issues obviously didn't work. However since the nobles were frequently the ones that paid for the various research projects among other things, few actually brought this fact up for debate and lived. Hence the issue had yet to actually be properly addressed.

… Marjatta will not stoop to the level of a hick of a magus. She was born and raised better than that. Regardless of the disrespect she had been given, there was no real reason to lose her temper. "Your words are less than meaningless girl. Many noble families are jealous of our sorcery trait, and you most certainly are as well. The ability to ensure that our legacy continues through multiple branches is something that most lines would surrender all their research to have." She put on a confident smirk and shook her head condescendingly. "I see now. You poor, poor, insecure little child. You have no faith in your abilities do you? I know that you are the last of your line and that your family's circuits dwindle with each generation. What a shame, to have so much responsibility on such weak and unstable shoulders. How capable are you in your family's research? To be thrown into this war and represent your entire family and expected to live is indeed a large burden. Why some would even claim that death would be a more preferable position-"

Sakura remained quiet for several moments before closing her eyes and sighing. "I pity you."

Marjatta's lungs got caught in her throat. What did this girl just say to her?

"You cannot even comprehend how fortunate you are to have your sorcery trait in your position, or understand what could have happened to you if you did not." The master of Rider turned away with a look of distaste. "Such painful ignorance is the reason why I am glad I am not like the rest of your kind."

The blonde's mind was frozen, unable to process what the Matou had just said. Pity? Ignorance? She was one of the heads of a noble house! She was the leading expert on the fin curse! She had wealth, recognition, a great deal of circuits, and a sorcery trait… and yet she was being looked down upon?!

Teeth ground together as Marjatta subconsciously recalled all the times that she was passed up for Luvia. Despite her claims and skills, she was always turned aside for her elder, more talented, more refined, prettier, smarter, and better sister. In her society, the elder sibling was supposed to inherit everything. The magic. The knowledge. The power. Being an Edelfelt was supposed to counteract that rule, enabling both to possess their own throne above society and claim their own legacy. Their respective fortunes funded by the mercenary work that they performed and enhanced by their countless investment firms that they were closely tied to.

Such events had dropped in recent years as she gained more experience and showed her own capabilities to the magus world, however the absolute loathing of being considered anything less than a significant individual remained deeply embedded into her very body.

"Master." Caster chuckled, but with a hint of seriousness behind it. "I do hope you aren't planning on attacking the girl now. I am not Archer. I cannot protect you from this distance should her servant counterattack from its position. Not to mention the fact that there are plenty of civilians nearby…"

Both master and servant knew that neither cared about the wellbeing of the mundane. They had been after all periodically going into town at night and draining the energy from small groups of them without their partner's knowledge. Witch Caster's prana reserves were immense and her knowledge of thaumaturgy enabled her to use the mana that she didn't absorb to empower the jewels that Marjatta possessed to unheard of levels.

So what if a family or two perished in the process by accident? Non magicals reproduced like rabbits and, save for grunt work, they had no real significant purpose in the grand scheme of things. True her sister would be most displeased should she find out, but since it greatly enhanced their odds of victory the ends justified the means.

"Sister? What are you doing here?" Luvia's voice snapped Marjatta from her borderline murderous whiteout, not that Caster's mocking advice hadn't been pushing her in that direction regardless. Apparently while she was contemplating Sakura's imminent death Luvia had appeared through the gates while the target of her ire had left. "I thought you were to stay home during the day?"

The younger blonde frowned as she watched Sakura walk away without a care in the world. She knew that the girl's servant had been expecting an attack and probably would have killed her the second she made a wrong move, but right now even thinking about putting the Matou in her place sent satisfied shivers down her spine. "I was bored and felt like exploring the town a bit." Taking a deep breath to calm herself some more, she shifted her attention to her elder sister. "Now that you are free, I assume that we can continue working on our project… once you get out of those tasteless garments the school makes you wear of course."

Luvia sighed and shook her head. "Unfortunately, there is something I must look into personally while there is still daylight. You will have to make do without me for a few more hours." Her eyes narrowed. "I expect you to be back at the mansion when I return. To be outside by yourself now is dangerous, even during the day."

It was only through sheer willpower that the girl didn't thrash out at her older sibling for treating her like an idiot. "I am aware of how dangerous things are right now sister and I assure you I have made precautions to ensure that I am not in any danger." She grunted without breaking eye contact to make her point. "I thought you would have more faith in me to know that I wouldn't do something as asinine as that."

"But still you were asinine enough to actually reveal to others that you are here." Luvia crossed her arms. "Intimidation and misdirection have their places, however once a fact is known it cannot be unlearned or disregarded in future encounters. You have lost us a valuable resource."

Marjatta's eyes grew cold. First that Matou witch was chiding her and now Luvia. She wasn't going to stand and take any more of these simpletons assuming that they knew more than she did. Lifting her nose into the air, the girl snorted in an insulted but dignified fashion before walking away. "I will see you at the manse. Hopefully whatever foolish endeavor you wish to complete will actually serve a purpose. As you said yourself, it is asinine to be out by yourself during the day…"

She didn't wait to hear her sister's response as she walked down the main road that led back to their home. She didn't have Sebastian drive her as Caster's magic was enough to get her anywhere she wanted quickly. As soon as she was out of everyone's sight, she had used the small rune the servant had embedded onto her to teleport to her chosen location several blocks away on top of a building.

Much to her displeasure, the servant was still chuckling with amusement at her master's inconvenience.

"I do hope that your amusement will not afflict your ability to do your duties." The blonde growled irritably.

"Mhmhm. Not in the slightest Master." The Witch grinned softly, clearly not intimidated by the girl's ire. "I must say, that Matou master is an interesting one. Both with her tongue and her magic capability..."

Wresting herself from the comment about the irritating girl's tongue, the blonde concerned herself with the other fact Medea brought up. "Her magic? I did not sense her use any. Why are you so interested in that uneducated hick's capabilities when I am right here?"

Caster's smile turned sly. "Why master, you of all people know that there are those with special properties in the world. As a Caster class, even from this distance my ability to discern certain traits about others is unparalleled. Most magi of this era are limited by the standard five elements and then expand from there using them as tools. It is a workable approach and gives you a wide range of ability… but limiting as well as normally only an individual aware of their origin or a unique mind can truly diverge into something more notable. There are things that can only be achieved from those who possess more... specific traits." Her grin turned into something almost scary. "I find these sorts of individuals useful to examine and experiment with."

"Specific?" Marjatta frowned. "Experiment?"

"From what I could see, the Matou girl has potential to be something quite intriguing… it would serve our cause greatly if we were able to capture her." She paused as she looked down at the school entrance and saw the Emiya boy walk out casually. The sight of him caused her to raise an eyebrow. "Oho? Well isn't that a surprise. It appears that your target is even more interesting than the Matou girl, ignoring the fact that he appears to be completely healed from last night's events." Her eyes focused on the premature graying male as he walked home. "He's quite a specimen indeed. Surprisingly refined too If I could manage to get my hands on either of them, preferably the boy… there would be a chance that I wouldn't even need to resort to some of our more risky strategies…"

"I recall that we agreed to leave Emiya for now unfortunately." The master stated in an annoyed tone, recalling the previous night. The fact that he was in good health was surprising, however nothing to be concerned about. Since he had gone on apostle hunts and other excursions before, it was only natural that he would have had some means of healing himself adequately. All in all he didn't even seem to be that injured from what they saw in the fight. Still considering he had encountered Berserker by himself, it was likely that he had yet to fully recover. "As much as I dislike admitting it, it would be best if he was alive and allowed to perform his activities so that we know more of what he knows and so he can manage Berserker for us… but the Matou girl…"

Caster's hood did nothing to hide the hungry expression she had from being seen. "I believe it is time for our group to make another excursion."

o. o. o.

Emiya Residence:

"Saber! I'm back!" Shirou called out as he walked into his home and took off his shoes. In order to avoid suspicion from the others, Sakura didn't go home with him after school. Instead she was going to meet up with him in an hour or so at the park on the edge of the river by the bridge. It was a little out of the way to the Church, but not by much, and it was unlikely to be found by the other Masters.

Considering all the chaos he had gone through with Illya, today so far had been almost uneventful. Save for three servants being brought to the school at once and Taiga almost killing them in her desperate attempt to be on time for work, nothing really important happened. Granted he was somewhat concerned with the looks that Luvia and Rin had been giving him throughout the day, almost as if they were trying to figure something out… oh well. It was probably nothing important. If they thought it was they would have talked to him about it by now. It wasn't as if they weren't friends by now.

"Welcome back Master." Saber replied evenly from the living room as she walked out to see him. "Seeing as you are in good condition I assume that nothing happened at school."

The Emiya shrugged. "Other than coming across some of the other masters that I knew were already fighting, nothing important happened. There's a ceasefire truce for the daytime, so you don't have to worry about me getting attacked there."

The blonde's eyes narrowed somewhat at the mention of the other masters and servants. "Exactly how many enemy teams did you encounter today? I am only aware of Matou and Rider."

Shirou walked to the kitchen, intending on making a quick snack for the Servant before he got ready to leave. "Two more teams. Rin Tohsaka and Luvia Edelfelt are the masters. They didn't show their servants though. No one knows who has which servant save for Sakura and Rider with respect to us and vise versa."

Saber looked at Shirou expectantly. Whether it was due to the fact that he was more knowledgeable about the war than anyone else or because he was in the kitchen was up for debate. "And if your father's information is correct? I have yet to get through all his notes."

Shirou looked briefly at Saber before getting some drinks from the fridge. "Rin's servant should be Archer. Dad never gave me much info on him other than he was a male and that he had the potential to be my greatest ally or enemy. Given how confident she is with her servant though, whoever she has now must be really powerful. Luvia…"

He hesitated before going into detail. Considering how different the current situation was compared with what Kiritsugu saw, he was unsure about how things were going to turn out. "My father's visions showed that Lancer's, Caster's, and Assassin's original masters were killed for one reason or another before I ever got involved with the war, and I was the last master to summon a servant. Now I summoned you before Rider and Assassin, and Assassin is still not here yet according to Sakura. Things have changed due to dad's interference. I don't know how reliable the information coming from him is at this point."

He breathed out tiredly. "Luvia's should be Caster, once known as Medea of Colchis. Waver-nii sent me a text message that she and her sister were hired to kill me. Using their family's sorcery trait they managed to split her between two of her aspects, but he didn't get much info out of them after that save that one of them does have Rule Breaker. Apparently things had gotten too dangerous for him to stay in the city for much longer so he couldn't risk getting more than he already had."

"I see." Saber nodded with a frown. As much as she disliked the fact that one of the servants in the war had the ability to sever the connection between a master and a servant and gain control of the servant in the process, she had read how valuable a tool it could be if added to Shirou's reality marble. The real problem was getting the Caster that had the tool to show it in the first place. "And Lancer?"

Shirou closed his eyes. "I received word from Sirius-jiji that he is Cu Chulainn, also like in dad's visions, and that he was summoned by Bazett-nee, one of my Magus teachers and without a doubt the strongest master in terms of direct combat in the war. In dad's notes, he said that Kirei killed Lancer's original master and took control of him without anyone knowing, but apparently that didn't happen here. Seeing as she knows the priest personally, I can pretty much guess what happened in his version of the war." He clicked his teeth in irritation. "I really want to let her in on this, but if we do it too early, she might try to do things by herself and cause things to get out of control. At least this way she'll have to look around for her opponents first before she can do anything else. Plus if too many of the masters act suspiciously and join together so early in the war, it would cause Kirei and Gilgamesh to move faster than we want. I want to put off their movements as much as possible."

The King of Knights growled at the mention of the golden man who claimed her as his own against her will. To think that that obnoxious person was the legendary King of Heroes was nauseating to her. While he held the bearing, looks, power, wealth, and tongue of a King, his attitude towards others was deplorable and unbecoming of one. Such a spoiled man should not be given a second attempt at life. "While I will enjoy watching that monster's body fall before me, I still would prefer to put off seeing him as much as possible."

The Emiya chuckled lightly as he placed the rice cakes and tea that he had gathered from the kitchen onto the living room table for his servant to snack on. "Given what I've heard about him, I could say the same thing." He turned for the hallway. "I'm going to take a shower before getting dressed for tonight. Is there anything you want to talk to me about before I get prepared?"

For a moment Shirou thought he saw a flash of panic and worry on his servant's face but before he could second guess himself the blonde had returned to her normal and cool demeanor while grabbing one of the rice crackers. "No. I spent the entire day reading the book you left for me inside the workshop and making sure that no enemy servants or masters invaded your property while you were away. I did not tamper with any of your tools, equipment, or other materials inside it." And with that she began eating, preventing any more conversation to be had.

"Oh… ok then." Shirou blinked in some confusion at the oddly specific reply. Shrugging and deeming it inconsequential, the teen went to the bathroom to wash up. After that he would go to the workshop and get his "work" equipment…

Then he would have to deal with Kirei.

o. o. o.

Fuyuki Park:

"I must admit… I may have underestimated your descriptions of this area." Caster mused in spiritual form as she looked around the area and suppressed a shudder. "Its condition is far more severe than I had anticipated."

Luvia glanced at her servant, trying to ignore the dregs of tainted prana brushing against her skin. "I did say this area was heavily scarred… however your reaction is saying that there is something else I am not aware of. Care to elaborate?"

Medea nodded, trying to ignore the oppressive, malevolent, and stagnant atmosphere that she was currently in. "While my counterpart is more suited for this brand of task, I can without a doubt tell you that this curse is severely aggressive, especially towards living beings and spiritual based existences like myself. Given enough time here, I suspect that my very core would show signs of contamination. It would be akin to staying in an area with trace amounts of corrosive gasses for you. Not immediately damaging, however prolonged exposure is not recommended." She looked around with a skeptic eye. "Whatever happened here was most certainly not done by the hands of a single servant. The effects are too wide spread and long lasting to be so…" She shivered before looking at Luvia. "However, just in case, could you perhaps tell me who was summoned in the previous war? Their identities may give us a hint as to what happened."

"Guille de Reis was summoned as Caster. Alexander the Great was Rider. King Arthur of England was Saber. Gilgamesh of Uruk as Archer. Darmuid of the Love Spot as Lancer. Hassan-I-Sabbah as Assassin. Berserker was never identified however he was a knight in black armor with unmatched skill in wielding weapons." Luvia replied almost instantly. She had spent long hours studying the war after she had found out she was chosen to be a master after all.

"The Kings of Heroes, Knights, and Conquers in one war?" Caster's eyes widened in surprise and some fear. "Gods preserve us. I thought that Heracles was a daunting enough opponent. Pray that the opponents we are tasked against are not of that pedigree. We would have been destroyed in the mere crossfire of such an altercation." She shook her head and regained her composure. "No, that is irrelevant to our current predicament. Who were the servants present when the fire took place?"

"To my knowledge, only Saber and Archer remained at the end of the war." Luvia frowned. "Which is odd. Neither should be capable in the slightest of producing curses, let alone afflicting area in this way. If there was any servant in that war that would have been able to do this, it would have been Caster."

"Oh?" A new young voice spoke up, causing both Master and Servant to freeze in their tracks. "You are quite well informed Edelfelt."

Caster and Luvia turned around nervously to see the snow white haired little girl from the previous night standing in front of them confidently dressed in thick winter European clothing. On her back was a large wrapped package strapped over her shoulders, giving her an odd appearance. While by herself she only seemed like a mild threat, the overwhelming presence of the spirit behind her left them with little doubt that she was far from defenseless.

"I see you know who I am." The girl continued, smiling innocently. "And judging from your terrified reaction upon seeing and hearing me, you know who my servant is as well. That makes things much easier." She looked around. "However the location is a bit unsuitable for such an occasion. To think we would meet in such an unpleasant place as this."

"Einzbern." Luvia stated with as much control as possible. She had anticipated that the girl could come to the park at the same time she did, but not that the girl would be able to get the drop on her and Caster without them knowing. Apparently the tainted air around them had clouded Caster's ability to detect other spirits, even ones as mighty as the bastard son of Zeus. "There is still plenty of daylight out. Don't tell me that you are planning to start a fight now and here of all places?"

The homunculus smiled cheerfully, belying the shrewd personality she held. "While I do think that now would be an excellent opportunity to kill you and your servant, I am a follower of the rules. Once the sun sets the war will start again, but until then we have no real reason to fight." Her eyes opened, revealing the amused glare of a predator. "Unless of course you want to."

The blonde laughed nervously and raised her hands in surrender. "No. That's quite all right. I didn't come here to fight and I don't intend to now. There are better places to do such things."

Illya's demeanor matured a bit and nodded. "You are right. There are indeed better locations to conduct the holy ritual than this tainted place." She looked around. "To think that this was once one of the major leyline points in the city… how demeaning. The Grail War is a sacred event. To have it in such a location is insulting." She looked back at Luvia with bored interest. "So why are you here Edelfelt? I must admit that your knowledge of the previous war is rather impressive, in some cases it is even greater than my own, but I don't see how this place could serve any benefit to you. Even Berserker is uncomfortable being here, and I have long since taken his mind away from him."

Luvia swallowed heavily and chose her next words carefully. From what she had seen the previous night, Kiritsugu Emiya was a very touchy subject with the girl so unless she wanted to die a spectacularly bloody death, she would have to be careful. "I'm concerned with the state of the Grail War's system." She said honestly as she waved her arms to point Illya's attention to the park. "This place has been like this from the ending of the previous war, but as far as I can tell there has been no suitable reason as to why that is. Neither the remaining servants at the time, Saber or Archer, were heroes that would possess anything that could accomplish such a feat, so how did this happen? Even if the Grail was destroyed it as reports claimed, the resulting destruction would not yield such tainted attributes. Rather the ambient energy would eventually serve as a source of mana for the local environment. At the very least this area would prove to be a very suitable setting for larger scale rituals with the ambient energy lingering here." She nodded to the half dead vegetation that surrounded them. "As you can see, that is obviously not the case."

Illya frowned at Luvia's glancing reference to Kiritsugu's betrayal, but she didn't say anything. Remaining quiet as she occasionally shifted her gaze upon Luvia and the park for several minutes, the artificial girl appeared to be deep in thought. The elder looking teen did nothing to interrupt the process as she did not want to do anything to provoke the master of Berserker.

"What happened here is none of our business. Personally I believe you are chasing ghosts that either don't exist, or are completely irrelevant to what you should be paying attention to. I have more important things to waste my time thinking about… speaking of which, your servant is Caster, isn't it?" The albino finally broke the silence with a smile, enjoying the shocked reaction on her acquaintance's face while suddenly changing the topic of conversation. "How else could you have known about Berserker and his identity without encountering me earlier? Unless you possess an Archer with the ability to lip read. I know for a fact that Assassin has yet to be summoned, so you don't have him. I encountered Lancer a couple of weeks ago as well, so you don't have him either, not that it matters. Berserker is the strongest servant ever. There's no way I can lose with him under my control."

The Edelfelt's breathing momentarily hitched and her face paled. Despite being such a small girl, the Einzbern master was far more capable than she had originally guessed.

Illya pouted. "Hey. Don't be rude. Am I right? If it is Caster, I have a favor to ask. If you agree to help me out, I'll hold out on hunting you down in the war until some of the other servants are killed."

Waiting no more time for her master to respond, Caster materialized into physical form, standing straight up with noble posture as she had been raised. "I am indeed Servant Caster, master of Berserker. How may I help you?"

The Einzbern ignored Luvia's late response and smiled happily like any child her age. "It's nice to meet you Caster. I was wondering if you could help me out with something. It should be easy to do for someone of your caliber and knowledge." She then began to struggle taking off the bag strapped to her back, looking more like a grade schooler than anyone would ever admit to her, and handing it to the woman. "I want to know what the relationship is between this and the park."

"I shall see what I can do." Keeping her emotions in check to prevent the girl from noticing that the servant knew what she had been handed. Caster opened the package delicately to reveal the black sword she had seen the previous night…

Cursed.

That was the first thing that came to her mind when she had laid eyes upon it. The weapon was without a doubt cursed by the same source that had scarred the land around them… only the sword had received a far more concentrated dosage of the taint. It was so obvious to anyone that was exposed to both that she was somewhat surprised that the girl needed her input to confirm it. In fact Caster was somewhat disturbed that the child had been carrying it on her person for any extended amount of time without receiving some sort of penalty or aftereffect.

Personally, the Servant didn't even want to touch the thing now that it was unwrapped. Every hidden whisper in the world that she could hear warned her that the tool was not something she should ever be in contact with for any extended period of time. Despite the warnings however, the Princess of Colchis continued to unwrap the parcel and hold the weapon by its grip, the only part of the weapon that seemed to be untainted.

Ignoring the obvious signs of corruption pervading the blade, Caster had to admit that the weapon was of extremely fine make for a projection. Granted it was not something a true heroic spirit would ever wield, but it was of great quality considering the standard of this era. She probably would have been able to appreciate it more if she possessed an Item Construction ability like her counterpart, however she had lost that in exchange for her ability to summon. Still, her skills in discerning mysteries were great enough that she could at the least delve into the quirks abilities of this tool.

The rather plain and small guard, leather grip, and moderately ornate yet still small pommel indicated that this weapon was designed for execution, not flair, yet the unique coloring of the blade signified that the weapon had either more than one property, or it was desired to intimidate others. Or both... no, definitely both. Ignoring the curse, there were two different concepts that enacted upon contact with the edge of the blade. She couldn't tell what they were, but odds were likely that it wasn't pleasant.

"This weapon… I do not know what its story is, or how it came to be, but it is not one that I believe I would enjoy listening to."

"Those patterns…" Luvia muttered as she inspected the blade of the weapon. She had definitely seen them before… Her eyes widened. They were exactly like the ones inscribed on those sword mystic codes that Emiya used the most of the fights she had seen him in. One had the red edges, and the other had the vein patterns… so this sword would have both of their abilities? She glanced at her servant warily. "Am I to assume from this weapon's designs that it has multiple traits that can be enacted separately?"

"No. There are indeed two conceptual effects embedded into this tool other than the curse, but they are tied together. The sword would enact both at once on contact. The curse just makes it more effective on the living and spiritual existences like myself." Caster frowned. "From what I can tell, the source of both effects and the curse is the same, mixed into the ether enriched metal to the point that it is part of the metal itself. I believe the metal is referred to these days as Damascus Steel, a very useful but exceedingly uncommon alloy for thaumaturgy. To make such a tool with such volatile and dangerous ingredients is impressive, more so in that the properties were not diluted in the process. It is without a doubt a weapon made by one of the greatest forgers in this era."

"It's most likely Sirius McGinty." Illya sighed not impressed. "He's very infamous for his skills and his crass behavior." She frowned as she held back that he was also well known to be the teacher of Shirou. "I am assuming that the curse that pervades the blade and this place are the same, but is there anything else you can tell me?"

"The malignancy in this weapon is indeed the same as the one on this land, but stronger. If this land was bathed in the curse, than this weapon was directly infused with it inside and out." Medea nodded as she began to focus. **"****alcthesvcvcz****."** She muttered in the ancient divine language to the world, enacting mysteries to perform an ancient and more basic variation of Tracing (not that she was aware of it) to delve into the tool, forcing her way through the mysteries that it possessed to see the source of its powers… and gasped. "This is… unexpected."

"What is it?" Illya frowned. "Speak."

"The source of this weapon's power and curse is… human remains. Donated willingly after a slow and painful demise that extended for years on end." Caster reluctantly responded. "Of a single man to be exact, one with a dual origin. This is an origin weapon. Not on the level of a noble phantasm, but it is without a doubt something that should not be disregarded."

The white haired girl snorted and crossed her arms. "Is that all? This sword is made from the body of some poor fool that was caught in whatever cursed this land ten years ago?" She paused as she turned to see Luvia staring at the weapon with horror, fear, and realization. "Something on your mind Edelfelt?"

"No…" The blonde teen whispered to herself, barely paying attention to her heart beating so heavily it hurt or aware that the skin on her face had matched the coloring of the girl's hair. "No it… it couldn't be… _him_… could it?" She could hardly believe what she was guessing, but there were just too many coincidences for it to simply be brushed aside, in fact it was almost comical how many things were lined up in her mind in perfect order to support her theory… but how could she prove it?

"Master?" Caster asked cautiously.

The blonde looked at the Princess warily before looking at Illya and back again before swallowing and taking a deep breath. "Caster, may I ask you to perform an experiment? Einzbern, I will need a small bit of aid from you."

The small girl looked warily at the elder looking one. "Depends. What do you need?"

"Just a moment. I… I need to talk to Caster privately." Luvia excused herself before engaging in telepathic conversation with her servant, much to the girl's ire. It took less than a minute for the pair to reach a conclusion before the servant stepped forward with some discomfort. "I will need a single strand of your hair if you please. Do not worry about me using it against you, I do not utilize the black arts. You have my word as royalty."

Illya looked skeptically at the woman before leisurely taking a lock of her silver hair and cutting it with magic. "Try anything funny and Berserker will kill you before you can even regret it." She warned as she handed it over.

"Believe me. I have seen Heracles rampage enough in life to know its best to avoid such an event when possible." Medea laughed nervously before holding the hair and the sword each in a hand and briefly chanted in the ancient language once more. **"****alcvc****."**

As if responding to some command, both objects momentarily glowed white before they slowly hovered towards one another and then turned a faint bright blue hue, circling one another as if they were familiar with one another…

"Well?" Luvia looked at her servant nervously.

Caster nodded slowly. "It's as you feared. Had it not been so, they would have merely returned to my hands and lost their shine."

"What happened?" Illya pouted. "Tell me. What did you just find out?"

The blonde looked down at the albino with mixed feelings. On the one hand she was an enemy, but on the other Shirou had for some godforsaken reason decided it was a bright idea to make the girl carry her father's cursed weaponized remains all over Fuyuki. After Illya's display of instability the previous night the Edelfelt was willing to risk keeping her in the dark. "Due to certain reasons that I won't say… I believe it's best for my personal health if I don't tell you."

"As opposed to the risks to your health that I pose if you continue not to tell me?" The girl asked not irritably, but with a more dark curiosity.

"So long as you have Berserker with you, I wish to be as far away as possible when you do find out." Luvia clarified with mixed fear and regret for obvious reasons. "And to be clear, I do believe whoever gave this to you will tell you what it is the next time you see him." She paused for a moment and thought about the oncoming scenario. "And if he doesn't, I'll kill him… granted I was going to kill him anyways, but I'll do it worse than what I originally planned."

Illya looked at Luvia skeptically. "You do realize that if we are talking about the same person, the odds of you doing the deed before me are noticeably slim." She closed her eyes and sighed, looking far more mature than what her physical age appeared. "You don't seem to be lying about thinking that it is safer for you not to tell me whatever it is you discovered about the weapon… however if you do not inform me of anything else about it that I would not be able to determine on my own as compensation, I will have to force you to tell me anyways. It's very rude to keep personal information away from others after all."

"You make a fair point." The blonde muttered as she closed her eyes and began to desperately try to think of what else she could find out about the weapon that would normally be impossible to find without revealing the identity of the man who contributed his body to make it. Powers? No. what it did was probably useless in the grand scheme of things. Potentially lethal, but not important. Its age? No. It was a projection, and she had spend enough time with Shirou to know that the tool would appear to be the same physical state as when he first saw it… wait. Maybe she could use time as a basis of her question, but from a different approach. Not when the sword was made, but…

"Caster." The Edelfelt spoke up suddenly. "Can you determine when the person who contributed to this sword was cursed, in particular can you tell if he was cursed before, during or after the park was?"

The faint purple haired woman frowned as she went through her extensive knowledge of the ancient language and the properties of the projected weapon in her possession. "… Perhaps. It is a risky procedure on an imitated object like this. I will have to utilize several vague work arounds and other approaches in order to achieve this, and thus may break in the process, however its stability is high enough that I believe it is possible. Truth be told I am somewhat astounded that an imitation could be made by a single human so easily."

Illya raised an eyebrow. "Dare I ask why the timing between the two is so important?"

Luvia remained quiet for a moment as she watched her servant prepare herself. "If… the person was cursed during or after the field was, it will simply mean that he was caught in whatever messed up this field. However if he was before the field…" She frowned.

"Then?" The albino questioned with a hint of irritation

"Then both of us unfortunately will leave with more questions than answers."

o. o. o.

Fuyuki Church:

"Ah. I was wondering if I would see you here for the war. It has been a long time since we last met, hasn't it Shirou Emiya? I can't say I'm surprised to see that you were chosen to be a master." Kirei Kotomine welcomed Shirou and Sakura with a hint of amusement. Rider was in spiritual form between the pair and Saber was waiting outside so that the priest wouldn't recognize her. "And you are already teamed up with the Matou. A very interesting turn of events. I had personally placed my money on Rin being the one to seize your aid. Considering your current reputation, I would assume that your services are rather high in demand as of late." He looked down at Shirou with the barest hint of amusement. "At the very least, I would have thought that you would have offered help to Einzbern…"

"Cut the theatrics Kotomine." Shirou grunted, dressed in his "work" attire. He maintained the coat he normally wore at the Association, however the pants he wore were now thick dark tan cargos that held several useful items for fighting non human existences, and while his shirt was his standard casual black and blue long sleeve, the under armor made from the same material as his bow lay underneath giving him a slightly larger appearance. Completing his attire with the Shroud of Martin wrapped around his head, leaving his eyes uncovered. "Let's just get this over with. This place gives me a worse feeling than the park."

"Shirou-kun…" Sakura frowned and chided her partner.

The priest seemed to share the girl's sentiments as he replaced the normally dispassionate look on his face for a mildly displeased one. "I would appreciate it if you would not slander the house of God like that Emiya. I take offence to statements like that, as would most who work for the Church." A faint spark of something flashed in his eyes. "Or are you hinting that you are possibly something that is an affront to the almighty?"

The Emiya's eyes narrowed in irritation. The comment had hit slightly closer to home than the teen would have liked, what with his partial vampirized state and all. The longer he stayed in the church, the more of a chance the priest would learn of something that he could use against him in the future. Coming with Sakura alone was already a risk in itself. "How I feel about where you live shouldn't matter right now. You know why we're here."

The middle aged man closed his eyes and sighed faintly to express mild frustration. "You are indeed your father's son… though to be blunt he was far more intimidating than you are now despite your attempts to look otherwise. Very well. Show your proof as masters in this ritual and state your servant's class."

Sakura held out her right hand to show the three identical marks around an empty space. "Sakura Matou, Master of Servant Rider."

Shirou held out his left hand revealing a sword shaped set of command seals. "Shirou Emiya, Master of Servant Saber."

Kotomine didn't react in the slightest to learning of the servants either of them had summoned. "Do both of you know of and swear to follow the rules of the Grail Ritual, lest you suffer the consequences as agreed upon by both the Magus Association and the Holy Church?"

"Yes." Both teens nodded at the same time.

"Then then as the monitor I now accept you both as participants in the Grail War." The priest bowed his head briefly. "Should your servant be defeated in combat, you are welcome to come here for protection and in doing so sacrifice your rights to compete in the ritual. There are now six servants summoned. Otherwise you are not allowed to come here unless it is related to the rules of the war. Only one servant is left now, however that does not mean that the fighting has not started yet."

Shirou had half a mind to comment that the man was a bit late with that particular warning, but he held his tongue. Doing so would probably only give more ammo for the man to use later.

"Do either of you have any questions regarding the war before I send you on your way?" The man asked, dropping the hint of authority in his otherwise emotionless voice while looking at the teens skeptically. "I am somewhat surprised that you have not already asked me questions Emiya. I would have assumed someone of your mindset would jump at the chance to find some sort of loophole to exploit."

Another twist of words. The man obviously meant that the teen would have used them to try and keep deaths to a minimum, but it was worded to sound like he would use them to win the war as soon as possible. Still he had a point. No one was supposed to know that the war had come early and it caught everyone by surprise. To not ask any questions now would be suspicious.

"I'm teamed up with Matou Kotomine." Shirou closed his eyes with a sigh. "Do you really think that I would not have asked Zouken as much of the war as I could about it while I had the chance?"

A faint twitch in the priest's face was all the Emiya needed to confirm his father's very vague suspicions that the so called holy man had some sort of grudge against the worm user. Good.

"You make a fair point. Zouken Matou would indeed know more about the grail war system and rules than possibly anyone else today save for perhaps a select few members of the Einzbern family." Kirei relented while recalling the existence of one of the few individuals he truly disliked other than Kiritsugu. He turned back to the boy with a focused but curious gaze. "Though… if you are nearly as capable as the rumors say you are, then there would no doubt be questions that you knew better than to ask him about."

The Magus Killer remained quiet as he sorted his thoughts out before carefully picking his words. "What would happen if the remaining masters and servants of the war decided not to continue with the ritual? I am aware that the Greater Grail is part of the reason why most of the masters are capable of maintaining their servants with an adequate supply of prana in the first place. By themselves, only the most capable of magi are able to perform such a feat. The rest would simply die as they attempted to perform a miracle that was beyond their abilities. The timeframe for a war is two weeks, but in reality it is more like the expected amount of time it takes for the masters and servants to kill each other off. I haven't been told anything that says what would happen if the remaining participants decided not to go through with the ritual."

Sakura's eyes widened in surprise at the question. True it was a valid thing to ask, but still he had promised to save her. The only way to do that was to win the war and give the grail to her grandfather. To be honest, she didn't even know why he would need to know the answer to such a thing in the first place.

Kotomine on the other hand didn't react in the slightest. "I see why you didn't ask Zouken that. It would indeed give him the wrong impression if you did." He nodded. "You are no doubt concerned that should you be defeated and the other servants and masters have different agendas than the war, it would cause issues for many that would be difficult to solve. You are also correct in that so long as the ritual isn't completed, the Greater Grail system would still be intact and the drain on the masters to support their servants would be reduced to far more manageable levels, regardless of where in the world they may be. Be rest assured though, this has already been thought up of. Should that unlikely scenario ever come to pass, a specialized team from the Church specializing in spiritual exorcisms will be assigned to address the issue. While standard rituals are ineffective against Servants with Masters, Servants are still spiritual beings with a core. There are methods that are able to disrupt those cores to the point of killing them. Of course doing so would end the ritual without a winner and steps would also have to be taken to properly disperse the energy stored in the completed grail, however it is a necessary evil in order to ensure that such a power does not go unchecked." His eyes momentarily flashed with a hint of amusement. "After all, we already know what happened the last time someone disposed of the grail in a haphazard manner. Plus having heroic spirits on the loose would be a nightmare to manage under even normal circumstances. We have enough trouble with the Apostle Ancestors as it is."

The Magus Killer resisted the urge to roll his eyes and ignored the jab at his father. "If I ever have to go up against another Ancestor in mortal combat again it will be too soon."

While the Queen of the Clocktower did frequently send him out to hunt Dead Apostles, his saving grace was that when the woman had an Ancestor in her sights, she went after it personally and only brought her personal army with her. Shirou was more of an assassin in a division all his own that took out virtually every other Dead Apostle that she couldn't be bothered with at the time, but still wanted absolutely dead.

Thankfully he had only needed to use Kiritsugu once during his employment against a particularly vicious and indiscriminate female Apostle specializing in bounded fields that had a taste for the blood of very young children. The word thankfully in particular was used because when he told Barthomelloi that he used it and described the vampire's reaction, the woman actually SMILED faintly. He had trouble sleeping for a week after that particular event, and swore to himself afterwords that he would never tell anyone of what he had been witness to.

"Can we not talk about Apostles please?" Sakura asked with a nervous smile. "They bring up bad memories for me."

"All of us can agree to that." The Priest nodded. "Save for one particular Ancestor, most of their kind has proven themselves to me as a rather unscrupulous species." He walked behind the podium and looked upon the rather expensive looking cross past it. "If I may Emiya, I have a question of my own to ask of you. Call it curiosity but do you actually have a wish for the grail should you win?"

The teen shook his head. "No. Should I be victorious, I'd hand it over to Zouken for Sakura's freedom from the Matou Family." That was the official plan at least. He had no real intention of handing the cursed thing to the old demon if he had anything to say about it. He saw Sakura look at him with mixed amounts of gratitude and depression, as if what he was doing was making her both happy and guilty at the same time. He didn't understand why she would feel guilty about why he was fighting, but right now it didn't really matter.

The Priest paused for a moment before glancing back at the son of the man he hated most. "And should she die in the conflict? Would you continue to fight even if your reason for winning was lost?" The magi in the room froze at the question, but Kotomine continued. "It is a simple question. No one can truly control how the war will turn out. Both Masters and Servants are valid targets in the grand scheme of things. Should Miss Matou here die, what would you do? Would you still give the grail to Zouken? Would you take it for yourself and wish for something foolish like world peace like your father wanted?"

It took all of the teen's self control to not blurt out something stupid at that point, gritting his teeth and clenching his hands as he held back his temper. This man was far more infuriating than those pompous fools at the Clocktower for the sole reason that he pointed out sore points in others not to make himself feel better, but for the sake of making his target feel worse. The best he could do in the situation the man had suggested was blackmail the Einzberns with the grail and how they had tainted it to give him Illya, and THEN force them to use Heaven's Feel to bring back those that had died using another medium to do so, but he had focused most if not all of his time on trying to prevent that scenario from happening so he had little more than that planned…

"I understand your curiosity Kotomine-san, but I would appreciate it if you would stop asking these excessive questions, especially since they regard me being killed." Sakura spoke up coldly, gaining both of the population's attention. "If you continue speaking like this, my servant will consider you to be a threat to me, and she happens to be very loyal." She shook her head. "And keep in mind that Shirou-kun here is the Magus Killer. I'm confident that should my abilities not be enough to deter an enemy master, his most certainly will." She paused and looked at the eldest one there skeptically. "Or am I to interpret your questions as a confession that you have your own agenda for the war?"

Both males blinked in surprise at the girl's interruption before the elder of the two chuckled a couple of times in amusement. "My apologies Matou. It was not my intention to cause friction between us. I was merely satisfying my curiosity with Emiya. His father and I have a… unique history and it influenced my decisions a bit." He bowed. "It will not happen again."

"Be sure that it doesn't." Sakura continued channeling her less pleasant side. "You are a man of god. You are supposed to be relieving others of their worries, not adding to them."

Shirou couldn't help but laugh a small bit. "Heh. There's a reason why I'm not that worried about Sakura's safety Kotomine. She's scarier than Rin when she wants to be." He wasn't kidding either. Ever since the Louvre incident the girl's self confidence and control had increased over time with the further controlling of her powers. While she was still normal sweet Sakura most of the time, she had occasionally slipped into a rather dark and intimidating persona when pushed hard enough. So much so that she could manage to beat Rin at her own game. Occasionally. Not that Rin would ever admit it.

"Yes… my mistake. You do seem to have quite a bite." The priest managed to regain himself before looking at Sakura with mild recognition. "Must run in the family. My apologies."

None of the three commented on Sakura's face bleaching a shade or two. Shirou doubted that the priest made that family comment as a casual offhanded statement. "… That's quite all right." The girl replied after a moment's hesitation. "I expect you to be more accommodating next time."

"If there is one, I most certainly will." Kotomine nodded. "I was not joking when I insinuated your possible demise. Each war past has seen the death of at least half of the masters participating. I do not see why this war should be any different."

_Yes, because every war has at least two extra servants, a corrupted grail, and a moderator who wants to give said corrupted grail to the master whose wish will be altered the most without them knowing. You're probably planning on at least six of the masters dying by the end of this thing. _Shirou mentally grumbled. "You have a point." He admitted though the sentiment didn't reach his eyes. "Come on Sakura. We're leaving. We have other things to take care of tonight."

"Allow me to wish you good luck." Kirei added as the two walked back to the main doors of the Church. "There has never been two Masters starting with such powerful classed servants pairing up so early in the war before. I am interested to see how far you get. I hope to see you again soon, as peculiar as it may sound."

Shirou paused for a second and looked at the man as well. "Believe me Kotomine. We will be seeing one another again fairly soon. And when we do, I expect you to do your job."

o. o. o.

As the doors to the Church closed in front of the very confused man, the building was left silent… for a good five seconds.

"Hahahaha!" A golden man dressed in expensive but casual clothing applauded and walked out from the back rooms of the building, showing mirth and amusement in his red eyes. "How interesting! A grand way to end a prequel!"

The man of god turned to the King of Heroes with a hint of mild curiosity. "It appears that Emiya has some sort of plan for me."

"Indeed!" Gilgamesh snickered. "What an intriguing jester that faker is. Managing to push some role on a playwright in his very own work! The retainer has truly exceeded my expectations. He has already outdone your first attempt at a script Kirei. I fear you are slipping. The absurdity of what I have seen makes for a fine comedy."

"I must admit, I have mixed feelings about this." The human nodded. "On the one hand I am quite perturbed at being the one manipulated once more, something that has only been done when I was under Tokiomi's meager guidance, and by a child not even half my age this time. On the other, I am quite curious as to what he expects me to do, as what he wants to do with the rest of the war…"

The former Archer calmed down, his eyes glittered with ethereal knowledge. "The fool does seem to believe he knows much about what is happening in the war. While we may be forced to put him down sooner rather than later if we let him free for too long, there is no need to rush it now. In fact I am rather curious as to how he will attempt to address his little problems." He held his hand out and summoned a golden cup and some wine from the Gate of Babylon. "It is best after all to let some things wait for a while in order to get the finest taste…" He took an elegant sip. "Although, I do believe that one of the things he wants to address is something that has aged to the point of being vinegar…"

"Zouken." Kotomine muttered the name of the elderly magus who had been on his bad side since the fourth war. If Kiritsugu could be considered a man that he despised due to personal reasons, Zouken could be considered an existence he could not tolerate out of principle. The only reason why he had left the monster alone for as long as he did was simply because he saw no reason to go after him. There was no point. The man kept his disgusting activities to a minimum and well within the regulations that the Church and the Magus Association had set up. Going after the man now was more trouble than it was worth. However if the boy had some sort of plan set up to get rid of the sickening existence… well, as long as empty man's plans were completed in the end he might as well kill two birds with one stone.

"Hmhm." The golden king mused as he looked at his reflection in his wine. "This war is most certainly turning out to be far more fruitful and interesting than I originally assumed. Who would have thought that the mere squabbles between women and children would be so amusing?" He drank some more of the ambrosia that could not be matched anywhere else on the planet. "Ah, such is the beauty of true entertainment. You never do know when and where the next source of it will come from…"

o. o. o.

Matou Residence an hour later:

He couldn't breathe.

His heart was burning. His brain was pulsing. His very veins were searing him from the inside out. The mere concepts of "seeing", "hearing", "thinking", and other basic functions had been ignored in order to deal with the primary issue that was the pain that pervaded his very nerves.

Seconds? Minutes? Hours? He had no idea how long his body had undergone such torture. The only thing that pierced the veil that clouded his mind was the drive to deal with it. That it would end soon and that it was all to help her out. Who she was he could not even bother to conjure up the name of, but she was important to him and he would save her. That was all the reason he needed to remain sane enough to not black out…

And soon enough, or not, his patience was rewarded. The black cloud that had flooded his eyes so densely that he had forgotten he could see slowly lifted. Similar blocks to his other senses also faded with varying speeds, allowing him to function as a "human" once more. Unfortunately the first sense to truly recover was that of smell… overwhelming his brain with the sickeningly sweet scent of decay.

Thus it was no surprise that his first coherent action was to roll himself over and empty his stomach onto the cold stone floor of the catacombs underneath the Matou Mansion.

"Hmhmhm." The gravelly voice of Zouken Matou chuckled as the owner approached the tortured body. "That was certainly an interesting sight to behold Emiya. For a moment there I worried that you wouldn't make it."

"Shirou-kun! Are you all right?! I didn't think that the stress would be so hard on you! Please tell me you're ok!" Sakura's panicked voice reached his ears, easing some of the stress on his mind. Judging from how close it sounded and the hands touching him, he was fairly certain that she was trying to support his body so that he didn't accidentally collapse into the bodily fluids he had just upchucked.

"Master…" Saber's voice grunted nearby, though clearly not hovering over him like Sakura's was. If he had to guess with his addled mind, he assumed that the Servant was standing between him and Zouken, for good reason.

"Urgh…" Shirou moaned as his vision returned to him alongside his motor control and slowly picked himself up. Raising his right hand he rubbed his temples in order to get some blood flowing in his head again. He made some movement to move his left hand to prop himself up better when he realized it was holding something…

A small red book.

"Are you well… Master?" Rider asked her new master neutrally from behind Sakura, not at all showing displeasure or concern from the recent events.

"I'll manage." Shirou hissed in pain as he forced his aching body to push itself into a standing position despite protests from it, Sakura, and Saber. He winced through his teeth. "I can see why it's advised to not have two servants at once." Indeed he was somewhat surprised that after all the pain he had just gone through, all his circuits were still intact and undamaged. Still burning hot and actually damaging his physical body in some points, but otherwise unblemished.

"Indeed you do." Zouken chuckled. "Most magi these days would have perished the instant the second servant began to drain them of their prana. Our little helpers here will have to reduce how much they take from you on average, but it is something that can easily be worked around." He looked at the boy skeptically. "Speaking of reserves boy, I am somewhat concerned of your situation. As you are now you, the famous Magus Killer, are completely unable to defend yourself from even the weakest opponent. Should anyone find out about this, it would make your, and through it my position in the war quite uncomfortable…"

"Now you're worried?" The Emiya sarcastically asked before breathing the sour air deeply a few times to stabilize himself. "Don't worry, I'm a fast healer. Besides…" He made eye contact with the sickening man. "For some reason I doubt that you've simply let me take control of your servant without abusing the system in some way to your favor."

The worm user grinned sadistically at the accusation. "You're a sharp one boy. Good. Very good. I see that Barthomelloi's decision to employ you was not simply due to your meager fighting abilities. That'll tilt things more to your favor." He began to walk around the group of teens and servants slowly, giving them a wide berth since the servants no doubt would not hesitate in trying to kill him if given the opportunity. "I have managed to learn quite a few things from observing the past wars while the other Masters try to abuse the system in their own way. What I did with you two is similar to what the master of Lancer did for the previous war. As of right now Emiya here is indeed the master of both Rider and Saber here. He provides prana to both of you and his command seals can be utilized on either one as well. But since Rider was originally bound to Sakura, my granddaughter can at anytime donate her prana to reduce the strain on you Emiya." His grin widened. "Of course doing it too much will run the risk of agitating the worms inside her body a bit and consume her reserves, but all in all she will no doubt serve as a suitable secondary source. Wouldn't you agree?"

"You are a sickening existence." Saber growled, holding onto her hidden Excalibur with both hands. "Doing this to your own flesh and blood. For the sake of the world I should end you right now…"

"It's all right Saber." Shirou panted as he felt Avalon heal some of the internal damage that his circuits had done to his body. He had really underestimated how severe the load of supporting two servants was. If anyone was to blame for going through with this insane plan, it was him.

He was after all, the one who suggested it in the first place.

"All we have to do is win the grail and he'll free Sakura." He glared at the eldest one there. "So long as he doesn't give me a reason to believe that he'll double cross me, I'll keep my end of the bargain and fight on his behalf…"

"Humph. Far be it for me to get on the wrong side of the Magus Killer, let alone a ward of Barthomelloi." The eldest one there snorted. "Just be sure to remember who is holding which cards."

"I haven't forgotten Zouken." Shirou glared at the elderly man as he managed to feel his body slowly regain enough energy to not feel completely useless. Even with Rider and Saber holding back a bit on their prana consumption, the teen felt that almost all of what his body generated went straight to the servants. The remaining dregs that were not used went to him which he could store up over time to an extent, but if both servants got into a major fight at the same time those meager reserves would not last long. All in all his combat ability had taken a major hit in the grand scheme of things.

"Our unstable alliance aside…" Saber spoke up darkly, never taking her eyes off of Zouken for an instant. "I assume that the current course of action is for Rider and me to team up against other servants for this war and overwhelm them?"

"No." Shirou coughed out some blood before pretending that it didn't happen. "Rider is going to stay here and protect Sakura for the war. You and I will be the ones that will go out and hunt the other servants one by one. You've seen it yourself, I can't handle supporting both of you at once if you both go all out. Not for long at least. This way, I can at least focus on supporting Saber in combat while Rider is merely on standby and gathers strength from Sakura for when they are attacked. So long as we do this carefully, I believe we can go through the war without impairing either of your abilities. Plus if Rider does get forced into a fight, I'll be able to tell instantly that something's wrong and get Saber to her quickly."

He left unsaid that even though he could most likely kill Zouken right now without much issue with two Servants under his control, it was impossible to do so without sacrificing Sakura in the process. The old demon was sick and twisted, but he knew better than to risk his position in the war, let alone his life, without having some secure way of ensuring that he would leave unscathed.

"It sounds like Sakura is a liability to your overall goals." Rider spoke up in an even tone. "Much of your strategy is based on keeping her safe, and your end goal is to save her. However by going through with this, you have become a liability yourself."

Shirou snorted and smiled dryly at the servant. "Yeah. It does sound like that when you put it that way doesn't it?" He turned to Sakura who was standing by his side and had been quiet since he had recovered. "Sakura? Do you consider yourself helpless if you are attacked by an enemy Master?"

The purple haired girl looked back at her secret lover and smiled faintly. Slowly faint tendrils of unidentified black material began to emerge from the folds of her clothes, her hair, between her arms and legs, virtually anywhere that was generally hidden from the world and extended at least a meter in every direction. The very presence of the new appendages unnerved the Servants there. It was almost as if they were made of something that was the antithesis to their very existences…

"The reason why Shirou-kun is taking my position of Rider's Master is simply because my condition makes it extremely unsafe for me to support prana intensive activities for long periods of time. While I am neither the most impressive magus nor the most powerful, I am capable enough of at least holding off my opponents until help arrives. You do not have to worry about me Rider." Sakura calmly and confidently explained as the black whips of imaginary material faded back into nonexistence.

"Mhmhmhm." Zouken chuckled. "I am almost hoping the boy will not succeed. It would be a shame to lose the most promising heir to the Matou line we've had in centuries, however only time will tell what will happen in the end." He glanced down at Shirou. "I believe that we are done for right now Emiya. Your body is no doubt exhausted from the sudden additional load you now carry and our current location is not the most appropriate place for those outside of the Matou to recover in." He turned to Saber. "No doubt your servant will take appropriate enough care of you to get you in adequate condition by tomorrow night. You should start your hunt for the ones who are preying on the local population then. As you are now you'd only be able to serve as an appetizing distraction. You are in no condition to be fighting right now."

"That's easy for you to say." The Emiya replied in a stronger tone. As much as wanted to deny it, Zouken was right. His body was in rough shape and at best he would only be able to project half a dozen weapons before he ran out of energy again. Still he wasn't going to admit the monster was right instantly. The idea of agreeing with anything the man said at face value was sickening to him. "It's true that so far the attacks have been non lethal, but the longer we wait to deal with them, the more reckless they'll get. I don't want to risk innocents dying simply because of some weak excuse like "I'm tired"."

Surprisingly enough, it was Sakura who spoke up first. "You're wrong. The fact that this group is going after civilians and draining them means that they are unconfident in going up against the other Servants for now. If that's the case, then they most likely will not want to attract any more attention this early in the war. If they progress to killing their targets en masse, then the priest would have to step in and convince the other masters to focus on taking him out. I believe that something similar happened in the previous war. Since their movements so far have left no evidence of magecraft and the culprits are being careful to cover their tracks, we can assume that they are keeping this possibility in mind. At the very least, we would expect them to move after a few of the other teams have been eliminated."

"I couldn't have said it better myself." Zouken nodded. "Keep your eyes on the goal. You have a better chance to stop the enemy master if you are rested boy. If you act now, you most likely won't be able to regain the strength needed to combat the enemy for another week. If you rest for this night only though, you should be recovered enough to do so by tomorrow night. Even if one of those precious weapons of yours is capable of killing any master you come across, keep in mind that the enemy will most likely recognize you on sight and take precautions. Remember, my best chance in getting the grail lies in keeping you alive as well as Sakura."

"As much as I detest agreeing with that… man you are partnered with, I have to side with them too." Saber grimaced. "Going into battle weary is the height of folly. The only time it should be a viable option is when you are left with little other choice."

Shirou remained quiet as he swallowed the fact that Saber was agreeing with Zouken of all people. Slowly he turned his attention to Rider. "Well? Aren't you going to tell me not to go out hunting tonight too?" He asked with a hint of sarcastic humor.

The blindfolded woman did not hesitate or flinch in the slightest. "I will do as my Master commands. What my opinion is on the matter is irrelevant."

Translation: I'll do what you want, but I'm agreeing with them on this.

"Fine." The Faker relented reluctantly. "I'll rest home for the night and start the war tomorrow." He looked at the Matou there. According to the plan, no one save for those in the room… and Kirei, should know about the alliance, and it should stay that way for as long as possible. He had to leave soon while there was still sunlight or else the odds of having that information get discovered would increase drastically. "I can at least go over a few more strategies with Saber while I'm resting."

The worm user grinned. "I'm somewhat disappointed I won't see them in action. No doubt someone with your unique abilities combined with the servant of the sword would yield rather interesting results."

"I assume that I am to continue to act as Sakura's Servant." Rider stated calmly.

Shirou nodded. "Yeah. Please do. Consider your servitude to me a mere formality to help Sakura out if you want."

"And should I manage to defeat the enemy before you arrive to aid?" She questioned,

The Emiya paused before letting out a tired sigh. "I have full confidence in your abilities if that is what you're asking Rider, but keep in mind that for right now your goal is not to defeat the enemy servants, but to ensure Sakura's survival and safety. When the number of enemies drops a bit or if our alliance is discovered we'll change strategies, but until then please play along."

Rider didn't move for several seconds as she contemplated Shirou's orders before nodding slowly. "Very well. I shall follow your commands as you have described Master." With that her body disappeared, rendering her invisible to all but those who she had a direct bond with.

"Huh." Shirou mused as he looked at the purple clad woman hover transparently around Sakura like a ghost. He always did wonder what a servant looked like in spiritual form. On the plus side, he could already feel the pressure of Rider requiring less prana ease up on his circuits, making it easier for him to relax his body. It would be a while before his circuits would cool off, but at least he wasn't on the verge of overheating anymore. "I guess that's it for now. Come on Saber. Let's go home."

"Mmm." The blonde nodded, not taking her eyes off of Zouken. She had remained quiet for most of the conversation, but her mind was frantically working around the new developments that had just occurred and how they could be applied to what she and Shirou knew from Kiritsugu's notes. So much had been changed already and yet so much had still remained the same. She had been so busy learning what Kiritsugu knew that she had yet to take into account what had happened in this timeline… and so far she could not tell if she liked the new series of events or despised it.

She grimaced as she emerged outside behind her master and noted that the sun was close to setting, yet the unnatural quiet that came without the local insects making their usual noise was unsettling. For right now though she just hoped that nothing excessive would happen soon. Shirou needed the rest to get over the shock of undertaking two servants at once…

o. o. o.

Fuyuki City:

"… So I've been meaning to ask you. When will you, you know… show it to me?"

Archer blinked and turned to his master with a look of skepticism. The fact that they were on top of one of the skyscrapers in Fuyuki did not register in the slightest. "You do realize that someone could easily get the wrong impression hearing that question."

Rin's attempt to not blush almost went unnoticed. "I meant your Reality Marble idiot! If I ever wanted to see THAT it I would have gone for my version of you! I'm not into guys twice my age!" _Even if they are built in all the right places and are better looking than anyone else in a five hundred kilometer radius, _she wisely left unsaid.

The white haired man shook his head and snorted. "Your future plans to molest my younger self aside, I think it's best if I didn't use it unless absolutely needed." He began to scan the city again with his hawk like eyes. "Fully utilizing Unlimited Blade Works taxes my, and in turn your, reserves heavily. Not only that, but it's not exactly a subtle spell to utilize. The second it's used, virtually every servant would be able to tell where I am. While I am good, I don't feel confident in going up against a fully charged servant on low power." He paused for a brief moment before looking back at the girl concerned. "Wait. You know about my Reality Marble?"

The Tohsaka glanced at her Servant somewhat scathingly. "Of course I do. That daughter of Louvre's almost shouted it to the world when you nearly tore her mouth apart. Remember?" She shook her head. "Honestly, I don't know whether to be astounded or pissed at the founders. To actually think ahead and prepare for the possibility of summoning a servant from the future with knowledge of the war they were summoned into…"

Archer frowned before looking down at the crowded city below for possible enemies to snipe from a distance. "They had to be. They did make the system in the first place…"

Honestly, keeping up his charade was more annoying than he originally thought. Between Rin knowing more about his magic and history for virtually half his life, Luvia of all people being a master and asking about his connection with Illya, his other self's surprisingly high competency in thaumaturgy and ranking in the Clocktower, he had fostered the thought of killing his alternate self just for the headaches he somehow caused. That idea was banished shortly afterwards when he came to the conclusion that said alternate self had most likely been dealing with this for years on end and probably deserved a fair share of sympathy by now. Save for his appearance and the way he carried himself, the kid seemed to act just like he did at that age… irony of said statement taken into account.

Pity killing the kid if he was too obsessed with his ideal was still very much on the table though.

Trying to remember all the main differences between this world and the one he originally came from was rather frustrating. True this wasn't the first time he was summoned into an alternate reality, but it was (still) to his knowledge the first time he had been identified right off the bat. So, in order to keep to his role, he had to both play dumb to common knowledge AND try to take in all the changes he could in order to plan his next moves accordingly…

Why the hell couldn't Rin just have left him to die in the school all those years ago when Lancer gouged out his heart?

"Hey…" Rin spoke up, grabbing his attention again. "I know it's probably pointless to ask but, do you remember what happened to us in the future? Or at least your future?"

"Us?" The man questioned skeptically.

"You. Me. Sakura." The brunette clarified without turning to him. "I know we all have a thing going now but… Sakura and I worry about you, you know? Once we all graduate from Highschool and I go to the Clocktower to further my education, we'll all be separate unless something's done. We know you can take care of yourself to some extent but, well, heroes die young. Seeing you summoned as one fills me with mixed feelings. You always did idolize heroes, your father more than anyone else so I'm happy that you became one, I mean you're probably the most recent Heroic Spirit since the ones from the eighteen hundreds, but… if you died looking as you are now…"

"Then it means I probably did something irrational that finally did me in. Right?" The dead man smiled dryly, not bothering to see the girl's body stiffen momentarily.

The air between them was quiet for a while save for the heavy winds that dominated the higher altitudes. Neither Master nor Servant looked at one another as they kept their gazes on the city below, a dark canvas of varying shades of gray and black littered with lights and neon advertisements that did nothing to mar the unique beauty there. The largest human to the smallest rat were both equally insignificant from their height. In a way it was hard to imagine that a massive and ancient ritual could ever take place in such a modernized area.

"Rest assured Rin. My memory isn't accurate right now, but trust me when I say that I did not die for some useless meager cause. At the very least, I went with content and a smile on my face."

It was what happened after that that twisted his soul into what he was now.

The Tohsaka looked at her Servant skeptically to see him confidently looking down below with a smile on his face. She could tell though that something was off. His smile was not the care free relaxed smile that she had personally taken great solace in looking at, but more of a hardened smile that was hiding bitter amusement at some ironic joke. It left her feeling uncomfortable as it indicated that the man was most certainly hiding something from her…

It also left her somewhat relieved in that even after all these years Shirou Emiya could not hide his thoughts from her.

"… I bet you probably died doing something stupid again. Idiot." She muttered under her breath and made a mental note to keep a better eye on her love interest in the years to come.

"Perhaps." The Servant shrugged casually, not insulted by the girl's insults. "… And just a correction, I'm the youngest heroic spirit since the few that managed to get in around World War One and Two, to the best of my knowledge. I know at the very least three men managed to get on the throne from that time period."

"World War One and Two?" The girl blinked in confusion. "But guns and planes were being mass produced by then."

Archer laughed dryly. "Look up the Red Barron of Germany, the Black Devil of the South, and the White Death of Finland when you have enough free time. Modern weapons do make it significantly harder to get on the throne, but not impossible. Being a master marksman with a high kill count wouldn't get you in, but if enough additional factors are added onto your legend it could elevate you onto the throne. One would just have to approach things a bit differently, that's all."

The man shook his head condescendingly. "Most magi just claim that it's impossible to do so if your weapon is a gun or something modern like that out of pride and refusal to admit being wrong, especially if other more subtle skills were significant contributors into the making of the legend. If that you said was true, than any supposed heroic spirit armed with an enchanted sword or spear could be excused from the throne by the logic that the weapon did all the work and anyone armed with it could achieve the same exact miracles as he or she did. Mystical weapons were uncommon throughout history, but they were certainly not unheard of." He shrugged casually. "If you had somehow managed to grab a piece of the planes belonging to the Black Devil or the Red Barron, or if you managed to get the White Death's Sniper Rifle and used one of them as a catalyst, you most certainly would have managed to get one of them as a servant."

The magus looked at her partner skeptically before snorting. "Humph. They sound interesting, but I think I'll stay with my current snobbish and rude Servant that can copy any sword he sees under my thumb. The idea of seeing someone potentially firing off Excalibur as an arrow is just too good of a thing to pass up."

"Such a selfish and silly master I have. Firing off Excalibur of all swords as an arrow. The very thought of that is comical." The Servant snorted and shook his head.

He didn't mention that he had indeed tried that maneuver once when he was alive, but it didn't work out well to say the least. It was hard enough trying to create constructs made by the Fae. Adjusting and contorting them so that he could actually fire them like arrows was just too much for him to pull off.

Rin pouted. "If you can't do something like that say it, though I don't see why you can't."

"Fae magic is different than human magic." He shrugged. "There's no real way for me to explain it. I can copy their weapons to some level, but even that takes some effort. Altering their construction even further is simply beyond my abilities."

"Oh?" The Master raised an eyebrow. "You sound pretty knowledgeable about Excalibur and Fae magic. Don't tell me that you summoned King Arthur of all people to be your servant for the war. I may truly have to kill you for not telling me sooner if that's the case."

Archer smirked. "Who knows? My memories are messed up, remember? Your guess is as good as mine. Regardless, everyone knows that the Sword of Promised Victory was crafted by the Fae, but it wasn't the only weapon out there that was of the same make. It is just as likely that I managed to lay eyes on another one of those tools during my lifetime."

o. o. o.

The Holy Grail War of Fuyuki has many rules that the Masters and Servants participating frequently follow and break. There are as many that are unspoken of and deemed as common sense as there are formal and well documented for future generations to learn from. For example, while the participants can technically fight any time and place they want, it is generally agreed upon to keep things during the night hours and away from crowds to keep the existence of magic a secret.

Many of these unspoken rules are deemed pretty much as common sense geared towards maintaining secrecy and making things easier for the ritual to be conducted… however there are some that take a bit more logic to figure out.

One of these unspoken rules for example can be determined by looking at the locations of the Tohsaka and Matou residences. The houses are in general so close to one another that had it not been for the hill that was in between then, it could be generally guessed that most combat based Servants would be easily capable of jumping from one property to the other without any aid at all. That is of course if neither property had their respective bounded fields set up, both easily capable of diverting, weakening, and overall discouraging most servants summoned in the war from simply just barging in…

Keyword: most.

It was this fact that prompted the silent agreement between the Tohsaka and the Matou that in any war they participated in, so long as they could help it, neither family would EVER summon Caster.

Due to the raw abilities of the magically superior Servant, getting around or even simply destroying the magical defenses of the other's property would be almost as easy as breathing for them. This would, in turn, prompt the other party to retaliate in kind with their most likely vastly more powerful servant should the initial assault by Caster's party fail to kill the enemy Master…

Long story short, at the very least one of the two family's properties would be assured to end up a burning pile of rubble by the end of the fiasco. While both parties were not exactly poor, neither had any desire to go through the arduous effort of rebuilding their homes from the ground up, let alone risk the security of their workshops when it could be easily avoided.

Of course, in addition to that particular piece of information it was also fairly logical to assume that the masters of both houses would attempt to leave their residence for the war each day before night came in order to prevent potential attacks on their homes by the other and give an opening for their local neighbor slash enemy to exploit. Then there was the general assumption that being a third party attacking either of the properties was a dumb idea since it would expose said third party as easy targets for the owners of the second property to get the drop on from the safety of their well defended home.

Then again, due to the close proximity of the properties, it was quite possible for some servants to monitor them at the same time, without being detected of course, and determine if the owners and servants were inside their homes or if they had left to compete in the war.

Many of these unspoken facts were not well known, but they were things that could be reasoned out by those who were observant, logical, and had a fair amount of experience under their belts…

… Such as the two sisters standing a small distance away from the Matou Manor in the local woods.

"I am somewhat hesitant to go through with this Marjatta." Luvia calmly informed her sister. "Today has been very trying to me for a multitude of reasons. Must we do this tonight?"

"We are at war sister. The enemy will not care what condition you are in should the roles be reversed." Marjatta chided. "Better to strike now when the opportunity has presented itself rather than wait for them to learn about us."

Luvia shook her head tiredly. The knowledge that Kiritsugu Emiya had been turned into his son's most frequently used weapons and had encountered whatever it was that tainted the local park before everything went to hell had been plaguing her mind all day long. In fact she had little doubt that it would continue to do so for at least the length of the war or until she learned of the entire story. The more she dwelt on it, the more she was beginning to think that the war itself was among the least of her problems.

Personally, she would have preferred to go after some of the other Masters, or at least Tohsaka first. The Matou girl was neither a threat in her books, nor someone that she didn't get along with. In fact she somewhat enjoyed talking to her when the opportunity came. She was down to earth. A bit darker and more morose than the average human, but she didn't have her head up her ass like a good portion of the nobles back home and would admit that she was wrong if given a solid enough reason.

Unfortunately Marjatta was right. They were at war and as such there was no room for second-guessing yourself.

"Very well." The elder blonde sighed. "I assume that the strategy will be the standard three waves?"

The younger smirked. "Yes, however I wish to suggest a small change…"

A small distance behind the two, the Princess of Colchis began to chant quickly, inadvertently producing a burning red mystic circle underneath her reminiscent of high level formalcraft…

o. o. o.

Emiya Residence:

"You have got to be fucking kidding me!" Shirou swore at the top of his lungs as he woke up with his circuits running hot. Normally he was fairly reserved and could hold his tongue in most situations even when his life was on the line, but after dealing with Zouken and only getting at most a few hours of rest there was little reason for anyone to hold his use of crass language against him.

"Shirou!" Saber shouted as she barged into his room from her guest room next door, something she had been forced upon since Shirou had been adamant against having her in his room when he slept. "What's the matter?!"

The Magus Killer wasted no time as he grit his teeth and jumped to his feet before reaching out for his coat. The fact that the strain on his circuits had diminished slightly indicated that Sakura was already donating some of her prana to help Rider out, which was a mixed blessing as far as he was concerned. "Sakura and Rider are being attacked and are fighting as we speak."

"Already?" The blonde servant blinked in disbelief.

"Why do you think I'm so pissed right now?" The Emiya growled menacingly as the Shroud of Martin wrapped itself around his head. "Unfortunately I don't know which servant is attacking so we're going in blind."

"Correction." Saber frowned. "I'm going in blind. You are still in no condition to fight."

"We can argue about this later." The teen ordered darkly as he ran past her, down the hallway, and to the backyard of his home. "We need to get you to the Matou's as fast as possible regardless of what I do." Uttering a few words as he ran to his workshop, all the doors in the building instantly opened allowing the Master and Servant no interference as they ran towards the opening of the garage doors and stopped in front of the large covered piece of equipment positioned behind it.

"Dad mentioned that you were pretty good on one of these." Shirou grunted as he threw off the covers and exposed his creation to the world. "How fast can you get to Sakura on this?"

Despite the severity of the situation, Saber had a noticeably difficult time holding back a very eager smile. "… I think I can manage."

o. o. o.

Rider was a very quiet individual. She spoke when she felt it was important to bring something up, or when she was talked to by someone she felt was worth conversing with. Otherwise regardless of what was going on in her mind she remained stoically quiet.

Now, for example, despite all the curses and grievances she had in mind due to her current situation, destroying humanoid skeleton warriors with her nail and chain while simultaneously avoiding large blasts of prana, her face remained impassive.

"My my you are a fast one." Caster chuckled pleasantly as she sat on her broom a fair distance away in the air. "I do think that I may have some trouble beating you after all."

Rider ignored the woman's taunting as she whipped her weapon around with expert inhuman dexterity to shatter another dozen or so minor familiars around her before bolting to the side to avoid being blown up by another spell. She didn't bother to pay attention to the five meter wide crater left behind or the minor damage made to the Matou mansion so far. Her only goal for now was to prevent as many of the skeletons from entering as possible while holding off Caster. The ones that did manage to slip past her were of no concern though. Their numbers were few enough that she had little doubt that her Master and Zouken could easily dispatch of them. Once her Master was confirmed safe, Saber arrived, or Caster made a mistake, then she could take the fight back to the bitch and make her regret ever being summoned.

As the long haired woman continued her guerrilla tactics against Caster and her minions, her mind briefly went over the past few minutes. The night had been fairly standard and peaceful after Emiya left. Sakura decided to fuel her with a small bit of prana, ate dinner, did some of her homework, and then went to bed. Zouken, thankfully did not make a reappearance after the meeting and remained inside that pit he calls a workshop.

Everything had been reasonable and quiet until Caster had come suddenly and absolutely shattered every bounded field that had surrounded the property. This was subsequently followed by the swarm of inhuman skeletons and attacks from above. The latter of which Rider recognized were being commanded in the Divine Language meaning that her opponent like her was from the Age of Gods.

Caster was stalling. That much was obvious. Rider could tell that the Servant was not taking the fight seriously and fighting as well as she could be. Still her constant assault from a distance was an annoyance that would have to be addressed soon. As it stood right now, she couldn't get the time she needed to perform the ritual to summon Pegasus so she could finally reach the annoying bitch. Retreating to the house to do the summoning was not an option either since Caster could simply use the opening to go after Sakura or destroy the property on top of her. Her spells were just too fast and damaging to risk it.

So as of right now the situation was a stalemate. Rider was unable to fight anymore than she could right now until Saber came, if she ever, and Caster was playing it safe from a distance until whatever she had planned…

Rider's unconscious deconstruction of the situation was instantly thrown away as the lithe woman bolted away from a massive torrent of flames that came from the main gates of the property, and more importantly from a different position than from where Caster was now.

While she had managed to escape the attack, the skeletons she had been engaged with had not been so lucky and had been eradicated in the blast… as had virtually half of the first floor of the Matou Household.

"She's quite fast isn't she?" The new assailant mused with a remarkably similar voice to Caster's, only without the condescending tone that saturated the latter's.

"Indeed she is." Caster chuckled amusedly, not at all concerned with the loss of a good portion of her familiars. "She's also very strong and has a high level of Magic Resistance. Despite how she moves, I doubt she is Assassin. Perhaps Rider? Or maybe she's a Saber that's still hiding her weapon?"

Rider used the brief reprieve to take in all she could on her new opponent and momentarily faltered. Standing at the entrance of the property were at least a dozen oxen at least three times the size of their non magical brethren, each with eyes that seemed to burn fiercely, horns that seemed to glow a dull red to match the heat inside their bodies, and each breathing out embers that lightly scorched the ground below them. Sitting on the one in front was the offending Servant with pale purple hair and a golden fleece around her shoulders…

"I see." Rider muttered with all four hands on the ground like an animal ready to move in any direction. "So you are both somehow Medea of Colchis. The fire breathing oxen of Lord Helios and the skeleton warriors of your father King Aeetes betray your identities."

The witch chuckled amusedly as she floated slightly closer to her target. "Hoh? Well now you seem quite knowledgeable about us. Most would take a while to connect the dots so quickly…"

Rider allowed a small smile to escape her lips. "I make it a habit to remember those who also suffered great injustices at the hands of the Gods."

Both Casters winced at that statement. "It is unfortunate that we have to encounter one another like this. Perhaps in another cycle we may be able to converse in a more tranquil setting." The summoning Caster admitted with some sorrow as she placed her hand on the back of the bull she was riding, causing its eyes and horns to glow with renewed energy, as did those of the small herd behind her. "However we have our orders and unfortunately you are to be killed…"

Rider did not wait for her foe to finish as she bolted as fast as she could not away or to the side of the new enemy, but straight towards it much to her target's surprise, appearing as nothing more than a few streaks of dark purple and black in the night highlighted by the fire behind her. The speed of her charge was such that only a servant would have been able to react in time to do anything about it before the attacking party arrived at its mark. While the second Caster had indeed complicated things and made the situation much more volatile, her presence itself had also posed a unique opportunity…

"Aeetes!" The second Caster roared, no doubt the name of her Noble Phantasm, and prompted the bulls around her to exhale flames at once at the oncoming Rider to create a virtual tsunami of fire, the likes of which would have blinded any servant or human that was unfortunate enough to look in its direction and thus ensured their instant immolation...

However Rider was fortunate enough to be blindfolded and as such utilized the precious few instants she had left to throw her chain and nail to one of the walls surrounding the property and just out of the reach of the attack. Even though it was not a Noble Phantasm, the weapon had the special property to remain embedded into its target so long as she wished it. She didn't need to guess if her nail was wedged in the concrete the moment it impacted before she acted. The Gorgon pulled as hard as she could and launched herself sideways to just barely avoid getting charred to death.

Remaining undeterred, the wave continued forward until they collided with the front of the Matou household and set the entire front of the building on fire. If Rider wasn't certain that the building would manage to sustain itself under the punishment it had undergone so far, she had no doubts now, not that she cared much about the place. Judging from the additional stream of prana she was receiving though, the servant was certain that Sakura was safe and unharmed in the catacombs. She would most likely escape through some passage that led out of the property. The concept of having hidden passageways out of hidden in underground lairs was overused even when Rider was alive.

She didn't remain still though as the next instant she had continued to run towards the bulls to avoid getting hit by the first Caster's suppressive fire from above. Unfortunately it appeared as if the newcomer's presence had not deterred the original attacker from maintaining her assault. It seemed as if this was the pair's plan: destroy the home field advantage before using their combined abilities to exhaust and overwhelm the target. Considering both members of the team were Caster class servants, it was a surprisingly efficient and threatening combination.

Strong. Yes, the second Caster's Noble Phantasm was indeed powerful. Rider would hazard a guess to rank that most recent attack to be of at least A rank, and one with a surprisingly wide range of effect as well. However the power behind it was most likely from the combined effort of the bulls there. Thankfully, bulls tend to suck at turning sharp corners.

A blast of fire coming from a single member of the herd further supported Rider's suspicions as she dodged the significantly smaller attack. It was still dangerous yes, but only as much as maybe a C rank Noble Phantasm. A direct hit would still hurt greatly, but it would not ensure her demise. The first Caster's offensive spells were more dangerous than the smaller fireballs.

Speak of the devil… Rider almost got hit that time as she launched herself off of the wall she was on and landed behind the herd of bulls, ignoring the section of concrete where she had just been that had imploded. This was getting annoying. The skeleton warriors with air support were annoying enough, but at least then she could destroy the ground forces. The bulls on the other hand were proving to be annoying just to get close to since their master had enough sense to not spread them out and get rid of their concentrated fire…

Barely dodging another fireball and allowing to be slightly singed on her right shoulder, Rider smirked and gripped her nail delicately but firmly in her left hand. Oh well, things may have been a bit difficult up until this point, but at least her time to take the fight back to the enemy was almost upon her.

Right now, Rider was behind the second Caster's herd of oxen, which was right between her and the flaming building. The first Caster was on the other hand was still flying out of Rider's attack range and still giving spontaneous cover fire. The scattered skeleton warriors that remained were not even a factor at this point.

Going on the attack while the herd attempted to redirect itself into her direction, Rider threw her nail at the neck of the first bull and was rewarded with steaming crimson blood and a collapsing body. Despite being large muscular creatures, they still possessed the same exploitable weak points that most other beasts had, and fortunately for her they were rather large targets. An instant later she jumped to the side and yanked back her chain to avoid being hit once more with the first Caster's support fire and swiftly grasped her nail before firing it off like a bullet at another turning bull's neck.

The process was repeated once more before unfortunately the rest of the herd finally managed to reposition itself towards her and contributed to the first Rider's assault with their fire, pointing away from the Matou household and at the local streets…

Weaving between the individual attacks like a wraith, Rider avoided taking as much damage as she could before jumping far enough to the side to force the animals to pause and try to turn to her direction. Still her opponent's efforts did not go unrewarded as slowly burns began to accumulate on the exotic woman's body.

"This is almost disappointing." The Witch chuckled as another glancing blow pushed back their target even further. "I thought that this one would put up as much of a fight as Lancer. Come now! Don't tell that's all you have!? At this rate we'll be done and have killed your master by midnight! **cvnhsm!**"

The latest blast of pure energy shot forward like a shooting star and collided with the purple haired Servant with relentless indiscriminate force. Had it not been for her B ranked Magic Resistance greatly reducing the damage of the attack, it would have no doubt been a killing blow. Instead the explosion merely kicked up a large amount of debris and forced the outnumbered servant back even more, prompting her to go down onto all fours once more like an animal with her outrageously long hair draped over the front of her head.

"She is quite the stubborn one." The Princess mused as she and her herd walked out forward a bit onto the street. "Still there is only so much punishment one can take. It's time to end this." The eyes of the massive force of spellcasters and monstrous beasts bore down onto their lone target, preparing to unleash their final blows…

And froze as they made eye contact with two gem like eyes with square irises, possessing a paralyzing and unparalleled nature that were legends by themselves. They were Mystic Eyes of such high quality that no amount of studying their nature could ever divulge the true essence of their function or existence.

"Breaker Gorgon." Medusa muttered as she blasted all her opponents at once with her legendary petrifying gaze. While the creatures were monstrous beasts with a significant level of natural protection against magic, even they were not completely immune from the eyes effects, evident as their already sketchy ability to turn instantly slowed down.

"It can't be…" The second Caster whispered in unnerved awe. Even though she was at the back of the herd now that Medusa had changed their positions, the effect of the eyes on here was as clear as day. While her A ranked Mana level prevented her and her counterpart from turning to stone, it did not prevent them from having all their stats decrease by one rank and slow down their movements significantly. Combined with the unexpected exposure, direct eye contact, and revelation of the eyes, there was little surprise that none of the attacking force would be able to move in any significant manner for a dangerous amount of time. "Medusa?"

The now identified Rider however made no sign that she cared about her revealed identity as she once more took off as a black and purple missile in order to avoid getting hit by the first Caster's attacks which were now being fired off frantically in realization that unless something was done quickly the tide would turn against their favor.

Under the current combined assault there was still no chance for her to summon Pegasus… however…

Not slowing down, Rider circled around back the way she came from the Matou property, dodging the stagnated salvo of magic and fire with inhuman agility and control, until she wound up right at the side of the herd of bulls and against all common sense ran right into the middle of it. Not even bothering to attack the ones she passed as it would take away the precious few milliseconds she needed, she whipped out her chains and grabbed the bull she estimated was directly in the middle of the herd by the neck, using her momentum to swing herself into the air and on course to land on its back, her chains rattling all around its head, neck and body…

Chains that were shifting from silver to gold in front of the second Caster's widening eyes. Likewise the ox's horns shifted from red to white and its eyes blazed with an inferno that was unmatched by the rest of its brethren.

Had this fight taken place in a wider environment where the oxen would be constantly moving, this sort of situation would not have been possible. However since the area was enclosed, the herd had been stuck in one place. Caster had focused on their combined might and the small area in an attempt to gain the upper hand.

"BELLERO-!"

"Aeetes!" Caster shouted frantically in an attempt to get the animals behind Rider to take her out before she could finish whatever she was doing, however the attempt was futile as Medusa's eyes had still slowed down their movements to prevent them from interfering.

"-PHON!" Rider roared as she cracked the whips of her Noble Phantasm just as she landed. The following instant was both deafening and blinding as her hijacked mount transformed into a massive red and white comet of burning destruction that shot forward like a cannonball, absolutely annihilating the three oxen that were in front of her while severely injuring another two that were to her side. The mere aftershock of the charge had been enough to buffet the first Caster away and nearly knock the second one off her own bull.

Thankfully there was a moderately large strip of forest on the other side of the street from the now burning Matou home, as Rider's attack had continued forward for a good distance, decimating and immolating anything that even came close to being in the way of the comet's path before it turned around widely and skidded to a halt closer to the town's limits roughly twenty meters away from her opponents.

Thanks to her latest maneuver both sides of the road were up in flames, giving it the appearance that it was a sort of gateway into hell complete with fire breathing monsters, witches, and gorgons.

Not stopping there however, the possessed bull began to instantly fire off significantly stronger than standard balls of flame at both disheveled spellcasting parties, forcing them on the defensive with the first dodging as quickly as she could in the air while the second used what remained of her mounts to cancel the offending attacks, if just barely…

However while the additional suppressing ranged attacks did do a wonderful job of pressuring the other side, it was still apparent that it was not enough after a very short while as the beast eventually risked exhausted itself from attacking so much and prompted Rider to hold back for a short bit, relishing the sight of the more than singed Casters on the other side of the road glaring at her angrily.

Rider took the moment's break to smirk as she looked at the second Caster confidently before reapplying her blindfold and shielding her eyes and gently stroking the neck of the creature she had forced under her command. "I must admit, I am not accustomed to riding oxen, however I do see the benefits in doing so from time to time. They are quite strong, though they do lack somewhat in terms of endurance."

Not as powerful as her Pegasus, not by a long shot, but they were a suitable substitute given the situation. Bellerophon after all was merely a saddle and bridle combination that forced even Divine Beasts to her will. There was nothing that prevented her from using it on something other than her beloved mount, it was just that there were few opportunities to exploit that fact to her benefit. The additional ranged attacks however, were a great help in dealing with the more annoying of the two Casters that had evaded her reach up until now.

The first Caster chuckled amusedly despite the notable singes on her broom and clothing as she floated down beside her equally disheveled counterpart, not bothering to note that at least half of her original attack force had been disposed of by now. "My my. What a surprise indeed. To think that you of all people would be summoned as well Lady Medusa. It is an honor to meet someone of your… infamy. No wonder why we are having so much trouble with you."

"I could say the same." Rider replied. "Combining the abilities of two Witches of Betrayals, each with differing abilities is indeed a fearsome combination."

The second Caster glared at Medusa. "I am not the Witch of Betrayal. I am the Princess of Colchis! I will not be held responsible for what that petty excuse for a goddess Aphrodite forced me to do against my will!"

**"****fhlo cvnhsm DHLOI!"** The flying Caster commanded to the elements of the world the instant her counterpart had predictably snapped from being accused of being what she herself was. The instant was all she needed to ensure that Rider could not escape, as the spell took effect and the air around the servant froze in place.

"Shit…" Rider grimaced as she felt her body become immobilized, preventing her and most likely her new mount from being able to move in the slightest. After all that work dodging and finally getting herself a foothold in the fight, she had made the mistake of not relying on the one strategy that had kept her alive for so long, and it had cost her greatly.

"Hmhmhm. You can thank me later." The Witch consoled the Princess as if talking to a younger and more inexperienced sibling. "Now if you would be kind enough to do the honors before she manages to escape."

Ignoring her counterpart's unsubtle jabs, the Princess glared at Medusa before muttering her own series of divine words. Moments later the beasts that were still with her suddenly bulked up and emitted their own heavy aura, though not to the same degree as the bull that Rider had possessed.

"Aeetes!" Caster shouted, however unlike the previous commands where the bulls breathed out fire, this time they charged forward with blind rage. In less than a second six sets of legs hammered down on the ground in a furious charge that left the asphalt melted in its wake. Each thundering step echoed multiple times with deafening force that prevented anything else from being heard…

Which is why it was not that much of a surprise that Saber managed to arrive completely unnoticed upon her own mount with speed that dwarfed the enhanced bulls, slide in front of the first three in the charge, split their necks in half with Excalibur in one wide strike, and escape unharmed while the assaulted bulls collapsed and effectively halted the ones behind them with their fresh burning bodies in the span of a second and a half. It was only due to quick reflexes that the woman controlling the beasts had managed to remain latched onto her beast's hide as it rammed and stumbled unexpectedly into the bodies of its fallen brethren.

"What the?" The Witch muttered in disbelief as she turned her attention to the blonde newcomer in casual modern clothes skid to a halt on her dark silver and blue colored sports motorcycle with a very pleased look on her face.

"Room for one more?" Saber asked with a very confident and somewhat hungry grin as her mount roared with the ferocity of a lion.

o. o. o.

Servant Stats:

Rider

ID: Medusa

Alias: The Gorgon Queen

Master: Shirou Emiya

Alignment: Chaotic Good

Strength: B

Agility: B

Mana: B

Luck: C

Endurance: D

Noble Phantasm: A+

Class Skills:

Magic Resistance: B

Riding: A+

Independent Action: C

Personal Skills:

Divinity: E-

Monstrous Strength: B

Mystic Eyes: A+

Noble Phantasms:

Bellerophon: A+

Blood Fort Andromeda: B

Breaker Gorgon: C-

o. o. o.

Caster

ID: Medea

Alias: The Princess of Colchis

Master: Luviagelita Edelfelt

Alignment: Neutral Good

Strength: E

Agility: D

Mana: A

Luck: D

Endurance: D

Noble Phantasm: A++

Class Skills:

Territory Creation: A

Item Construction: N/A

At the cost of acquisition of the summoning ability by means of Noble Phantasm, the Item Construction skill is lost.

Riding: B+

Due to her being raised as royalty, her constant exposure to monstrous and phantasmal beasts that she had relations with in her homeland as a child, and her endless traveling throughout the majority of her legend, Medea has the qualifications to possess this ability to a significant level.

At this rank, most vehicles can be handled with above average skill. They cannot ride the likes of the Phantasm Races and above. Monstrous Beasts can be ridden only if said beasts have a connection to the Servant, or if they allow the Servant to ride them in the first place.

Personal Skills:

Divinity: C (B)

The Granddaughter of Helios, the Sun god, and Oceanus, the Water titan, Medea's Divinity is lowered by a rank due to her dislike for the gods for the deeds they pushed her to do in life. Unlike her counterpart though, she has not thrown away her heritage, enabling her to retain this skill.

High Speed Divine Words: B

High-Thaumaturgy- level Magecraft can be cast at the speed of two aria spells. Lesser ranked mysteries can be achieved via single aria or single action spells depending on the complexity of said mystery.

Noble Phantasms:

Aeaea: The Paradise of Repenting: A. Anti-Army.

Not a Reality Marble, but an island owned by her Aunt Cercie, a demigoddess infamous for turning unwary travelers into animals and also banished from Colchis for her own misdeeds. This land became accessible to her due to her visit to her aunt to absolve her of the sins of murdering her brother as she escaped Colchis with Jason, symbolizing the true end of her connection to her home and the end of "the Princess of Colchis".

She has complete access to all the animals that dwell on this island, including wolves and lions that had originally been human, though her ability to bring them out is limited as she requires a ritual to summon each one out individually. Had she been summoned not as a fragment of her original self, this limitation would be reduced greatly.

While she can summon her aunt's wolves and lions as familiars and scouts, her true use for Aeaea is to summon "The Herd of Helios", Fire Breathing Bulls that once belonged to her father, King Aeetes, on Colchis. Each Bull has the ability to breath fire with the power of a C ranked Noble Phantasm, however if at least ten of them focus on a single target, the overall power is increased to A.

The bulls have two different attacks that they can do individually or as a group. The first is when they breathe out a massive torrent of flames (Aeetes: Heavy Breath of the Sun). The second is a charging stampede attack (Aeetes: Rampant burning charge of the Sun). Both are determined by the number of bulls taking part, and both are triggered and unleashed by Caster calling out Aeetes, the name of their original owner.

o. o. o.

Caster

ID: Medea

Alias: The Witch of Betrayal

Master: Marjatta Edelfelt

Alignment: Chaotic Evil

Strength: E

Agility: C

Mana: A

Luck: C

Endurance: D

Noble Phantasm: C

Class Skills:

Territory Creation: B

Item Construction: A

Personal Skills:

High Speed Divine Words: B+

High-Thaumaturgy- level Magecraft can be cast at the speed of single aria spells. Lesser ranked mysteries can be achieved via single action spells.

Noble Phantasms:

Rule Breaker. C

o. o. o.

A/N:

Once again, thanks Maximorph1 for betaing.

This Chapter is dedicated to Uncle (Super) Mario, a very close friend of the family from my grandfather's generation. He's not dead yet, but I doubt he'll make it to the end of the year. If any of you readers has a family member or is close to an elderly person who is so full of energy that they seem like a kid most of the time. Cherish them. They are rare as hell and take the edge off of the fear that getting old sucks. It especially hurts since he's been old since I first met him as a kid so he's never really changed much until the past year or so. To see him like he is now really hits home.

Here's to you Super Mario, you crazy Italian bastard. It took two cases of cancer, (forty of the first even), and eighty years of living to finally take you down. There needs to be more people like you in the world, even if that means that nobody would know what anybody else would be saying half the time.

Ok, back to my standard lighter slash unstable tone of things.

MAY THE GAMES BEGIN!

Oh how I wish I could have added more of the fight into this chapter, but it was getting so big already, that I just had to cut it off right there and leave you guys hanging. Do not fear though, for this was only about a third of what I had planned for this particular battle. Squeeeee!

Yes. Yes I did just have Rider go Grand Theft Auto on Princess Caster's Noble Phantasm. Yes. Shirou did just get the worm book. I LOVE messing with random unused pieces of information in worlds like the Nasuverse this way and whipping them out at the best points. Rest assured I have plenty more to come. Oh so much more.

Personally, I do believe that the heroic spirits from the WW1 and WW2 era that I mentioned do exist. If you look at their legends, some of the things that they are famous for are just too absurd to be merely written off as just, "they were good at sniping/ flying a plane". Granted they would be nothing compared to most of the heroic spirits that can be summoned, but they would still have a spot on the throne. Nasuverse lore junkies will without a doubt come breathing fire about me saying this, but my mind is made up when it comes to those three. I will not argue anymore about the subject so please do not try to correct me on this as I will not respond. You have been warned.

A big Shout Out goes to Hellmourne, or SwordOfTheKingOfHell on Deviantart, for making an actual replica of Kiritsugu out of wood, blade design and colors and all. The guard and pommel aren't exactly accurate and a bit flashy for my tastes, which was technically my fault since I was never specific on them until this chapter, but DAMN IT, the man made a sword replica based off of one that I made up from out of nowhere! That's like, a hundred times cooler than getting a random piece of fanart unless of course said fanart was insanely epic! Give him props because he deserves it!

That's about it for now my faithful readers! The War has begun to pick up and I assure you it will only become more confusing, chaotic, and awesome as time goes on!

So Review! Worship the Log! Pray that Rider does not hijack your prized mount! And Review Again!


	25. Chapter 25

Chapter 25: Cracks

I do not own Fate/Stay Night and stuffs:

o. o. o.

In the year 2001, there was a rule made between motorcycle producers in Japan and Europe, and later around the world, called "the gentleman's agreement". This general rule was that no matter how powerful or efficient the engine of a production motorcycle got, for the safety of the public to prevent drag racing from becoming a worse issue than it already was, no publicly accessible bike was allowed to physically go over three hundred kilometers an hour. Any that could technically go over this limit was forced to have an electronic device that would prevent it from going over this cap.

In essence it was similar to how the human brain limited how much of the body's muscle potential it could actually use at any given time. The ability to go faster was there, however it was for the safety of the bike itself that it did not go past that level.

The reason why this rule was put into effect was due to the release of the infamous 1999 Suzuki Hayabusa, the only motorcycle that to this day that was legally allowed to go over the milestone three hundred km per hr without alterations being made to its standard design.

While its top speed had long since pushed it to legendary status among collectors, it was far from its only salivating feature. It was balanced. It had good turning. It was sleek. It was efficient. It had excellent acceleration. Its parts could easily be changed and upgraded to the point that it was the standard model to use for anyone who wanted to own a unique customized bike.

In short, if there was ANY series of motorcycles that had the potential to become a phantasmal existence at some point in the future, it was without any doubt the 1999 Hayabusa.

And then six months ago Taiga and the Yakuza in her family got the bright idea of getting one for Shirou.

Granted it wasn't completely their fault. Kiritsugu had before he died simply asked her grandfather Raiga to get Shirou "a good bike" for the war since Saber was good with one. The problem was, things got a bit out of control when word spread around the local yakuza that Raiga was getting one for Shirou. It was somewhat ironic that the teen that had a bit of a hero complex was unusually well liked by one of the darker forces in Fuyuki. The "gentlemen" that the teen had helped out throughout his side career got a bit carried away in chipping in since they all liked the kid for his cheap services. Considering how much he saved them over the years in repair costs, chipping in for the bike was not going to hurt their wallets much.

That and they wanted to see kid sweat bullets while he attempted to learn how to ride a motorcycle on the fastest one on the market. It didn't help Shirou either that in Japan highschoolers were generally not allowed to own cars or motorcycles, nor that he didn't have a license for either as of yet.

After Shirou had managed to overcome his fear of high speed chases and escaped the police a few times for reasons that were clearly not his fault, he had eventually been left alone with his bike and been wished good luck.

And with the newfound privacy, he got to work with the upgrades, both standard and thaumaturgical.

Combining his knowledge and experience from fixing and installing "tweaks" for the Yakuza for years with the tricks he got from the very small motorist club inside the Clocktower (no matter what anyone says or how obsessed they are with the old ways, so long as people have to interact with the modern world and rely on cars to get around, there will always be a population of fans of big motors that make bigger noises), Shirou had turned his Hayabusa into an absolute monster.

It was not without effort obviously. He had worked many hours during his short stays in the Clocktower to earn what he could from the magi there, who of course were extremely reluctant to part with their research. Of course Tracing once more proved itself to be more than invaluable, as its potential to point out any mechanical or physical error almost instantly was met with praises and tears of joy once discovered by the others there. Needless to say the teen soon became a very well liked guest there.

It was still like pulling teeth getting them to spill any of their research though.

Many of the things that others would have done on the bike were beyond Shirou with his abnormal element and origin. Fire based spells used to increase the potency of the fuel. Water based spells used to improve the fuel flow efficiency and oil life duration. Earth based spells to increase the natural physical composition density and hardness. Wind based spells to reduce air resistance and improve the exhaust systems. Ether based spells to enhance the internal systems and link the bike's natural performance to the user and make it a pseudo familiar. All of these were beyond his ability to utilize, so most of what he obtained were basic rune sequences and small normally difficult to produce physical changes that when combined with the right spells would make the bike better in one small way or another.

Granted the real hard part was trying to get as many things working on the bike as possible back home without destroying it. Just because Shirou was given the rune sequences didn't mean that he could use them perfectly right away. Putting in too much, too little, or not the right sequencing rate of prana when activating the arrays could end up causing the markings to blow up with or without the caster. Shirou was pretty good at the fields of spells that he actually practiced frequently, but wasn't Rin. At best he was only a little above average in runecraft, and that was after Sirius had beaten it into his skull when he wasn't focusing on his main line of thaumaturgy.

All in all though, the Emiya could claim that he did a damn good job with what he got. Sure it was nowhere near what Sirius would have done with the thing if it was in his hands, heaven forbid that ever happened, but all in all it was pretty good work done for a six month job.

He still was not going to drive the damn thing in public until he got his license unless he absolutely needed to though. He had enough trouble dealing with half the magical world deciding on whether or not to kill him as it was. He didn't want to add the local authorities on the list as well. They had more important and safer targets to deal with, like armed bank robbers and serial killers.

The engine, gas tank, and tires had been covered in arrays that enhanced each one's capabilities as far as they could without using elemental spells, ensuring unheard of mileage, nonexistent slippage even on ice, stronger frames, and the ability to be ignored by the masses just to list a few of the features. Combined with the slightly modified engines, fuel pump systems, suspensions, and altered outer frames, there was little doubt that the bike would be beyond anything modern science would be able to achieve for a very long time.

So when Saber finally got onto the seat of her new mount and turned it to life between her legs, it was understandable that she was a bit… happy.

Feeling the wind rush by her face as she blazed through the residential area of Fuyuki, dodging the sparse local traffic with inhuman ability, the Servant couldn't help but laugh at the enhanced feeling of nostalgia and adrenaline meshed perfectly in her being. Yamaha V-max? Gordius Wheel? No, she would definitely stick with this magnificent creature with all her might, roaring defiantly through the streets ever faster towards its prey. Yes this powerful metal dragon was certainly a mount worthy of a King such as herself.

She was enjoying the rush so much that she was almost disappointed when she rapidly approached the burning Matou property and saw her ally on a large red bull similar to the King of Conqueror's bulls of Zeus. The hint of prana in the air told her that the woman was indeed paralyzed in place as a small herd of the same breed of creatures charged from the other side of the road. The fact that there appeared to be two enemy servants was of some concern, but irrelevant at that moment.

Revving to the max and applying her prana burst ability to the remarkably sturdy engine, yet still knowing that her precious new mount did not require additional structural augmentation like the V-Max did when pushed to this level. The Servant of the sword roared forward to her ally's aid at speeds well past its original limits, appearing to be nothing more than a blond, blue and dark silver blur in the night to anyone who managed to catch sight of her.

Utilizing her B ranked riding skills to the fullest to achieve a near impossible feat, the servant twisted her mount to the side and skidded sideways past the charging front most fire breathing monsters, right underneath their fronts and giving her the perfect opportunity to slash out their necks with mere milliseconds to escape before she was trampled in the process.

If her knights of the round table each had one of these, oh there would have been so many battles that could have gone in their favor...

"Room for one more?" She asked eagerly, revving a few times for intimidation and certainly not because she was very attracted to the sound itself.

Before either enemy Servant could respond, a blast of fire coming from across the street had the flying one shout in surprise and forced her to move frantically out of the way.

Rider turned briefly to Saber's direction before nodding slightly in approval. Apparently her ally's distraction had given her enough time to cancel out the spell used to hold her down. "Interesting mount."

"Master is very generous." Saber chuckled as she turned her attention to the enemy and more importantly to the burning property. "What of yours?"

"Safe and unharmed." The physically more mature of the pair replied before she readied the reigns of her Noble Phantasm. "I must admit, I was originally quite skeptical of our partnership, however now I can see its benefits for what they are worth."

"Indeed." The blonde nodded as she narrowed her eyes. "Who would have thought that we would not be the only servants to join forces so early on in the war?"

"Oddly enough, they are both Medea of Colchis and of the Caster class." Rider surmised. "Individually there are not too much of a threat, but combined they prove to be rather dangerous. One covers for the other's weaknesses."

" **!**" The Witch shouted at Saber, unleashing a beam of light that had much like the ones before been a nuisance to her partner. Obviously she had hoped that the conversation would distract the two enough to enable her to get rid of the annoying newcomer.

The blonde did not even flinch as the attack barely reached her before its existence dispersed into many harmless lights in all directions.

"She didn't even try to defend…" The Princess' eyes widened in surprise and some fear as she looked at Saber with a new level of uncertainty. "A ranked Magical Resistance? And a riding skill?"

"There's no doubt about it. She's Saber…" The Witch grunted, clearly not happy with the unexpected turn of events. Save for Berserker, both Casters had been fairly certain that their greatest challenge in the war would be Saber with its naturally high magic resistance, however even they did not expect the one fighting in this war to have said parameter to be an A rank, something difficult to achieve even for those who qualify for the Saber class. To have such an opponent teamed up with Rider, who happened to be Medusa and also possessing a rather strong magic resistance, it was fairly obvious that they were now going to be at a great disadvantage for this battle.

Retreating now was their only logical option, and even that was nearly impossible at this current moment. The enemy was strong and fast enough with their impromptu rides to catch up should they just focus on attempting to run. Regrettably, the Witch's counterpart was not enough of a threat to hold off the enemy long enough to ensure her safe escape. Casters were well known to be the weakest in close combat of the seven classes, and they were fragmented versions of even that. "It appears that the battle is no longer in our favor."

"Interesting." The King of Knights smirked as she rested her invisible sword upon her shoulder and eyed the stunned attacker hungrily. "I do believe that as of now we all have something in common." She revved her bike's motor with her free hand and looked at the servants there. "We all seem to have our own mounts. How convenient."

"It's been far too long since I've enjoyed a good joust."

o. o. o.

For the King, For the King they go.

Countless eyes watched everywhere from the shadows and the walls. Countless paws scampered in the grass, on the pavement, in the sewers, and in the trees. Countless tails swayed as they moved. Their natural survival instincts' influence on their actions reduced as the unbreakable urge of the King's commands held them in thrall. None could fight the King's will. None could struggle against the orders given by the great one himself.

They watched, they listened, they learned.

For King, For the King, For the King.

o. o. o.

Fuyuki City:

Rin was getting frustrated. She had been with Archer for nearly a week now and so far she had yet to get into any fights. While it was a mixed blessing of sorts, seeing as it meant that the other Servants were more likely able to whittle down their numbers for her to deal with easier, the Tohsaka had a Magus' pride. She did not summon Assassin. She summoned Archer, and one with literally an unlimited arsenal of Noble Phantasms and mystic codes at his beck and call! Heck one of which was death incarnate for any master that used thaumaturgy on him! If her targets decided to hide, they could have at least let her have a chance to show off his power first before doing so.

"… Master."

Did any of her opponents even know how tiring it was trying to maintain a normal, albeit high class public appearance during the day while simultaneously fighting a secret war at night? She was never really a morning person, but now she needed at least three times as much coffee as she normally did in the morning to keep her awake till lunch! It was ridiculous! She was going to get premature wrinkles at this rate!

"Master. You might want to look at this."

Sure Shirou, Sakura and Luvia were all masters in the war, but they seemed to know what that meant. They had all pretty much agreed to the situation during lunch. So help her if she found out that those three had been taking it easy and sleeping during the war and playing it safe when she was out trying to be productive, she would murder them, Servants and all. Then she would kill Archer for not remembering that his past self did this.

… Might as well throw in Kotomine into that list of people to kill as well just to finally get rid of the irritating excuse for a priest.

"For the love of… Oi! Rin! The updraft is pushing your unnaturally short skirt up too far much again!"

"WHAT?!" The girl yelled out frantically with mixed amounts of rage and embarrassment. While she did somewhat admit that her skirt was on the short side, she was still very much attached to her sense of fashion and despised it when it was either pointed out, or something happened to prove their statements right and it was noticed. Granted, she had taken some precautions to prevent the latter from occurring with a few well placed runes designed to maintain her modesty, but then again it wasn't as if she had went out of her way to prepare for everything…

Still, the one who had dared to insult her fashion statement was a future version of Shirou. Messed up memories or not, he should know very damn well to never call her out on the skirt. Ever.

"You middle aged pedophile! Just because you probably haven't gotten any since getting on the Throne doesn't mean you can look at anything that passes your x-ray vision! I can't believe you would…" She turned around and was about to remind the poor spirit who was the Master in the group… only to stop in mid rant as she followed her Servant's arm pointing out at the other side of the river…

… Particularly to the area where she lived which clearly appeared to be the location of an uncomfortably large amount of fire, even from their current position from the middle of the city on the other side of the area.

"… Oh."

o. o. o.

Saber knew that she shouldn't be having fun. She had only been summoned for the Grail War not even a day ago, and in that time she had discovered a great deal of things that have weighed down on her conscience to the point that it would have influenced her performance.

The Grail in Fuyuki had been tainted before she had even set her sights on it. Her previous Master had died a slow painful death without anyone listening to his warnings. His broken son, who had a great deal of potential, had been raised to end this debacle had summoned her. The Archer of this war was possibly a cursed future version of her current Master. The bastard Gilgamesh was still alive and had a body. Kiritsugu's and Irisviel's daughter was a Master and the next holder of the lesser grail, meaning she was a sacrifice. A second, lesser grail had been made inside another master that had the potential to make the fallout of the cursed greater grail even worse if left unchecked…

So many variables against her. So many things that could possibly spell the end of the world…

So many things completely disregarded as her mount roared to the world and dodged another fireball that seared a patch of land she had occupied not even a second prior.

It was rather convenient that magi in general tend to be rather pompous individuals that enjoy showing off their wealth. One of the most common ways to do this was to own large pieces of property that all but declared to the world the owner's affluence. These properties in general tended to be located on the edges of the towns they were in. Zouken was not an exception to this rule, and neither was the Matou residence, which was located very close to the southern edge of Fuyuki, bordered by a large forested area.

Einzbern Castle was also located in the forests to the south, but it was on the other side of the river, so the odds of accidentally encountering the massive bounded fields that surround the place were nonexistent.

Originally, when Saber had arrived at the fight, she had come from the north and stopped south of everyone with both Casters at the Matou property on the west side of the road and Rider on the east. Saber's declaration of the desire to joust hadn't gone well with the enemy pair. Of course it wouldn't. They were of the Caster class, they fought with magic and summoning. To joust meant that they would have to get up close and personal with Saber and Rider, the two classes you didn't want to fight up close with when they were on a ride…

So it did not surprise anyone when Rider took the initiative and forced her controlled bull to unleash massive gouts of flames to the road to the north and cut off the Servants' escape route, trapping them between a wall of flames, a burning building, Rider, and Saber…

In all honesty, pretty much all the Servants there agreed in the back of their heads that the safest route for the Casters probably still would have been to go north and through the wall of flames, followed by going through the burning building, even if both inferno were enchanted and enforced by the residual influence of the sun god.

Instead, the Princess had in a desperate move to make an opening ordered her remaining three bulls to attack Saber, forcing her to move out of the way since the fire itself was not a result of thaumaturgy and thus not immune to it, and making and opening for the Casters to escape to the south, promptly followed by Saber and Rider.

And thus the chase began.

Plowing through one of the main and thankfully empty back roads of the forest, nothing was safe. Trees outlining the pavement were blown apart, burned, slashed, and overrun in no particular order. Guard rails might as well have not even existed in the first place. The asphalt of the road was destroyed and warped just from the heat and weight of the bulls that trampled over it, not to mention the craters that the Witch made when she attempted to assault her opponents with mysteries not seen or heard of since millennia ago. Only a madman would ever consider driving a vehicle in such chaos…

A madman, or the legendary King of Knights on a damn good bike…

Weaving between two more fireballs that the enemy bulls had managed to project behind them, most likely due to a direction altering spell made by the Servant riding them, Saber couldn't help but grin madly before popping the front of her bike and using an appropriately timed Prana Burst to jump over a ten meter hole that the Witch had made just moments earlier, and landed cleanly unimpeded before accelerating. The fact that it was night time had no effect on any of the Servants' vision, with both Casters knowing the appropriate spells to accommodate for such conditions, Rider's normal state of being blind, and Saber's Intuition ability.

Then again, with all the fire being thrown back and forth between both parties there seemed to be little need for night vision. Quite the opposite actually.

How long had it been since Saber had felt such a rush like this? Fighting alongside others against an enemy that was equally dangerous while all mounted with untold beasts on their side? Was it when Morgana attacked with her armies and the dragon she had bribed to work with her? Had it been when the Saxtons attacked with their summoned demons? Such nostalgia could not be without multiple sources to come from. Truly there was nothing like mounted combat…

A fireball rushing past her from behind and nearly hitting the Witch seemed to convey the same feelings from Rider as well.

Had she paid attention to her modified speedometer, Saber would have seen that she, and thus pretty much all the other Servants there, was pushing around three hundred and fifty kph. The only reason why she wasn't topping what she had done with the previous war's Rider was because of all the attacks and debris that the Casters were kicking up in an attempt to get away. Unlike Rider, who could just plow through almost everything that was thrown at her due to her massive mount, Saber was forced to dodge and weave around them. The only exception to this for both Servants was direct attacks from the Witch's magic.

The way they all fought, it was pretty much agreed upon them all that should Saber manage to catch up to the enemy party, the fight would pretty much end. Neither Caster would be able to hold off the servant of the sword in direct combat. As such there was little surprise that both opponents in the front focused most of their attention on the blond king, only changing targets when an opportunity presented itself or when Rider got a bit too close for comfort.

This did not deter Saber's excitement of the chase one bit. While she was legendary for her skills with the sword and her sword itself, she was infamous for creating the Knights of the Round Table. Her very legend was saturated in mounted combat and chases all over Britain. Had it not been for the fact that Excalibur's mere existence was so tied to her legend that the pair could not be mentioned without the other, Arturia would have been certain that she could have been able to be summoned as Rider instead of being always being called out as Saber.

Said skills were once more extorted for all they were worth as a small forest's worth of massive trees were ripped out of the ground thrown at her by the Witch, obviously in a new attempt to catch her off guard.

The instant she did so however, Saber instantly foresaw an opportunity to achieve if not victory, than at least a way to gain an additional upper hand upon her prey. As much as this moment reminded her of her ordeal with the previous war's Rider, when he had severed trees with his massive chariot and she accelerated past them so quickly that she had actually lifted onto one wheel in the process, Saber instinctively took a different approach to the issue.

Acting more on reflex than anything, the wielder of the holy sword materialized her invisible weapon with one hand and slashed through each oncoming multi-ton projectile of wood, using her Prana Burst ability once more on each slash to blast apart the tree halves she had made at record speed to leave her path unimpaired. Her god like skill combined with her robust mount enabled her to maintain the insane speed at which they traveled with one hand while the other was used to deter any flying obstacle that might cause her harm without exception. An instant after the last tree had been slashed away, she had dispelled her weapon and grabbed the handles of her bike with both hands once more in order to efficiently weave around another slew of fireballs without sacrificing her speed in the slightest.

Not wanting to feel left out behind Saber, Rider forced her bull to blast the tons of debris that passed by her partner with its own enhanced fire breathing bull, turning the attack back onto the offenders with gusto as the burning trunks flew ahead of everyone like the rain of the apocalypse and landed hard enough to cause the ground to mimic the effects of a minor earthquake. It was a suitable effect considering the nature of the battle taking place, yet one that did not go noticed by the participants.

The scattered droves of bonfires did nothing to deter the Princess from ramming her bulls through them without hesitation, shattering any obstruction in their way like a flaming avalanche that stretched down the road for at least a quarter of a mile. Each monstrous beast had the charging power a dozen times greater than any vehicle their size, so the mere logs did not pose as any significant obstacles; however the wood did slow the beasts down a small amount and distracted her enough to prevent her from launching more fireballs.

Seeing an opportunity, Rider pressed on the attack on the flying Witch to distract her from getting in Saber's way. If the blonde servant could catch up and destroy the Princess, then the battle would be theirs.

Saber saw this as well as she pressed forward, closing the distance on her distracted targets with fire and mythical beasts roaring all around her. Should she push her mighty metal dragon to the limits, she was fairly certain that she could manage to catch up to the monstrous fire beasts just before they could break out of the debris that Rider had launched in front of them all, however just as she was about to throttle the motor, she noticed one of the massive partially burning logs that one of the bulls had rammed out of the way had flown to the side and landed with one end propped up against another log to the side of the road, but lined up so that it was angled slightly towards the middle of the road again. The log itself was conveniently enough burning from the underside and a bit over a meter and a half in diameter. Its round body made is very unreasonable to be used as a ramp for anything even if it wasn't on fire, but its size made it so that it could be done with a two wheeled vehicle.

Saber couldn't help but grin as she not only saw a grand opportunity to take out both of her targets at once, but mused at the irony once more of how similar the setup was to her encounter with the King of Conquers.

The only real difference was that she had no real reason to hesitate at the last second this time.

Turning her bike quickly so that she could angle herself properly, the servant of the sword's grin turned almost savage as she pushed a button under her right thumb, and forced her mount to fuel its speed with the might of nitrogenous oxide, forcing it to roar with an intensity that managed to drown out those of the monstrous beasts it had been pitted up against. Accelerating to its fastest speeds yet, the bike took off like a silver missile towards the makeshift ramp. While the log was not a perfect ramp in that it began several feet off of the ground, it did not matter much to Saber who combined her Prana Burst and Riding abilities to hop the bike the needed height onto the wood seamlessly before traveling up its ten meter length and launching herself up into the sky above both Casters.

At the top of her arc, with her sword already out and her body feeling weightless, the King of Knights silently berated herself. She adored her new ride significantly and had initially compared it to a grand horse, then a mighty dragon… but in doing so she had ignored the bike's very namesake and nature. It was a _hayabusa_. A Peregrine Falcon, commonly known as the fastest species of bird, if not animal, in the world. It could reach speeds of over three hundred and twenty five kph, and did so by diving vertically through the air.

It was only natural for it to truly show its worth in the sky above its prey.

Both spirit and machine roared victoriously as they plummeted to the earth. Saber swung out with Excalibur as she accelerated at the speed of gravity onto her first target, the Witch. While her prey had been directly in her path, the woman had the advantage of flying backwards to look at her targets the entire time, so while she was surprised she was not caught completely off guard from the insane maneuver her pursuer had just pulled off. Moving away as much as she could while still keeping up with her partner, the Witch managed to avoid a decisive blow but did not come away unscathed as the invisible blade slashed several inches into her side past her enchanted robes and drew an arc of blood into the dark sky and forcing a cry of pain from the crimson liquid's source. Regardless of how well enforced the cloths were through the divine mysteries that Caster had placed on them, they may as well not have been before the might of the Sword of Promised Victory, sheathed or not.

The assault was not done however as Saber had yet to land, and the Princess and her mounts were right in her path. Had everything gone as planned, Saber would have managed to cut out the legs of at least two of the beasts before forcing the battle into close combat, ensuring her victory…

However it was not to be as the Witch's cry of pain and Saber's roar seemed to prompt her secondary target to instinctively force her herd to split up and avoid the worst case scenario. What was supposed to be a decisive blow to the enemy forces merely ended up as a slightly crippling one as the King of Knights only managed to land close enough to one of the unmounted Bulls of Helios and slashed downward with enough force to rip out half of its entire ribcage in a gory spray of blood, muscle and bone.

The unfortunate carcass of the holy beast was completely ignored by the remaining participants as the pressed onwards down the highway relentlessly. It did not matter if they left it alone or not, the body would be dissolved by Gaia as an abnormality soon enough.

Letting up on the throttle a small bit in order to regain her balance from the somewhat hard landing, Saber regrouped with Rider as the Casters pulled ahead a small bit, though not by much as the Witch's injury impeded her speed a small margin. The two stronger Servants looked at one another briefly before sharing a dry grin of acknowledgment and approval of the latest maneuver.

Lancelot may have been the best at mounted combat among the knights including herself, but Arturia would be damned before she agreed that she did not have a few moves of her own.

It was a bit concerning that the Princess managed to get away from her assault with such little sacrifice however. Under most circumstances there should have been no way to maneuver those three bulls away without losing at least two of them in the process. Still, wounding one opponent and taking out one of the bulls had had tipped the scales even further into her favor.

A sudden minor tug at the back of her mind however snapped her out of her euphoria almost instantly. A quick glance at Rider confirmed her suspicions as the gorgon grimly and briefly nodded to her in acknowledgment.

They had been dragging this out for too long. Shirou was starting to suffer from the drain of supporting two servants in the middle of combat.

It was not as if the pair was taxing him significantly at the moment. Saber was relying on her bike and only used prana burst occasionally. All in all she could probably go through this entire ordeal relying on just her massive stored reserves if she wanted to. Avalon certainly helped out with this. Rider, however, had been using her Noble Phantasm for this battle to control the mighty bull which was draining both her reserves and Shirou's, even if she wasn't using her own mount. Then there was Sakura who was still supplying a moderate amount of prana to relieve the stress even more.

Together, Saber and Rider were fighting at the same time in a lengthy battle and thus using up more than enough energy to completely drain a normal magus if they were not careful, which in turn was being replaced by their already significantly drained Master. Had this fight taken place the following night or onward, this problem would not have appeared so quickly.

They would have to end this soon.

o. o. o.

He was tired.

Every cell of his body screamed for rest as he pushed it forward down the empty streets towards the dull orange glow in the distance, more importantly to what had been standing at the source of the glow. Every step sent a shock that echoed throughout his weary being, causing the headache in his skull to pound painfully enough to cause his vision to blur. It would take nothing to just collapse onto the hard ground right now and pass out, but he didn't. There was too much as stake to do something as selfish as that.

He could feel the two weights getting farther and farther away from him now in the same direction, yet still continuously sapping his weakened body without being afflicted by the increasing distance. The brief images he could manage to get from seeing the world through Saber's eyes told him that the enemy consisted of both Casters of the Edelfelts. Thankfully Saber knew better than to kill them, as they needed Rule breaker for later. Still the fact that the enemy was retreating together and acting wildly meant that they did not accomplish their goal. Killing one would drastically increase the odds of the other dying in the war by another Servant's hands.

Good. If both of his Servants were together it meant that they saw no reason to split apart. Either Sakura was with the servants, or she was most likely inside the Matou Catacombs. There was no reason for the enemy to capture her alive, and if she had died his book of false attendant would have fallen apart. It was a morbid, yet useful side function of the fake command seal.

Still, with all the fire there it was like a beacon to the other Masters that something had happened. And Sakura was all alone now. He had to get her out of there first before someone else arrived and capitalized on a golden opportunity.

One jarring step at a time he pressed on forward, ignoring his aching skull. Ignoring his aching body. Ignoring his burning circuits. Ignoring the chilly night. Ignoring the possible chance of encountering death as he arrived at his destination.

However save for his desire to help out in any way he could, there was one set of sensations he could simply not ignore no matter how hard he tried.

He could not ignore the horrifically dry throat in his neck, nor the relentless desire to drink in his entire being…

o. o. o.

Illyasviel sighed as she traveled quickly while being carried by Heracles to the location of where the large fire broke out, certain that she could finally encounter and destroy an enemy servant in the war. It would help distract her from her encounter with Edelfelt earlier that afternoon.

Why had she even bothered to follow her brother's instructions in the first place? Who cares if the sword was cursed a little bit before the park? Who cares if it was made from some random idiot's remains? She was still going to kill him and then sacrifice herself for the Einzbern family. Why did she need to know all these meager details about why her father betrayed her family and abandoned her in the first place? It was meaningless in the end…

No. Not completely she reminded herself. Even if it did not contribute to anything significant, at the very least she would get some form of closure from humoring her adopted brother's wishes. After he spewed out Kiritsugu's worthless reasons and begged for his life, she would kill him and be done with her family once and for all. Allowing himself to die for her was the least he could do for her after all he had done and kept her father away from her. This way she could at least die without any regrets.

A sudden jolt snapped her out of her deep thinking to bring her back to the real world. It took only a glance to tell that she was nowhere near what her original destination was, still being well within the woods to the point that she could only see the glow of the fire in the distance… however it did not take much to tell why her servant had stopped in the first place.

A young looking boy, appearing only to be a year or two older than her own physical state stood in front of her, smiling carelessly in front of the legendary Heracles. Save for his slightly unusual clothing and the odd markings on his hand, and missing left arm, he looked like a completely normal child.

Illya was not fooled. This boy in front of her was certainly not a human, he was FAR too powerful to be one and the feeling he gave off was of an alien like nature. Due to her connection with the Grail itself though, she could tell that he was not a Heroic Spirit either. Still, the fact that Berserker stopped instead of just plowing over the poor fool without blinking was reason enough to be wary of him.

"Hello. You don't appear to be a Servant." She greeted the newcomer curiously. "You don't seem to be a Master either, so I don't think I have any business with you. Can move out of the way and let me continue on forward please? Otherwise I'll have to order Berserker to kill you."

It was a simple and innocent request with even simpler logic behind it. Had it not been for the violent nature of her ultimatum or the presence of her Servant, one would have mistaken her for any normal child that had her physical appearance asking a harmless question that had been asked countless times by countless people.

The boy smiled not with innocence, but without worry or concern, not at all bothered by the insane giant that by all means appeared to have easily been able to just walk on or over him without even noticing. "I'm really sorry, but I'm afraid I can't let you proceed for now. Could you by chance just ignore the war, or at least stay away from this part of the city for the night? Please rest assured I do not intend to make this a repeating event. Encountering the great Heracles in battle is a great honor to have, but not one that most would want repeatedly."

"Hmm…" Illya mused as Berserker gently lowered her down to the ground before standing back up again. The fact that he knew her Servant's identity was interesting, but she was more intrigued with the fact that he didn't seem all that afraid of fighting said servant in the first place. In fact, he seemed confident that he could hold his own, as ridiculous as that sounded. Even if his goal was only to stall, the difficulty of it would still warrant a great deal of fear from a majority of the world's population. "Your request isn't that unreasonable, however I'm afraid that I cannot grant it. You see there are people that I have to kill over there, and I am the kind of person that enjoys taking the initiative on these sorts of things. You understand, do you not Mr. Apostle?"

The blue eyed boy nodded knowingly. "All too well I'm afraid. Many of my old acquaintances are rather obsessed with making the first move I'm afraid. If it weren't for the fact that they were all quite powerful, I am certain that the lack of finesse would have ended their lives centuries ago."

Illya's eyes narrowed slightly at the boy's mention of his age. Older Apostles were stronger Apostles, and if she heard correctly it would not be far off to assume that he was among the oldest. Still, her prey was well mannered and polite, so it was only proper courtesy to treat him in kind as such. "A shame." She curtseyed politely. "My name is Illyasviel Von Einzbern. Homunculus and Representative of the Einzbern family. It was a pleasure speaking to you, as brief as it was."

The vampire bowed as well. "I am Merem Solomon. Twentieth Apostle Ancestor and member of the Church's Burial Agency. But for now I'm just a mere spectator of the war, not an overseer. A pleasure to meet you Ms. Einzbern…" He looked up pleasantly. "Or should I call you Ms. Emiya?"

Illya's eyes widened in shock and for the first time uncertainty as the boy… no… Ancestor identified himself and addressed her by a name she never wished to hear. Taking more than a few steps back, knowing that being this close to the vampire was not a smart thing to do, the girl realized that she might not get to her destination that night after all. However the fact that he had called her by her father's name had instantly put the little blood sucker on the top of her list of targets to kill for the night.

"BERSERKER!"

Merem's disposition didn't change in the slightest as the black mountain in human form charged upon him with the ferocity and roar of an avalanche. "I heard you were rather fond of dogs Heracles." The boy stated calmly as his right leg began to glow. "Please, do tell me what you think of mine."

o. o. o.

"Shit." Rin swore as she skidded to a halt on the edge of the Mion River near the bridge that connected the two halves of the city together. Under normal circumstances, she would not have stopped for anything in order to get to her destination as soon as possible. Unfortunately, what had stopped her apparently fell outside her definition of "anything".

The instant she had originally snapped herself out of her shock from seeing her neighborhood on fire, she had reinforced her body and charged forward towards the nearest skyscraper on the way to the bridge. Leaping with inhuman ability, the girl fearlessly launched herself into the air followed alongside with her Servant wordlessly. Without any commands or instructions, the pair had guided one another over the massive buildings of Fuyuki with frightening ease and familiarity. Above the lights and life of the city, two faint crimson dots streaked across the black sky above them without pause.

Still, the city itself was not as immense and wide spread as it had appeared and the pair was finally forced to travel on ground level a couple of blocks south of the bridge and one away from the river. At that point, Archer had shifted into spiritual form in order to avoid attracting any additional attention to the high school girl in the short skirt running as if the devil was on her heels.

Already running faster than she normally should in public along the border of the river, Rin was determined to make good time while she could. At her current speed, she somewhat certain that she could manage to get back to her home in time to at least manage some of the fallout and divert most of the attention from her home, when a sudden presence made itself known right in front of her and prompted her to stop in her tracks.

The moment she had done so, she felt a bounded field had been set up that prevented anyone without thaumaturgical ability from entering or noticing what was occurring in its area. Considering the fact that the person in front of her didn't seem to do anything, she determined that either someone else had made the field when she didn't pay attention, or the field had already been set up but not activated until she had entered its boundaries…

Noting who was in her path however, Rin reluctantly admitted that it was most likely the latter.

"Shit." She muttered as she took in the sight of Bazett Fraga McRemitz standing in front of her in her trademark business suit and thick combat gloves.

"How odd. You don't seem to have that usual air of confidence Rin." The Irish woman stated in a calm tone. Had both females not known what their encounter would truly entail, one might have assumed that the elder woman's statement was simple friendly banter.

Rin did not blink as she slowly attempted to regain her composure, but her current situation made it fairly difficult for her to do so. "Well, there is a large fire going on in the area where I live. It would be quite foolish to simply ignore the possibility that my house burns down wouldn't it?"

"Hmm. You're quite right." Bazett nodded with her eyes closed. Rin wasn't fooled though. She knew that the enforcer was anything but off guard at the moment. A wrong move could easily get her killed. "You are quite forgetful sometimes from what I've heard. I wouldn't be surprised if you forgot to enact your property's fields or neglected to put ones up that prevented it to catch on fire from natural causes."

"Thank you. You've just given me more of a reason to be cruel to Shirou the next time I see him." The teen growled irritably. She had pretended to ignore her servant shifting slightly uncomfortably out of the corner of her eye. Straightening her posture the girl played with her hair casually. "So I don't suppose you'll just let me pass now will you?"

In response, a servant in blue wielding a wicked looking red spear materialized next to the Fraga, grinning savagely. "She'd have to use a command seal to stop things now girl. I've been itching for a good fight for nearly a week. Hopefully whoever you summoned will put up a good fight."

Rin remained quiet for several seconds before sighing in a defeated manner. She made no further physical indication that she noticed that her own servant took shape behind her, donned in his black armor, red shroud, and black knight helm that covered the entirety of his head. Only his steel grey hawk like eyes were visible through the wide slit that allowed him to see in all directions without issue. All things considered it meshed well with his armor to give him a rather dark appearance. Had it not been for the fact that he was of average height, one would have even risked describing him as ominous. "Tell me, what do you think about our current opponent?"

Archer chuckled lightly, his voice echoing in the helmet he had traced to conceal his identity (and protect his hair from being shaved off by his master). "He is no doubt a formidable fighter, his weapon is certainly not something to ignore either, however he is not something that I cannot handle."

"So long as they don't see some of your more esoteric abilities, do as you wish. I don't want you to be identified so quickly after all. That and the enemy master is a Fraga. She has her own Noble Phantasm that we will have to be wary of obviously." The younger master there sighed aridly, pretending not to notice the slight shift of irritation shown by the other two there.

"Of course." The servant replied in a way that no one doubted that he was smirking under his mask. In an instant, black and white Chinese falchions appeared in his tan hands. "It would of course be foolish to use my stronger moves with a user of Fragarach in the vicinity… though if that is the case, I believe that we should be more concerned with your well being Master. Even without seeing her fight, I can tell that the enemy Master is no novice to combat. Genius or not, I do not believe that you would last long against her."

"You don't say." The native sighed with a hint of sarcasm. She had to hand it to her Servant, he really could play dumb when he wanted to. Still did he have to be so blunt about how obviously unfair this matchup was? Despite her significantly higher ability in almost all fields of thaumaturgy and the dozen jewels in her possession, she knew that Bazett would and could destroy her in any straight up confrontation. Her very job was taking down powerful Magi and Dead Apostles, and the fact that she wasn't dead or even maimed was evidence that she was damn good at what she did. There was a bloody reason why Shirou was terrified of the thought of fighting her. To Rin's knowledge, only Sirius, the Queen, and Merem topped Bazett on the list of those he never wanted to anger under any circumstances. Obviously those like the Beast of Gaia, the Blue, and Kaleidoscope were on the list as well, but for the most part the list was made up of people the teen actually knew. "I know my limits. You don't have to worry about me doing something you would do."

"Heh. She may be a kid, but your master is at the very least pretty interesting." Lancer snorted as he readied his weapon, the tip of his crimson spear pointing down and his body going taught like a bowstring.

"Indeed. Not many would dare call a heroic spirit a middle aged pedophile to their face." Archer offhandedly commented, causing his opponents to momentarily stare disbelievingly at the teen while she glared accusingly at him. "She's quite powerful to make up for her deficiencies, so it all balances out in the end. Though it does appear that your Master has the advantage when it comes to raw combat ability."

"I do hope you don't think I won't remember this, Servant." Rin growled dangerously.

"Eh. She ain't half bad." The blue man smirked. "At the very least I don't have to worry about her getting herself killed while I'm having fun." He paused however as he watched his foe lowered his weapons to his waist in an unnatural stance leaving several openings to be exploited as if taunting his opponent to abuse them. "Oi. Confidence is one thing, but now you're just being rude."

"That stance…" Bazett frowned as she recognized it instantly before disregarding what it could mean and focused on her own opponent. Slowly walking to the side away from her Servant, she prompted the Tohsaka to do the same so that they would both not get caught up in the chaos that was soon to come. As good as either of them were or liked to believe they were, they were nowhere near the level of a fully charged and on guard heroic spirit. "Lancer. Be careful. He might use an unorthodox style..."

"Oh trust me." Rin smirked, deciding to cut off Bazett before she said too much with her extended thumb and forefinger with a sick black looking ball hovering in front of the latter. "I was very surprised when he first showed me his style too. Who knew that someone other than Shirou would be dumb enough to use it?" And with that she fired off curse after curse at her opponent like a machine gun while backpedaling in order to maintain her distance.

That was all Archer needed to know to realize that he should move now before Lancer got a heads up on how he fought and devise a counter strategy. Taking the initiative despite the fact that his style was designed for countering, the man in a blink of an eye threw Kanchou and Bakuya with enough force and speed to turn them into deadly black and white disks that glided and arced through the night towards their target.

Lancer was clearly not expecting his opponent to throw what appeared to be his main weapons at him as an opening move and as such took a fraction of a second more than he normally would have to react to the oncoming blades. Even though he had Protection from Arrows, rendering him immune from most projectiles within his gaze and even those that weren't, the oncoming weapons were clearly Noble Phantasms and so he couldn't simply rely on his reflexes to deflect them. Still, it was not as if the oncoming blades had an overwhelming amount of force behind them and as such he deflected them away from his body with such speed that it looked like to the naked eye that he had hit them at the same time.

With his third strike he blocked the striking Servant that had followed closely behind the thrown weapons and his eyes narrowed. He was not surprised at the fact that his foe had attempted to exploit such an easily predictable opening, nor was he concerned with the man's slightly above average strength, which in a battle between legendary individuals from all over history was not something to write home about.

What got his attention was the fact that he was blocking what appeared to be the black blade that he had less than an instant ago just knocked to the side.

A quick flick of the wrist and a jab flung back the red and black bastard's black sword, but an instant later he had to swing it down an instant later to knock away the thrown white sword that had somehow made its way back into his other hand. The instant he did so, he thrust forward with speed that transcended what humans could comprehend in order to exploit his enemy's chest, only to be deflected once more at the last moment by that damn black blade which had somehow made its way back into its user's hand again.

Feeling slightly annoyed, the spearman increased his speed and ferocity and continued to try and figure out his opponent out or at least force him back. He could feel the smug bastard smirk at him as he always seemed to call back his disarmed weapons faster than he could finally land a significant blow. The seemingly endless pattern of deflecting and disarming the same damn weapons over and over again without gaining any ground on his enemy was quickly getting old and frustrating, despite the sparks and sounds of metal clashing in front of him deafening him to the world…

It was only through his years of battle honed instincts that he realized that something was wrong after he disarmed the bastard of both weapons for about the dozenth time each and instantly jumped up and back with speeds that only belonged to those of his class. Doing so, he barely avoided getting cut into pieces from behind from the flying blades that he had deflected before, perfect replicas of the weapons that were in the hands of the one who had nearly killed him in the process. He did not escape unscathed however as his sides on each side of his body sported an inch deep gash right below the ribs. The wounds were neither fatal nor crippling, but they did damage the hound of Ireland's pride significantly.

"You bastard…" Cu Chulaiin grunted as he looked at the blades that had landed on the ground and realized what had happened. His opponent had not been calling back the swords back into his hands. He had been whipping out completely new copies of them each time he had been disarmed. They apparently also had some sort of boomerang like effect as well since the first pair that had been thrown had obviously returned to cut him down from behind. Being the stubborn bastard that he was, he stayed in place when he realized that he couldn't push the red and black man back, almost falling for his plan perfectly.

Scathach would have murdered him if she had found out that he had fallen for such a simple and basic trick.

Gritting his teeth, Lancer forced himself to calm down. Obviously this guy was the sort that would go for cheap blows despite being good enough to fight up close. He hated the ones like this. They had no pride at all and took the fun out of a good brawl. They also happened to be bloody dangerous if you didn't pay attention to everything they damn well did. "Going straight into battle with a blade but relying on cheap tricks like that to win. How cowardly can you get?"

The annoying Servant chuckled briefly as he took his stance again, a mocking affront to most that knew the complexities and intricacies of weapon based combat that left far too many vital openings for anyone of them to feel comfortable using. "If you have anyone to blame, it would be my wicked little Master. After all, she is the one who summoned me in the first place."

Lancer couldn't help but let out a sarcastic snort. "Can't argue with that. Little shrew does seem like the type to grab a mile when offered an inch."

"If only it were that much." The red sword user sighed aridly, gaining a sliver of pity from his opponent.

The Servant in front of Lancer was clearly not Saber. He did not have the power in his blows to qualify as that class, and the swords he used, while indeed Noble Phantasms, did not have the weight behind them to appear to qualify their user for the class. He had already fought against Berserker and the two Casters who were clearly different versions of the same spirit, and if the guy was Rider he would have summoned his mount by now. If it weren't for the fact that that he had a fair amount of power behind his blows, Lancer would have hazarded a guess and assumed he was an Assassin with the way he tried to use trickery to win and the nature of his swords. Given how he was dressed and his headwear however...

"This is messed up." He snorted and took his stance once more. "What kind of Archer fights up close with swords?"

"What kind indeed?" Archer agreed mockingly, though his humor did not go up to his hawk like gray eyes that were visible through his visor. "Makes you wonder what makes me qualify for my class doesn't it?"

o. o. o.

Matou Catacombs:

Sakura held back a sigh as what seemed to be the thirtieth skeleton familiar fell apart in front of her without putting up a fight. She did not like the fact that she had been forced to hide as she did while Rider fought for her safety above, but in the battle for the Holy Grail, Servants fought Servants and Masters fought Masters. There was no exception to this rule.

Thirty one… or was it thirty two now? The girl shook her head in frustration as she berated herself for worrying about something trivial like how many of these weak things she could kill… no. They weren't weak. She could tell just by looking at them that these things could easily destroy a small group of normal humans with just their raw strength. It was merely that they were horribly mismatched against her.

The Matou's study of "binding onto oneself" was often likened to "absorption", but with a bit of deeper inspection into the subject anyone could tell that the family's way of going through the process was significantly more… aggressive. Zouken, for example, utilized his worm familiars to frequently absorb the energy around them, fattening their already grotesque appearances to the point of bursting before assimilating them with his body to prolong his life. Should his current body begin to fall apart, he would go out into the city, find some poor victim that was isolated from the world, and conduct a ritual to claim the body as his own. If Sakura remembered correctly, it involved having his worms assault the physical body until the mind and soul were thrown into chaos enough for Zouken to force his own decrepit soul into the mix, then using the Matou Thaumaturgy to take what was left in for himself and using his remaining living worms in the corpse to adjust the body to the shape that would match his soul the best and power it with the prana that the worms had gathered previously until it had stabilized.

It was a very crude and disgusting way to prolong one's stay in the living, however it was also quite an ingenious and impressive feat as well. To be able to channel and shift one's soul through worm familiars of all things, the weakest possible familiar one could have, and use them to possess another complete body without losing one's sense of self in the process was a truly significant accomplishment thaumaturgically speaking.

Sakura on the other hand was not capable of such miracles, not that she had any desire to do them in the first place. While Zouken's approach to the family magic focused on the "binding and alteration to the medium's core", or basically how to bind targets to his or another subject's soul, Sakura's was more geared towards "the assimilation of ambient spiritual existences and energies". Essentially, she excelled in draining the energies of familiars, spirits, and mysteries that had no permanent earth based medium. She could sap other mysteries of power as well, but it took longer and more effort to do so. The elder Matou assumed that this preferred approach of Sakura's use of the family's spells was a result of her original element of "imaginary numbers", but all in all he didn't seem that put off by the new turn of events.

The former Tohsaka didn't blink as another pair of skeletons jumped down the stairs of the catacombs in an attempt to assault her and were consumed by a small blanket of shadows where they landed. In less than five seconds, every trace of prana that had allowed the creatures to move had been taken away, forcing the now powerless creatures of bone to dissolve into dust in a sea of darkness.

If it was only a matter of killing the worm familiars tainting her body, Sakura would have offed the lot of them years ago. After training with Rin after the Apostle incident and combining traditional thaumaturgy with the Matou's body triggered thaumaturgy, the girl had long developed her abilities to the point of not worrying about defending herself. Killing the worms in her body was simple, it was getting their bodies out fast enough to not cause issues was the problem. With so many of the familiars inside her bloodstream and in her nerves, she had no doubt that if she attempted to purge herself now, the best she could hope for is a quick stroke as the carcasses clogged up her arteries.

She didn't even want to think about what would happen if the familiars inside her heart and wrapped around her nerves suddenly died.

She only allowed herself to keep a moderate amount of energy she got from the familiars before sending the rest to Rider. She had no delusions that Shirou would be hit hard from the unexpected fighting so soon after taking control of Rider. It was almost ironic. For the first time she was the one donating prana so someone else wouldn't die from being drained from the inside out instead of the other way around. A dark side of her even relished at the sense of power and superiority she had over the one that had kept her sane the past few years much to the guilt of her lighter side.

Sparing a brief glance at her surroundings, she glared at its current unaltered state. Despite the destruction that reigned up above, her personal hell unfortunately remained untouched. Her only respite was that Zouken seemed to have disappeared to some other hole in the ground for protection, taking most of his disgusting worms with him. She could tell that there were still a sickening number of them hiding among the tombs that decorated the walls of the catacombs, but unless they were out, they would do nothing but continue to feast on the bodies and fatten up for when their maker needs more energy.

"Humph. So this is where you were hiding. I must say I am surprised. The conditions of your workshop are far more disgusting than what I had anticipated." Sakura was only somewhat surprised to see Marjatta in her blue and black dress walking down at her with a disgusted sneer on her face.

"For once we can agree on something." The Matou replied calmly from the center of the room. Knowing the blonde's personality there was little doubt that she had come alone, confident that she would be enough to take out the lone "backwater" magus. The few times Sakura had conversed with her were enough for her to tell that the Edelfelt possessed the standard magus ignorant personality, and thus it made her predictable. On the occasion that Shirou actually talked about his work for Barthomelloi, he had explained his methodology and reasoning with dealing with the standard magi.

The first rule in general was that they loved being the center of attention when it was possible and not blatantly suicidal to do so. The fact that the idiot girl went down to the catacombs by herself to get to Sakura instead of just collapsing the ceiling on top of her was proof enough that the blonde was an attention whore. No doubt she would go on some long winded speech about the "vast gap" in their abilities and social statuses now.

"If this is what your workshop consists of, then it is no wonder that your kind trails far behind mine when it comes to capability." The girl continued on as she walked down the long flight of stairs, unknowingly proving Sakura's assumptions correct.

The Matou had a hard time resisting rolling her eyes as she began tuning out her assaulter's speech and began going over what the girl was most likely going to do when the fighting started and how to counter it. Thankfully the Edelfelts were well known to fight with jewels and the Fin curse, fields of thaumaturgy that she was more than familiar with after spending so much time with Rin. Plus it was better for her if the idiot girl made her way all the way to the main floor of the catacombs without bothering to do anything to convince her to.

"If all you have to show for your study of absorption is a basement full of corpses, then I will have to rethink my opinion of how useful the concept is. Don't tell me that your method of research is actually taking prana from these things." Marjatta questioned with a sick look on her face. "I don't even know how it would even be possible for anyone to think properly with this distracting stench. In fact when I'm done here I may have to burn this dress in order to get rid of the smell. I hope you are ready to take responsibility for such a travesty."

"I find that soaking the clothes in water and lemon juice for two days tends to get rid of the smell. It's cheaper and a more reasonable way to deal with the stench." Sakura replied offhandedly, not really paying attention to the fact that the girl was insulting her but instinctively sympathizing with the pain of trying to get horrid smells out of clothing. Shinji was never down here for long when he was alive and aware of this place, and Zouken was not exactly the cleanest Magus on the planet, what being made out of worms and all.

"Hm. No doubt you would know of some cheap common way to deal with the problem. With this being your workshop, you would probably send yourself into poverty if you kept on burning your clothes every time you came down here." The blonde stepped down from the bottom stair and looked disdainfully down at her prey. "You don't have to hide it from me girl. You are on guard yes, but it is obvious that you fear for your life now. Cornered in your little cave with no servant and out of the public eye to excuse you from conflict, what else could you be?"

_The word "annoyed" seems to be sticking out the most right now._ The Matou mentally grunted while keeping her composure and formulated several quick plans in her head. "Are you done yet? Why don't you just admit that you want to kill me and get this over with already?"

Sakura's dispassionate reply seemed to temporarily catch the blonde off guard, but she quickly recovered and donned a confident and pitying demeanor. "Oh? So impatient for a quick death are we? Well I am sorry to disappoint, but I have different plans for you. Rest assured though, you will scream for it at the top of your lungs very soon."

Sakura wanted to make a comment that she had been wishing for death for over a decade now, but the opportunity to do so was lost as her opponent very quickly raised her two hands at her and fired off an absurd number of fin curses at her at such high speeds that she barely had time to conjure up a weak defense made of shadows. It barely lasted more than a second before it was broken through and she was launched back from the small explosion that the two spells had made.

"Hoh?" Marjatta mused as she casually walked around the catacombs. "How odd. I was sure that what I did was enough to knock you out and keep you down for a while. At the very least you have some good reflexes. Most magi are unable to even react to that opening before they are hit. It speaks well of how strong your coward's instincts are."

The knocked aside girl ignored her attacker's bragging as she slowly picked herself up and focused. _"The artists are fools. The rulers are ignorant. The light has forgotten."_

The blonde noble sighed and pointed her index fingers at Sakura once more. "Let's try this again shall we? Do try and fall properly this time."

"_One cannot stain the shadows."_

What appeared to be twice as many fin shots erupted from Marjatta's fingers so quickly that it was impossible for any normal human to see where one began and another ended. Flashing through the dark catacombs the cursed closed onto their target…

… Before another wall of darkness rose in front of Sakura and enveloped all of the curses without a trace as if it was less a barrier and more a doorway into another world.

"What?" The blond girl blinked in confusion as she got a better look at the wall in front of her and noticed that it was littered with blood red veins that pervaded it like the wall was some sort of diseased membrane of some long forgotten cursed mythical beast.

On the other side of the anomaly, Sakura pushed herself up to her feet and breathed deeply, the sickeningly sweet smell of decay in the air did not affect her in the slightest due to her decade of torture in it. The minor bruises and injuries she received earlier were disappearing as quickly as they had come…

"Humph." Marjatta grunted as she pointed her fingers at the wall again, confident that she could break through it. "I must have given her too much time. Obviously this defense can handle more punishment than the last one."

Wordlessly she fired off dozens of more curses in an instant, each at least twice as large as the previous rounds, each at least twice as destructive as their predecessors, and each disappearing into the bounded field without so much as a ripple or sound of impact.

Sakura was now standing up and save for the tears in her clothing she was completely unharmed. Any injuries she should have endured from the initial attack were absent from her body, and soft words of power were slowly making way from her lips. _"Left alone it always reigns. Absent with the light's caress. Yet it forever returns…"_

"You…" Marjatta grunted as she quietly admitted that her prey actually had some abnormal spells that would take different approaches to solve and as such crossed her arms while still having her fingers out. "Are annoying. _Hunt of Nyyrikki!_"

Bellowing out the name of the Finnish God of the Hunt, the girl unleashed a wide spray of curses that spiraled in the air around their target like black fireworks rapidly falling towards a single point. Sakura's defense was effective against the Fin shot yes, but it could only protect her from one direction. The assaulting circle from above would no doubt be able to strike her from all the directions the wall didn't reach…

"… _Regardless of wishes. Ignorant of miracles."_

Or it would have if the wall had not warped itself at the last moment and formed a dome around its maker and silently absorbed all the offending attacks at once without issue before instantly dispersing itself and sinking back into nothingness.

Marjatta, predictably was not enthralled by this as she glared at Sakura. "You are starting to frustrate me greatly girl. Can you only defend yourself like a coward?"

A faint smile made its way onto Sakura's lips. "Maybe. Do I need to do anything else to best you?"

"I will not be looked down upon by a backwater novice." The blonde growled as she straightened her posture and narrowed her gaze and raised only one of her hands this time.

The first three curses went straight at Sakura's head, but were instantly blocked by the return of the black wall. The next two were shot high, but arced down from above and pulsed irregularly. Had they come into contact with any sort of solid or liquid, they would have exploded with enough harmful force to kill a normal human if they hit the right spot, but they too disappeared as the wall shot up from the girl's side and over her head to make contact with the orbs. The same held true with the concussive based variants that shot vaguely past the field and continued on for a short distance before instantly stopping and traveling back towards the girl's seemingly unguarded backside only to also disappear into the sudden wall of darkness.

Sakura frowned as her opponent continued to test her defense sparingly with various forms of the Fin curse that she did not believe were possible until now. Had Rin not taken the time to force her to make her defensive spell, which was nicknamed "the hollow shell", react as quickly as it did to outside magical influences around her person, she would without a doubt have been hit by now. While she was getting a good amount of prana from the attempts to find a weakness, it would be only a matter of time until it was discovered that her defense only worked against thaumaturgical based attacks with no physical medium, and she could not move from her position while the spell was in place.

Shooting the ground in front of her, or the ceiling above her would force her to move and into a significantly worse position. Hell, technically the girl could just walk past the barrier and shoot her point blank if she wanted to. But of course most magi would never think of addressing the issue by doing something as simple as THAT…

She was snapped out of her musings as she observed her shadow defense barely manage to block an incoming salvo of curses that had been moving at a significantly faster speed than the already rapid moving curses. It appeared as if her opponent may be able to force her way through after all.

Wordlessly she channeled the abundance of prana in her body, utilizing the crest that Zouken's worms had long since carved into her very being and gave the power shape and life outside her body through the darkness around her feet. Due to her condition, most of her spells were designed in some way to gain her more prana by some means. Most normal spells would drain her of her Od and risk agitating the worms in her body. The barrier around her followed this rule as it absorbed any metaphysical based mystery that crossed its boundary by, for lack of a better term, "multiplying" its "imaginary" nature to the "real" mysteries that it encountered, thus turning the oncoming spells into that of an "imaginary" nature as well and turning into prana for the girl.

The spell she was using now was no different as the vague human like shape emerged from the floor. Pale, transparent, and only waist high its appearance was odd and unnatural, but not particularly threatening.

Needless to say that when Sakura sent the weak looking familiar out of her bounded field's defenses, Marjatta was less than amused. The shadowy _thing_ was neither fast nor agile as its wide body casually swayed left and right as it moved, swinging its arms as if they didn't have bones, (which in hindsight was fairly obvious just by looking at it). It exerted no offending pressure and it did not appear to have any real combative capabilities. All in all, it looked fairly harmless and useless.

So it was fairly obvious that a proud individual like Marjatta would be pretty damn insulted that it was being used against her in a fight to the death.

"How much longer…" The European grit her teeth in a vain attempt to reign in her temper and pointed an open palm at the small creature, and instantly conjuring up a black curse at the end of each of her fingers pointing at the little familiar. "Do you intend to mock me!?"

Had Sakura not intended to make her shadow familiar the way she did, she was absolutely certain that it would have been destroyed by the relentless barrage of curses fired at it, assaulting her ears as the sounds of the attack tore through the air and hit everything from her new sidekick to the ground to her wall to the area behind her. As much as she didn't want to admit it, her opponent had some serious firepower behind her fingers and was much stronger than she had originally anticipated. If not approached carefully, the Matou would even hazard to assume that Rin would lose against her in a straight up fight…

However Shirou would not. He was too good to fail against this little princess, and she strove to be the same.

"What the hell?" The blonde blinked in confusion, frustration, and a little uncertainty as the dust in the stale air cleared to reveal that not only had the familiar not perished in the onslaught, but that it had somehow nearly doubled in size, now standing roughly a head over her, and still casually lumbering towards her with motions not unlike a zombie from an old horror movie. "This too?!"

Originally Sakura's shadow familiars were indeed just weak constructs that only reached her waist at best, actually they were still that when first created. However their use in combat increased significantly when she managed to gain a stronger grasp on her conceptual based powers and had given them similar natures to her shield. Normally creating a familiar with such a strong concept fused to its very existence was borderline impossible, but Sakura's shadow familiars were already so tied into her nature and element that the effort to add in the extra trait was not that significant. The only difference was that instead of sending her any prana that they absorbed, they converted it to themselves and made them stronger. To Sakura's and Rin's knowledge, there was no limit to how big they could get, but they had managed to get it to grow over twenty feet in height before they were forced to take it out before they gained too much attention.

"Really?" The Matou smiled faintly from behind her familiar. "I thought you would have figured it out by now, being a high born noble and all. Or are my mysteries too simple for you to understand?"

The Edelfelt glared at her opponent and the familiar murderously before she was forced to pay attention to the familiar again as it swung one of is oversized arms at her, forcing the attacker to jump back. One of the first rules about fighting unidentified transparent familiars, puppets, and monstrous beasts was after all to not touch the things unless you were sure that it was safe to do so. You never knew what their existences were composed of and how they reacted to human contact. There were a good few monstrous beasts out there that could fry a person's nerves and circuits with just a brief tap, though they were quite uncommon.

Knowing it was most likely useless, the blonde girl sparingly began to fire off more varied Fin shots at the creature if for anything else to see if she could find something she could work with. As she did so, she also backed away from the creature and kept on moving around Sakura in order to keep her real opponent in sight, just in case the girl decided to make another one of these annoying things. Higher power. Rotation. Higher velocity. Differing impact points. No matter what she used, it was useless. All her attacks just seemed to go into the thing and disappear like they did nothing. Not only that but it seemed like the blasted thing was getting… bigger…

Something clicked in the blonde's head and she nearly swore at her stupidity. "… Absorption… of course… but being able to establish it as part of the essence of a familiar made so quickly?" She turned her attention back onto the creature in front of her and unleashed a handful of curses rapidly at it while backing up and widening the distance between the two sides. Just as she had expected, the curses had disappeared into the familiar and forced it to grow a few more inches.

Backing up a bit more, Marjatta's eyes darted between Sakura and her familiar and occasionally the ground by her foe's feet which held some debris from her earlier rampage before sighing aridly to herself. "What a fool I am. To have fallen for such petty tactics."

Reaching down to pick up a small rock off the ground, the blonde laughed dryly. "I must commend you Matou. You have lasted much longer than I would have expected. In fact you have lasted longer than most of my targets on a job, regardless of your cowardly methods." She paused to throw the rock in her hand at the familiar hard and watched as it hit the creature where its supposed head was, causing it to stumble backwards. "Really, to incorporate a thaumaturgical concept into the very existence of a familiar you just made so easily is quite commendable. My respect for your abilities has increased a small measure…"

A smirk found its way onto the attacker's face as her knees bent and she aimed herself at the off balance creature. "However it is not enough to best me."

Reinforcing her body, the mercenary launched herself forward at the familiar with inhuman speed and unleashed a savage string of blows that she had no doubt spent much time practicing before. Despite the fact that the creature was wider and taller than a normal human, the teen had no trouble stepping in and kicking it hard in its center seeing as it had no legs, before using the same leg to snap a second blow to its head as it came down from the recoil of the first blow. Not stopping there the teen forced down the attacking leg and thrust out with her back fist at the creature's chest right below where the throat would be and struck it hard enough that her fist temporarily found itself inside the creature itself before it was thrown back and collapsed onto the ground. Not completely dead, but now without a doubt a significantly lesser threat if one at all.

Sakura did not smile at the display. Despite being little more than emotionless dolls and knowing that the one she made wouldn't win her the fight, she was rather attached to her familiars when she made them. They reminded her a bit of herself down here under Zouken's thumb, only they were fortunate enough to not have the full range of emotions needed to suffer like she did.

"Now that the distraction is out of the way…" Marjatta grinned predatorily as she turned to her main target again. The tensing in her arms and legs were a clear sign that she was reinforcing them and ready to move. The next instant proved to support that assumption as she charged forward at the purple haired teen. "I can finish educating you on why it is bad to insult your superiors!"

As a member of the Edelfelt family, Marjatta was trained in many ranges of battle, short, medium and long. Unlike Luvia, who preferred to use close ranged combat but was still skilled in medium and some long range, the younger sibling was proud to be exceptional in all ranges, though she preferred medium and long. As such, it should have been no surprise that she was quite adept at performing reinforcement on herself to enhance her combat prowess.

She was confident that her fighting skills were all that she would need as she passed the girl's bounded field unopposed and cocked a fist back and threw it forward at her target's head…

However while her ability in reinforcement was rather high, she had never been tutored by the Magus Killer in it.

"_His body is made of blades…"_ The Matou heir chanted darkly, utilizing a slightly altered part of Shirou's core aria that she had first heard years ago. Allowing her prana to flow into her very body and enhance it, she momentarily enjoyed the sensation and pretended it was her lover's power flooding through her instead of her own. Among the few spells she knew of that did not utilize her family's theme of thaumaturgy, reinforcement was the one that Sakura knew how to use the best, and she was damn good at it too.

Marjatta's eyes widened as her initial attempt to strike her opponent's head was halted by one of the girl's own without any issue whatsoever. Instead of attempting to say anything though, she instinctively knew that something was off and reflexively pointed out her left hand's finger out to fire off a quick spray of curses point blank. The impacts were nearly instantaneous when shot and easily caused more than a few shockwaves to temporarily blind the attacker to the world around her.

Except for the fact that her other hand was still firmly in the grasp of the girl she had shot, and her grip was tightening.

"Release me and fall already!" The Edelfelt grunted in irritation as she quickly lost her temper and opened her free hand to unleash five times as many curses at point blank range at the still shrouded Sakura. The simultaneous impact was so severe that the entire room shook enough to dislodge a fair amount of dust from the ceiling and the catacombs surrounding it.

But Sakura's hold on Marjatta's fist did not weaken or falter in the slightest, and if that wasn't enough of a warning sign to the blonde, then the light laughing that she heard drove everything home.

"Funny isn't it? How suddenly what was assured now appears to be a lost cause?" Sakura's voice whimsically mused in a melodious tone filled with something far more unpleasant. It was almost akin to the sickeningly sweet smell that pervaded the room that they fought in.

The careless tone the Matou used only further infuriated the Edlefelt as she reared back her free hand and engulfed it in a pulsing black sheath, kept in place by a bounded field and unable to harm her due to another. It was one of her personal modifications to the Fin curse that no one had ever attempted to do, and while limited in range it packed at max at least fifty times the potency of the standard variant and was without a doubt lethal on impact. "I said let…"

Snap.

"Go?" The blonde stammered in surprise as what appeared to be a pitch black piece of cloth with red trimmings snapped from Sakura's body and wrapped around her enchanted arm, holding it back and preventing her from utilizing the mystery that she had just prepared. Even without losing focus, she could feel the prana in her body slowly being drained by the cloth, and soon enough the curse around her hand had faded away as if it had never existed.

"Welcome to my parlor said the spider to the fly."

Pain shot through the blonde's body as at least a dozen more of the odd blurred appendages shot forward from her target and grazed her all over. None of the scratches she endured were lethal or even crippling, but they were extremely painful to say the least and given how many there were she would have to heal at least some of them soon or else she might risk bleeding out. Between the cloth around her arm and the remorsefully strong grip on her other limb, the blonde was completely trapped and unable to do anything against the sadistic torture.

It was only when the sadistic cutting stopped and the pain slightly faded that Marjatta managed to see her opponent clearly now, and that she had changed. The girl in front of her was still without a doubt human, but now had a very unsettling alien aura around her that screamed dangerous to the mercenary. The situation only appeared to get worse as she registered the roughly dozen or so black cloths appearing from the girl from various parts of her body much like the one that had ensnared her arm, all moving aimlessly but twitching in a way that made it obvious that they were under their host's control. Obviously they were what had just been tearing her apart, but she had other things to worry about.

Primarily that there was that very too pleased grin on her face, revealing more emotion on it than she had ever seen on her so far.

However, before the trapped teen could say anything about the new situation her lungs emptied themselves rapidly due to Sakura's free fist embedding itself into her diaphragm with her reinforced body performing a textbook straight punch. Had she nor reinforced her body previously, the blonde would without a doubt have received internal damage instead of the major bruising she got in its place.

"Hmhm." The Matou laughed sweetly and laced with addicting sadism as she removed her fist and wrapped another one of her cloth like appendages around the limp arm she had in her grip. "Not bad for girl out of her league, don't you think Edelfelt? Or maybe you simply haven't grasped the capabilities of those around you? Honestly, did you really think that Shirou-kun wouldn't teach me a few things about how he works in order for me to protect myself? How nobles act? What mistakes they make time and time again?"

Marjatta didn't say anything and instead focused on trying to regain control over her breathing again, not that her pride would allow her to say anything even if she could form words. She was disgusted with herself. Sakura's trap, while indeed well thought out, was something she should have been able to see through. The lack of any ranged mysteries and the fact that she was never nervous during the fight were the biggest give away, but like a novice Marjatta had let the rush of battle get to her head. It was inexcusable.

Her thoughts were cut off as she heard a tearing noise and felt air gradually brush against her arms. A quick glance showed her that her captor was tearing apart her sleeves with her bizarre new appendages.

Sakura grinned as she looked at the teen's bleeding right arm, showing the three command seals on the back of her hand. "There we are. The cause of all our current problems. I really shouldn't have ignored the possibility that you were also a master when I saw you at the school in hindsight." One of the black cloths hooked over her shoulders and pointed its unnaturally thin edge at her forearm. "Please do keep still. I've never killed anyone before and I want to keep it that way. Don't think ill of me for doing this. It's merely your bad luck that I don't know how to remove the seals off of others… eh?"

Sakura's positive sounding warning was interrupted as her vision was interrupted by the soles of two high grade combat boots, glittering with dozens upon dozens of small fragmented crystals embedded into them.

"Remove this you hick." The Edelfelt grunted as she kicked out her legs and set off a good quarter of the jewels in her boots right into Sakura's face.

The resulting explosion echoed around the room relentlessly, shaking loose dust from every corner of the catacombs and even knocking a few stones from the ceiling loose. Since the attack was clearly not absorbed like all of the other spells that the blonde had casted so far, the power behind it was allowed to explode as intended and freed the one who set it off backwards in the air.

Flipping backwards a few times for good measure, Marjatta landed with somewhat roughly as the shock of the detonation going through her legs numbed them a good deal. It wasn't often that she needed to use the jewels that she embedded into her boots, but so far every time she had they had saved her life. Many in her family showed disapproval of the unorthodox use of such valuable resources, but so long as her secret weapons got the job done, she was not going to change her habit. As far as mystic codes went, they were pretty crude, but they got the job done in spades. In hindsight, she probably should have taken up her Servant's offer to refine them after all… it probably would have done wonders dealing with the recoil that had shot up her legs.

"… Is she dead?" The blonde breathed heavily as she massaged her legs to get feeling back into them quickly and ignored the painful ache in her stomach where Sakura had punched her. Personally she could go either way at this point. The Matou was a far stronger opponent than she originally anticipated. Not unbeatable, but certainly without a doubt one that she would have to approach with more finesse if she wanted to pull off a win.

As if to answer her question, a silhouette became visible from the dust, soon showing itself to be her opponent pouting childishly with her bizarre appendages halfway wrapped around her body. Given from the way some of them appeared to be torn and twisted in uneven ways, it was safe to assume that they were what prevented the girl from being a red smear on the ground. Still the surprise attack seemed to have done some damage as tears and cuts on her body and forehead were clearly visible. The fact that the blood going down her face and made her look even more deranged than normal would have to be ignored for now. "Now that was just rude. I was trying to be nice by taking you out of the war without killing you."

A subtle shiver went down Marjatta's spine though it didn't show on her face. Something was wrong with the girl in front of her. The sudden change in personality when she materialized those shadows was too big to be considered just confidence. A split personality? An alternate persona? A side effect of her thaumaturgy? Whatever it was, it was clearly destabilizing her in some way, or maybe she had been like this since the beginning? Such phenomena were not unheard of when dealing with more uncommon forms of magecraft. Actually they were more common than what the blonde thought was comforting, but they tended to occur after something usually specific was done.

The girl in front of her had been altered in some way. Her body, mind, soul, or a combination of the three had been pervaded in some form and changed something permanent.

… And considering the fact that she didn't seem to be that thrilled about being a magus in their few heated conversations, it was more than likely that it was done against her will.

"Tch. Great. Just my luck. She's one of those unstable inheritors that were experimented on that went right." Marjatta grunted, not feeling any sympathy for her opponent in the slightest. She was unnerved yes, but only at the realization that her target was unstable and had undergone cruel treatments resulting in very potent mysteries. The unhinging of the girl's mind only made her more dangerous and likely to allow her spells to go out of control. Rampant emotions and magic didn't exactly mix that well after all. Not safely at least.

Sakura had the advantage in close range combat and maybe some mid range as well. Those cloth like appendages were dangerous as hell and could absorb prana. Making matters worse, she was still inside the bounded field that could absorb her curses, so her standard methods of mid and long ranged combat were out. So long as they kept their distance from one another the battle was a stalemate with neither side being able to harm the other, but the Edelfelt would be damned if she just ran away now. Her pride would not allow such a travesty.

"Caster is going to owe me greatly for bringing you to her alive." The mercenary muttered darkly as she ground her boots into the filthy ground and pulled a blood red ruby from one of her pockets, filled to the brim with prana that she and her Servant had stolen from the local populace over the past few weeks.

On the other side of the room, Sakura frowned as she saw her opponent pulling out the gem and instantly responded by shooting out her shadow limbs at the blonde despite the fact that there was at least fifteen meters between them and revealing that her true combat range was far greater than what she had originally portrayed…

It was time to show the hick that she wasn't the only one that knew how to plan a strategy.

"_Hissi."_ She commanded, using the name of the Finnish name for a goblin demon that originally meant "a sacred grove", the teen unleashed all the energy inside the jewel in her hands to manifest a tremendous line of fire that bleached everything white as it spread out in a line that divided the massive catacombs between the two girls and destroyed the oncoming attack. Had the spell not originated from a jewel filled completely with prana, such a fast and massive exercise of spellcrafting would have undoubtedly been considered borderline true magic.

Sakura was clearly not expecting such a feat being performed, let alone the light generated from it and as such was blinded by the mystery. It wasn't that much of a big deal since she was still well within her bounded field so she was not worried about being attacked from a distance, but still being blinded like that unexpectedly hurt.

It started with a single shot coming in from her direct right, and it was so fast Sakura wouldn't have noticed it had her field not reacted and she felt the faint flow of additional prana go into her. Two more shots then came in from her left followed by another two directly from above. At this point the Matou frowned in confusion. Her opponent knew that there was no point in attacking like this. All she was doing was giving her more power…

Twelve more shots raced at her from all over and nearly hit her at once, causing the fire to temporarily be blocked off from her view, and Sakura blinked. It was odd, but it seemed as if she was absorbing less prana from these attacks than the others. 

And then the black rain came.

Pelting the dome relentlessly from all angles, the small curses flew like a storm at their target. It did not seem to matter that they were doing nothing but making their foe stronger as they practically carpet bombed the entire area around the shadow wielder without pause. Had it been virtually any other magus stuck in Sakura's position, they would have been destroyed within moments under the unending assault, however the six meter wide empty black shell remained unblemished throughout the entire thing.

"What is she doing?" The target muttered to herself, bewildered in the safety of her field and no longer blinded by the fire that had been in front of her. "Is she trying to escape… or maybe…" Her eyes widened in realization as to what her opponent was doing.

As fast as she managed to try and contort her new appendages to try and defend her body from all sides, she had none the less been too late as Marjatta's body appeared through the black haze and moved at speeds that vastly transcended what she had utilized before with the aid of detonating her crystals in her boots. Doing so, she managed to barely pass through Sakura's second line of defense and virtually embed her fist into the teen's stomach. The blow was so great that both Sakura's lungs and stomach emptied themselves as the fist barely arched up under her ribs to hit more of her organs without hesitation, lifting her up off of the ground in the process.

"Got you." The mercenary grinned savagely as she cocked back her other fist and hammered it into the levitated girl's face and sending her flying to the back of the catacombs before landing with a limp thud onto the ground.

Never taking her eyes off of her downed target, the Edelfelt took the moment of victory to gasp out in pain and hold her stomach. Despite not showing it before, Sakura had at least shown that she could throw a damn strong forward punch if she wanted to. Then there was the fact that she had used up far more of her reserves than she had originally anticipated. When she had first entered the war, she had assumed that the only real challenge she could expect among the masters would be Emiya, maybe even that Tohsaka pretender, though she knew better than to take her Sister's personal target.

Going over the fight, Marjatta couldn't help but shake her head in disgust. She had made far too many mistakes and it had nearly cost her far too much despite the war not truly having started yet. She would have to be more careful from now on. If this worthless girl had proven to be such a dangerous opponent with just some lessons from the Magus Killer, than the real thing would no doubt be on a completely different level.

Without bothering to look behind her, Marjatta killed off the fire that she had created. It was a bit wasteful of her to utilize one of her jewels like that, but it was needed to catch the target off guard. The virtual rain of weak curses was to blind her to her surroundings, using the girl's own shield against her. While firing and controlling that many curses at once was rather straining on her focus, it was not that impossible for her as she had made sure that the curses themselves had the smallest amount of prana in them each in order to get the job done.

After that, it was simply a matter of using some basic fire manipulating thaumaturgy to get on the other side of the inferno she had made and use reinforcement and her boots to launch herself forward as fast as she could for a blitzkrieg like assault to claim the battle.

Walking up to the seemingly unconscious girl, the Edelfelt snorted in disapproval before kicking her once more to make sure she was unconscious. If she woke up from the blow or if she was faking it, she would just kick her again to knock her out again. A gasp of pain followed by coughing and further empting of her stomach told her that the Matou was conscious, but not in any condition to fight anymore.

"I win." The victor stated coldly as she took out a small bracelet and put it around the loser's right wrist, as its hand was where two of her three command seals were clearly visible. The jewelry was made and designed by Caster to prevent the user from utilizing the seals once put on, perfect for keeping masters of Servants alive and captive without further issues. "Huh. How wasteful. You've already used one of your seals… no doubt on something foolish. Probably couldn't have managed your servant without using it."

"I… lo-ost…" The purple haired girl gasped weakly, not having the energy to do anything else but breathe at the moment.

Another kick from Marjatta had her feebly cry out in pain as it collided with her side harshly. If she didn't have any broken bones from the blow, she would at least have a few good bruised ones for a while. "I did not give you permission to speak fool. Only the victor is allowed to talk after a battle."

Sakura blearily turned her head towards the blonde and looked at her in the eyes with an empty gaze, her disheveled hair falling over her forehead and sticking to the blood that was still flowing down it…

And as much as she could with the little permission her ribs and lungs would allow her, she laughed faintly.

Marjatta's instantly felt a shiver go down her spine. She knew that laugh. She had heard it countless times before and it rarely if ever meant good news. It was the kind of chuckle that people had when they knew something important that the people they were talking to did not, right before the latter suffered immensely. "What is so amusing? You said it yourself. I am the victor."

"No…" The girl denied weakly. "I said… I lost. I never said… you won."

It was only then that the sound had reached her ears. It was faint and easily ignored, yet many and coming from all around her, akin to listening to the waves when out at sea. Only instead of the soothing sound of water folding on itself, this was more akin to the wet folds of some base creature writhing in a primal way…

"What the…" The blonde looked around in some disgust and uncertainty, only to pause as she saw that she was surrounded on all sides by the most disgusting sight she had ever seen. Countless bloated worms writhed from the walls and the tombs of the catacombs, wiggling on top of one another endlessly before pooling out to whatever section of floor there was that had yet to be covered by them. Even with little light, Marjatta could see that the disgusting creatures somehow possessed teeth and small tentacle like appendages, giving them an alien and aggressive appearance that would make anyone keep as much distance as possible.

Looking up at the stairs on the far side of the room, the "victor's" face further paled as she saw that even the path out was flooded with the disgusting creatures as they made their way down from the graves that lined the walls of the workshop.

"Grandfather's worms… are very greedy." Sakura continued to laugh between breaths. "Once they detect… an easy meal… they will go for them relentlessly. Only he can control them… when they are like this."

"You… you little stain! You tricked me!" Marjatta yelled in anger and some fear as she fired off a good number of curses at the worms, only to hold back a curse as she saw that it did little to deal with the sheer numbers that she was dealing with. It did not help that her fight with Sakura had managed to deplete her of most of her internal energy, and supporting Caster had also prioritized another vital portion of her power.

"You should have… let me cut off your arm." The Matou replied carelessly. "It would have been… less painful."

Marjatta didn't even bother to listen to her defeated opponent's reply as she attempted to use some of her more explosive curses in an attempt to find a way out of her current mess. Unfortunately, the sheer mass of boneless monstrosities proved too much for her to manage in her current condition. Even if she used her jewels to clear a path to the stairs, there was no way she would be able to do the same thing while going up them.

"You! Tell me! How do I get out! How do you stop these disgusting creatures?!" The blonde frantically turned to Sakura, the oncoming fleshy wave now only a half a dozen meters away.

Sakura faintly laughed in response, draining more color from the blonde's face in the process. "I was told… I screamed for two days straight… when I was first dropped in here… before I finally went silent…."

"How long do you think you will last?"

o. o. o.

South of Fuyuki:

Fire reigned supreme and unrestricted in the burning field near the main road, housing the four heroic spirits as they stared one another down warily with varying levels of stress. In the center of the inferno were the two spellcasters panting heavily with their backs to one another in order to cover their respective blind spots. Blood clearly visible on both of them shined sporadically as the fire around them shone in every direction irregularly and menacingly.

The Princess was on her last bull, having lost her remaining summoned backup ten minutes prior when Rider forced its brethren to blindside and crush its body with a relentless charge. Covered in burns and cuts from her close calls with both her opponents, the princess was no doubt exhausted both in body and in spirit, however she did not take her eyes off of Saber as she was the only one of the pair that could do much to stop her from simply charging in and slashing them to bits.

The Witch was no better as she warily glared at Rider. The broomstick that she was still on had seen far better days as its splintered and burned body struggled to keep her even ten feet off of the ground. It was only due to her inhuman spellcasting and item construction abilities that it had not simply fallen apart from underneath her by now.

Despite how in bad shape the Casters were in, Rider's was only slightly better as her hijacked mount had been injured by one source or another during the entirety of their fight. If things weren't settled within the next few moves, she would have to abandon the creature or it would cost too much prana to force it to stay and keep it around any longer. Combined with the injuries that she sustained from the beginning of the fight and it was fairly obvious that she would be ganged up upon if things got truly desperate. The only reason why the other bull in the battle could keep on going was because its controller possessed healing spells and had been constantly aiding her remaining mount over the past fifteen minutes.

Saber on the other hand was in the best shape of all, as was her bike which save for a few superficial scratches and smears of dirt was in perfect condition. Her absurd magic resistance combined with her rather eccentric bike riding had prevented her from sustaining any real damage throughout the entire ordeal despite the fact that she could not wear her armor while riding her bike.

The blonde servant was slightly conflicted though. She knew that Shirou needed to see the noble phantasm of the Casters in order to ensure that the grail did not inadvertently destroy the world, so she needed them alive for now. But on the other hand, she could not risk letting the other Servants know of her Master's plans just yet, let alone make them suspicious. Simply letting the pair escape after they tried to kill her partner was also not going to happen…

Suddenly, before any of the revived women could decide on their next and most likely final moves, the Witch had instantly disappeared without any warning.

"What the…" The Princess blinked in surprise and fear as her companion's presence vanished.

Rider, now facing an unguarded servant's back, did not look at a gift horse in the mouth and instantly took the opportunity to move with her signature speed. Leaping off of her exhausted mount, her black and violet form bolted at her target with single minded determination. The reason she did this instead of forcing her already collapsing mount to fire another ball of fire at her target was simply because the fire was slower than the Servant. More powerful perhaps, but power was no longer needed to finish off the target now.

By the time anyone had realized that she had moved, the purple haired woman was already almost upon her target and her now freed mount had collapsed due to the lack of supporting prana and the damage it had sustained during the night. The exhausted Princess didn't have a chance to utter a spell of defense as Rider's nail pierced her back from behind and yanked her off her own mount violently in a single violent move.

Saber watched passively as the helpless spellcaster screamed frantically as she was spun around in the air by Rider. It may have been her, but she had a suspicion that the black clad woman was enjoying this odd form of torture too much as she continued to keep her captive spinning for a bit longer than she thought was necessary before the woman threw the weakened Servant in her direction, no doubt setting up for a definitive finishing blow.

The King of Knights frowned at the turn of events as she prepared to attack despite frantically thinking of a way to not kill the woman flying towards her. She couldn't just let Caster go, and she had proven herself to be too good at using her weapon to mess up and give her a mere severe injury. It was part of the reason why the two Casters had even lasted this long in their fight in the first place.

On second thought, maybe she should just let the flying Servant escape without doing anything. If Rider asked, she would just leave it to Shirou to sweat out the details. He had been preparing to deal with the war for several years now with knowledge from potential futures. It shouldn't be too hard for him to come up with something believable…

A flash of light originating from Caster blinded Saber briefly, snapping the blonde out of her thoughts. When her sight returned, her target was nowhere to be seen.

… _That works too I suppose._ The Servant of the sword mentally shrugged while scanning the area for any potential signs that the woman was still around. "Rider, can you feel anything?"

"They are gone." The dark woman stated calmly, not bothering to note that the two fire breathing bulls of Helios had already disappeared from the world in the short time they had been separated from their riders. "Given how they vanished so suddenly, I assume that their Masters used a command seal each to take them to safety…" Her body tensed. "… Or to finish off our masters without issue. Sakura has stopped sending me prana to ease the strain on Master."

Saber's eyes widened in realization before she turned to the heavily damaged road Fuyuki and shivering as she recalled just how far they were right now. At best it would take them a good fifteen minutes to get back to the mansion, and then they had to hope that there weren't any other enemies or civilians that had been attracted by the fires. "Damn it. Rider, get on. I'll try to get us back as fast as possible. You can't summon your mount now or it may kill Shirou. He barely has any prana left in him. I'll power the bike using my reserves only."

"I have A+ riding." Medusa replied. "It would be better if…" She stopped talking as an invisible blade's tip pointed at her chest. Despite being blind, she could see the cold protective look her partner had on her face at the mere thought of giving up her ride to someone else. It would most likely be the same one she would have if someone tried to take Pegasus from her.

"… Back seat it is."

o. o. o.

Matou Catacombs

Sakura's body fell heavily to the cold, hard, wormless ground of the tomb from Marjatta's latest kick.

"To force me to use my command seal for something so trivial…" The blonde growled venomously as she walked slowly to her barely conscious opponent, loathing and frustration pouring out of her in droves. Her boot collided with the girl's side, causing her to scream out weakly in pain before getting sent another half a dozen feet. "Of all the things I had to nearly die from… WORMS! I HAD TO USE A COMMAND SEAL TO SAVE MYSELF FROM THE WEAKEST POSSIBLE FAMILIARS ON THE PLANET! IF I DIDN'T KNOW WHAT WAS TO BECOME OF YOU I WOULD END YOU NOW JUST SO NO ONE WOULD EVER HAVE TO KNOW OF THIS HUMILIATION!"

She rounded herself onto Caster, who while enjoying the show to some degree was more focused on recovering from the wounds she had received from her battle. Despite the fact that the Servant was the sole reason why the familiars had either disappeared or been twisted into a thick paste, her master was well in a poor enough mood to take her wrath out on the woman as well. "And you! Why on earth are you so wounded? You two were only against a single servant and winning when I last checked!"

The spirit showed a mild flash of irritation through a twitch in her mouth before calmly responding. "Our opponent was more connected than we had anticipated Master. Rider happens to be Lady Medusa of all heroes, and as such had an obviously high natural resistance to magic. We were holding the advantage as planned, but just as we were to obtain victory Saber came to her aid. She unfortunately has an A rank magic resistance, so even my strongest spells were of no effect on her. Actually it was a boon that you summoned me when you did. Our counterpart and I were about to make our last stand."

She briefly muttered a few unpronounceable words to clear up the several burn marks on her right arm before continuing. Burns caused by the flames of the Greek god of the sun would not be healed easily through natural means and thus required the extra measure to clear away cleanly. "Hopefully your sibling managed to do the same with my counterpart before the enemy managed to finish her off. Regardless though, neither one of us will be in any condition for combat for at least a day, maybe two in order to restore some of our lost prana and recover." A dry smile made its way onto her lips. "I believe that it is reason enough for us to utilize our contingency plan. Saber is quite a powerful servant. Possibly more so than Berserker. If we cannot control her, we must prepare for her master to come after us for what we are about to do to the girl here."

Marjatta clicked her teeth in irritation. Of all the servants for Rider to secretly be teamed up with, it just HAD to be Saber. "If that's the case, then let's gather the girl and leave then. I wish to leave this hellhole as soon as possible. You can perform your work on her when we are at your workshop."

Caster nodded, standing up tall and for all appearances sake looking like she was now no longer injured, her body and cloak having repaired itself with prana and ancient mysteries enough for them to retain their original outer appearance. Walking calmly to the downed and semi conscious Matou, the Witch reached out her hand to grab her. "I understand completely Master, and thank you. This child will make for wonderful experimenting mater…"

"_TRACE. ON."_

Caster didn't know what to make of the following instant. She made it a habit to surround her backside with strong barriers whenever possible to prevent potential sneak attacks, so only the strongest silent abilities could pierce through it so quickly. Even then, her clothing, while not armor, was further enchanted to provide a solid measure of protection against any offending forces. Certainly not something a normal human should not be able to do. Even if it was a magus with some ability, she should have been able to sense them from the Od and Prana in their bodies, but her attacker was running on fumes if that, so he didn't even register to her as she focused on her ailing body. By all means, an attack from such a source should be negligible and easily managed by her defenses, even if she was weakened by her recent fight…

The last thing that confused her was that normal humans were not supposed to have Noble Phantasms, yet the single red spear that had pierced through her barrier, her cloak, and her body without any issue was without a doubt one.

Both Master and Servant's eyes widened in shock at the sudden successful attack and turned around to the stairs of the catacombs to its source…

And were met with the sight of the Magus Killer staring down at them with his left hand held up to show his command seals glowing… and his enraged eyes burning a hybrid crimson silver in the darkness.

o. o. o.

Caster

ID: Medea

Alias: The Princess of Colchis

Master: Luviagelita Edelfelt

Alignment: Neutral Good

Strength: E

Agility: D

Mana: A

Luck: D

Endurance: D

Noble Phantasm: A++

Class Skills:

Territory Creation: A

Item Construction: N/A

Riding: B+

Personal Skills:

Divinity: C (B)

High Speed Divine Words: B

Denial of the Fates: B

A heroic spirit that to her very core never wished to follow the path that had been laid out for her by the gods, despite the fact her legend points otherwise. This version of Medea of Colchis has this skill as she has not regressed into the position as the Witch of Betrayal.

All abilities used on or by the Servant that rely on a luck check are primarily influenced by this skill instead of the luck parameter, though having a high luck will increase the chance of the event going even further to the servant's favor. This skill also has the capability to interfere with precognitive based skills such as Intuition and Clairvoyance, allowing the user a greater chance to achieve a different result than the one predicted and aimed for by the enemy. However in exchange, the servant does not enjoy the benefits that their luck rank would normally bring them outside of battle so long as said ranking is equal to or below that of this skill. The higher rank this ability is, the farther the spirit is from being a Heroic Spirit.

At this level, any noble phantasms or skills of B rank or less used against the servant that rely on luck checks or possess precognitive elements have a significant chance of failing, and any over still have a high chance of becoming unsuccessful.

Noble Phantasms:

Aeaea: The Paradise of Repenting: A. Anti-Army.

o. o. o.

A/N:

Thanks Maximorph1 for beting.

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the fifth grail war. Where ALL Masters and Servants are certified awesome and chaos reigns supreme.

I would have had this out a week ago, but grad school is kicking my ass and work isn't much better at the moment. Plus hurricane Sandy may or may not have almost pushed a car sized slab of granite and a tree into my porch from a three story cliff right next to my house, and crushed everything underneath it…

You know that my sister and I are alike and close to one another when the very first name we think of to call the giant boulder is "Steve". Steve is also placed perfectly against the edge of the porch, so we're thinking of turning him into a fire pit as soon as we find a solid mason. It will be awesome.

But yeah, I was out of power for nearly a week, my friend was out for two, and people were cold for a while. Even worse, my dad grew up in Rockaway by the water, and for those who don't know, Rockaway was one of the absolute worst places hit by the storm. He went there to help out with the clean up and came back drained and said pretty much that his entire childhood was completely destroyed. The apartment building he lived in. The main street next to it. The beach. The boardwalk. Places he used to go to. All either absolutely destroyed or unsafe to go in. Some of his friends still live in the area, and they are telling us stories about dealing with the looters there. They have to take turns staying by the windows with baseball bats to keep the fucks away otherwise they WILL bust in and try to take everything that isn't nailed down. The news isn't even telling a third of how bad it really is over there.

If any of you guys live nearby one of those hard hit areas, please help out in some way. Donate or something.

A word of advice though? This may be a bit cold, but if you do go and help with the repairing efforts, help out the people that are actually TRYING to put their homes and communities back together and ignore the lazy fucks that are doing nothing but sitting to the side and watching. They want their old lifestyle to go back to normal? Make them work for it a little for once. If they complain about how you are ignoring them, ask them what they've done to help out since the storm hit. I've heard a story about a woman who lost everything in her home and then her husband had a stroke and is stuck in a hospital, and yet she was working hard to manage her home's deconstruction and claim what she could. THAT is who you should be helping out first.

Also another bit of sad news, I'm sorry to say that Uncle Mario died last Thursday. We'll miss you Super Mario. Thanks to everyone that wished him well.

So life's been hectic for me, stuff's been happening around the world, people continue to be violent, stupid, helpful, peaceful, and everything in between, and life goes on regardless.

… Christmas Shopping sucks.

Chapter wise, yeah, there was way more fighting than I had originally guessed, and the Sakura vs. Marjatta fight turned out way more awesome than planned. It's fun to be the first one to write a solid fight with Sakura in it when she isn't (completely) insane and possessed by her own powers.

So to all those who complained about Shirou being nerfed to cannon levels, how did you like the ending? It comes complete with these two birds. I hear they're endangered.

Honestly, given the way the grail war goes, how long did you honestly THINK Shirou is going to manage to keep hold onto the book before something horrible happens?

And oh, there are so many, many more good matchups that I have to make in the future.

Assassin comes in the next chapter, but whether or not I id him is up in the air.

Fun Fact: Marjatta's origin is "Burst".

So that's it my friends. Until next time.

REVIEW! WORSHIP THE LOG! NEVER TRY TO RIDE SABER'S MOTORCYCLE! AND REVIEW AGAIN!


	26. Chapter 26

Chapter 26: Boundaries of Humanity

I do not own Fate/Stay Night and stuffs:

o. o. o.

In retrospect, Shirou would admit that it was fairly ironic that he only noticed how bad of a state his body was in when he felt nothing.

Oh he was still very much enraged at the current situation. He was still worried about Sakura's health, the fire, and the war in general, but save for the constant burning dryness in his throat Shirou's body had become unreceptive to most outside sensations.

Touch. Temperature. Pain. All had been absent for at least a few minutes and replaced with a numb floating sensation that pervaded his mind and body. He had been in similar states whenever his spars against Bazett got a bit rough, but nothing compared to what he was experiencing now.

It meant anything but good news.

The fact that he was still able to walk and move was surprising in hindsight, but at the moment the teen's stubborn focus had pushed away such excessive information to the side. Dwelling on it would accomplish nothing, so there was no point in thinking about it. All he had to do was mimic the general movements of walking and breathing and he would get to where he needed to be. Muscle memory was convenient like that.

What was important about his state though, was that it indicated that he was at his body's most extreme limits, and unless he made his next moves very carefully, they would more than likely be his last. That would be unacceptable though. He still had to save Illya, Sakura, Rin, Saber, everyone in the city from the raw number of potential cataclysms that could and would manifest within the next few weeks.

His arsenal consisted of enough prana stored in his body for one projection before he was rendered empty, and his three command seals, but he didn't want to risk using the latter so early in the war. His combat ability was all but gone considering his weakened state, and he had been in such a rush to get to the Matou household that he didn't bother to get the normal non magical equipment that he normally has on his person for emergency escapes. Flash and smoke grenades were far more useful in his line of work than most assumed. A stupid move given his situation, but considering the fact that he couldn't even move properly at the moment his uses for the explosives were somewhat limited anyway.

Arriving at the inferno that had once been the Matou residence, Shirou could already tell that he was not the first Magi that had arrived onto the scene. Among the red and gold flames, a pathway leading to the center of the inferno that seemed to be unnaturally void of the process of combustion was visible. Seeing as the Matou magic utilized individuals with water elements, it was rather easy to determine that none of the residents were responsible for the phenomena.

Whether or not the one who went inside was a friendly force or not however was yet to be seen, and given the fact that the Holy Grail War was a free for all, the odds of it being the former were not good.

So, wounded, under armed, under manned, and on the verge of having his body collapse from the inside out, Shirou made his way without a second thought through the burning wreckage to what he knew was the entrance of the Matou Basement.

The intense fire did nothing to deter the teen. His body was numb to the heat. Even if he wasn't numb, he had the shroud of Martin wrapped around his neck and head, giving him protection from the natural environment. Even if he didn't have the shroud, he would still have gone. The fire from the previous war had been hotter and more malicious than this paltry flame. He would still ignore the pain. Someone important to him was in danger, and that fact alone made his mind in an instant.

The smoke and heat did nothing to help his horrifically dry throat though.

_Thirsty…_

At least the police and fire department had yet to arrive and the path to the catacombs was easy to follow. The teen doubted he would have been able to come up with a way inside without using up his already sparse resources if either were not the case.

Making it to the entrance of the catacombs was easy enough. Despite the brightness of the fire, the path was fairly direct and the hole in the ground could not be more obvious if he had tried, though that might just be because the fire inadvertently destroyed the secret entrance in the first place.

Step by step Shirou slowly limped downward, taking note that it was quite difficult to go down stairs with a numb and half blinded body since it made judging distances quite a difficult task. In fact he had misjudged the process at least three times, nearly falling down the long decline in its entirety, before his eyes finally got used to the darkness and he no longer had an issue.

His nose picked up, other than the familiar sickening sweet stench of decay, death, and decomposition that normally pervaded the catacombs, the smell of smoke, dust, and prana. Someone had indeed come before him and had no doubt fought Sakura. Who the victor was he had no idea, but the invader was at least a user of fire based thaumaturgy… and curse magic too if he was interpreting the odd scent of slightly decomposing spices correctly.

He was confident however that Sakura could give them a good run for their money if she was pushed into a corner. Even he would admit that the girl was downright terrifying when she wanted to be.

The further down he went though the weaker he felt, even in his numb state. It became a chore to move his legs each time to progress further to his destination… but he attributed this to his Od depleted state catching up to him.

On the up side, he felt that the horrific pressure of Saber and Rider draining him dry lifting off his being a few minutes earlier, meaning that they were done with fighting and would hopefully no longer act as a problem. Of course he was so close to empty when it came to energy that he might as well be running on fumes, but that was beside the point.

_So Thirsty…_

Had he not been so exhausted, he would have noticed that he had not only been judging the correct distance of each step, but also that he had been learning the exact dimensions of the tunnel he was in, of the rocks he was standing on, of the number of bricks, the age of…

Gone. The information was indeed there in his mind for a moment, but as it was deemed unusable in his hazy mind the excess simply passed through. He didn't care about such useless data filling his already fuzzy head, so he threw it away on reflex and disregarded it as quickly as it came, much like the details of classes at school he didn't find interesting or useful in the slightest. Instead he focused only on what he needed so that he didn't break his neck.

Step by step he slowly went down into the hell that had robbed Sakura of so much once again until the roars of the flames above him finally reduced to the point that he could hear of what was happening below…

And was met with the sight of Marjatta Edelfelt ranting loud enough for all the world to hear while kicking around a still living but defeated Sakura… with Caster watching in mild amusement nearby. None of them had noticed his arrival.

Several thoughts, facts, and emotions ran through his mind. Sakura had lost, but was still alive. He didn't want to kill anyone so early. This version of Caster had a dagger on her person, meaning she was obviously the one that had Rule Breaker. Marjatta seemed exhausted but was still in far better condition than he was. There were multiple small holes made into the stone floor and there was a large scorch mark as well. Caster was very low on power and seemed to be still recovering from her battle with Saber. There was only one enemy master and servant in the room.

Direct confrontation was suicidal and useless. Even weakened, Caster could easily destroy him with a single word, and he couldn't focus on both master and servant at once. He could always summon Saber with a command seal, but that could complicate things as they had Sakura within arm's reach. Killing Marjatta while still unnoticed with his lone projection would solve the situation, but Caster would disappear in instants and he still needed to see Rule Breaker for later…

… So all he was left with was…

As he watched the blonde teen command her servant to go for Sakura for whatever reason they had planned earlier, Shirou decided now was as good a time as any to risk his gamble.

He shifted through the library of weapons in his soul until he stopped at what he was looking for. A blood red spear over two meters long, capable of dispelling any magical enchantments and projections that encounter its tip absolutely useless.

Gae Dearg, the Crimson Rose of Exorcism and one of the two lances used by the servant Lancer, Diarmuid Ua Duibhne of the Love Spot, in the previous Grail War.

It was also the second object crafted by the Fae that had been cataloged into his Reality Marble. In hind sight it made him truly relieved he had spent so much time studying their craft over the past few years. Had he not, the teen was doubtful that he would have been able to recreate this valuable weapon with what little prana he had left.

Gae Dearg, and its shorter golden sibling Gae Buidhe, were both cataloged into Shirou's arsenal of weapons when Waver shared with him his memories of the battle against the Fourth Grail War's Caster. The two spears, alongside the previous Rider's Sword of the Cypriots were the only weapons he could get from the transferred experience. The four missiles that Gilgamesh shot at the monstrosity that had consumed Caster were too far away for the younger Waver Velvet to see adequately, as was Saber when she used Excalibur on the river.

Shirou had never dealt with or encountered anything on that scale before, and had he not been warned of what he was up against in his war, he doubted he would ever would. Even from where Waver had been standing, the redhead could do nothing but gape and shiver at the sheer size of the demonic… THING that had nearly destroyed his hometown.

Shirou humorlessly noted the bitter irony that the weapon used to save it from that fiasco had less than a week later been used to accidentally set off the chaos that DID destroy his home and previous life when he went over the facts of the memory the day after he got it.

However all this information and reasoning behind why he had this weapon was useless. All that mattered now was…

"TRACE. ON."

… Right in front of him.

Despite his exhausted condition, weary mind, and the fact that he wasn't using a bow, Shirou's aim once more proved to be beyond human ability as his projected spear bolted through the air, tore through the servant's protective bounded fields, clothes, and pierced through her lower body from behind, dealing a serious, but more importantly non-lethal blow.

He was well aware that all Servants could recover completely from the most grievous of injuries within a short amount of time so long as they had an adequate prana source and their magical core (i.e. their head and heart) was not damaged.

Fortunately for him, Caster was all but in solid condition to begin with and her source of prana wasn't running on high either.

Main threat neutralized.

_Why am I so Thirsty…?_

"What?" Gasped the Edelfelt as she witnessed her Servant's blood spray from her stomach from the unidentified projectile. Moving with practice, the teen spun around and put up her guard to see who her new assailant was while defending herself at the same time. Shirou noted that she was pretty quick on the uptake compared to most magi, meaning that she had a fair bit of combat training, but it would have been useless if he had been fighting with all his power.

Unfortunately for him, he was in the complete opposite condition at the moment so he had to improvise. Thus was the reason why he was currently holding his left hand up, revealing his glowing three command seals to the enemy Master and Servant. With a silent command he dispelled his projected weapon before the servant could attempt to gain any additional information out of it. The fact that he had used a Noble Phantasm on her would obviously not be missed.

"If either one of you two tries anything…" He growled, barely holding back a wince as the air in his lungs brushed against his painfully dry throat. How on earth had it deteriorated into such a condition? He had been able to talk fine to Saber when she left on his Hayabusa. "… I will summon Saber here, and I will kill you."

"Emiya…" Marjatta growled venomously as she realized she had just been cornered while her Servant struggled to turn around with the wound in her stomach. The fact that her attacker's eyes were of demonic origin and clearly performing some sort of mystery was not lost on her. "Who would have guessed that YOU of all people would bother to team up with another Master so early in the war? Or is it simply out of fear from nearly getting killed by Berserker that forced you to partner up with this sad excuse for a magus?"

"What I do with others is no business of yours Edelfelt." Shirou coldly replied from his position on the stairs before focusing on the heavily injured witch in the room. "Caster… no. Medea of Colchis. If you attempt to utter a single word, or if you go into spiritual form, I will summon Saber. I doubt you or your master would survive if that happens." His eyes flashed dangerously. "And trust me when I say I will know if you try to utter anything under your breath."

The Witch winced as she held her bleeding stomach. The wound was closing slower due to her rather low reserves, but the pain was far more distracting. Cuts and burns she had encountered many times from her past life practicing her craft, but she could confidently say that this was the first time that she had suffered a hole in her stomach.

Glaring up at her attacker, she couldn't help but grimace at her situation. The boy was not only exhibiting traits of those corrupted by the moon folk, in possession of what appeared to be among the more rare of the magical seeing eyes, known in this era as pure eyes, but he had also produced and attacked her with a functional imitation of a Noble Phantasm. Which one she was not sure as she had been preoccupied with overcoming her surprise of being impaled, but she was certain that it was not the weapon used by this war's Lancer…

She had underestimated the situation. She had assumed that the boy would be a fine sample to experiment with and turn into a tool for later. She was wrong. The boy was already the product of someone else's influence, and they had known exactly what they were doing with him. He was not a complete product, only time and experience would be able to help him develop more at this point, but he was certainly the result of someone's interference.

In short, he was as big of a threat as any Servant in the war as far as she was concerned. He was easier to kill than the other Servants, yes, but he unlike other masters could and nearly did kill her.

The only reason why she wasn't gone right now was because… because… he had plans for her… How wonderful. Even now arrogant fools dare to try to use her for their own ends...

For a brief moment she contemplated using the beaten Master as a hostage before throwing the idea away. She was weakened too much to capitalize on such a target, and she did not had a secure enough escape route to leave with both her master and the girl that didn't use one of her master's remaining command seals.

"What do you want dog? Why haven't you killed me yet?" Marjatta glared at her enemy while making no suspicious movements. As prideful as she was, even she knew that she was completely at the teen's mercy right now.

Shirou frowned, not moving from his spot and got to the point. "Saber and Rider will arrive in no less than fifteen minutes. If you wish to escape in time with your lives, I suggest doing as I say. Caster, move to your master. Stalling wastes your time, not mine."

That was a lie if he ever made one. His servants would get there in that time frame, but he had little doubt that he would pass out in half that time. Thankfully his opponents didn't know this.

Much to his secret relief the Witch grudgingly followed his request, limping at a moderate pace away from Sakura and towards Marjatta and making a small trail of blood in the process. It was a hard effort on the Emiya to keep his attention on the woman and not focus on the very tempting small puddles of blood on the floor. Even getting a glimpse of the stuff caused his throat to throb painfully, begging to be quenched by the fluids…

It took less than ten seconds for Caster to relocate herself, but in the silent catacombs where every sound echoed off of the walls nearly infinitely the process seemed to take twice as long.

"Well?" The blonde girl all but hissed as her Servant stopped by her side, clearly impatient and not eager to hear Shirou's next request.

He didn't take his eyes off of the pair, though he was noticeably focusing on Caster. "You have a dagger on you." He stated knowingly to the elder of the two, who flinched not in pain for once. "Take it out." He was careful to say that instead of "show it to me", which would imply that he had greater interest or purpose in the object to the other party.

"That is going too far dog!" The Edelfelt snapped with a growl. "Just because you are holding our lives hostage doesn't entitle you to all that my servant possesses! I would rather die than lose in such a humiliating…"

Silently, Caster quirked her mouth, stretching the blood trailing down her chin as she did so. Take out her dagger? Interesting, what did the boy want with Rule Breaker? Did he know its purpose? Did he intend to use it to free her from her annoying Master? To claim her for himself like the arrogant Jason? Or was he just making sure that it was her Noble Phantasm?

"Do it, or I kill you like I killed Louvre." Shirou growled, not in the mood to play games with the girl and deciding to instill fear into her the best way he could. Considering the fact that she was a magus through and through, this made things rather simple. "By destroying your circuits while you are alive, burning your insides with your own prana, and cutting off your head."

Of course Shirou wouldn't actually use Kiritsugu. He couldn't if he wanted to at the moment anyway, but that was not what would have stayed his hand. He only used it on opponents he had no other way of beating, however once again this was something the girl did not need to know at the moment. It is a terrible thing, to destroy a soul so completely as Kiritsugu does, some things are just best left unused if at all possible.

Despite the pain she was going through and the anger she had for the boy that was the source of it all, Caster couldn't help but snort and be amused at the drastically paling face of fear that her master had visibly put on. The boy was without a doubt telling the truth, however it was his rapidly approaching servant that was the real issue at the moment, not his ability to destroy magic circuits.

Really, all it took was to threaten a magus' circuits to make them realize their position in the situation? How absurd. Even a master spell crafter such as herself knew that in the end it was one's freedom, life, and soul that required preserving the most. The means to conduct her witchcraft were indeed vital to her, but still staying alive was worth every sacrifice she could make. There were other ways to perform mysteries and progress in the world without access to something as mundane as circuits so long as one had the resources and the will to keep looking.

She took out the purple, red and blue dagger from her ebony robes slowly to prevent the boy from misinterpreting anything she did as a threat. The child was dangerous and very weak from what she could tell, but that only made her more cautious as she did not want to be reacquainted with Saber anytime soon. As much as she despised giving into anyone's demands, this was not one that she could do anything about. What he saw with his silver and crimson eyes she did not know, but too much she was certain.

Humorlessly, she also considered revealing her Noble Phantasm's identity as a gift to the boy for being able to shut her master up for once. Caster could get behind the girl's ethics and the child was rather skilled in what she did, however Marjatta was too immature, impatient, and egotistical to take seriously for long.

Not for the first time, the Witch began to heavily doubt her chances of success if her Master remained at the wheel of her actions…

Shirou's eyes twitched in recognition as he felt the cursed dagger recreate itself in his Reality Marble. He didn't risk a sigh of relief that one of the more difficult tasks he needed to accomplish in order to ensure that the world didn't get destroyed was done. Doing so would only jinx his still very unstable position.

"I see…" He rasped out in a seemingly disapproving tone, as if he wasn't pleased with what he saw. It wasn't that hard to fake considering the fact that he was extremely put off by the history of the tool.

"Well?" Marjatta snapped impatiently. It seemed as if the stress of the situation was finally getting to her as she was progressively growing more conflicted as time went on. Clearly she was not good under a clock. "Stop wasting our time! What else do you want dog?"

Given the twitch on Caster's mouth as she hid her Noble Phantasm under her cloak, Shirou was fairly certain that the girl's servant was also quite put off by the blonde's stupidity in aggravating the one that literally had their lives in his hand.

He spoke up, ignoring the blood that came up from his throat in the process. Why wasn't Avalon taking care of it? "… You will stay there and do nothing while Sakura comes up."

"Is this some sort of sick joke?!" The Edelfelt exploded in disbelief and anger. "Do you intend to mock me until your servant arrives and kills me?! Are you blind?! I defeated the Matou girl to the point that she is barely conscious! She can barely stand or see straight let alone walk to where you are!"

"… No…" A faint whisper was made behind the Witch and her master. "I… I can make it…"

Turning around slowly in disbelief, the Master and Servant looked and saw Sakura slowly making her way to her feet with some effort and breathing with pain. The first thing the two women noticed was that while she was still covered in cuts and bruises from their previous fight, the wounds were noticeably smaller than what they recalled. Given how she was holding her stomach with one hand though, it was pretty obvious that her injuries there were still quite significant.

Marjatta blinked in confusion. "She was barely conscious just five minutes ago. I felt three ribs break when I took her down. How is she able to get back up again so soon?"

Caster rolled her eyes, not that anyone could see it with her hood up. Obviously the child had some sort of healing ability. It appeared to be nothing significant to register as a threat, but it was at least potent enough to enable the girl to regain some mobility fairly quickly.

From what the Servant could tell, it probably had to do with the small bit of excess prana that she detected in the girl's body since she had arrived. She had most likely accessed some minor external source of power before Marjatta arrived in anticipation for any fighting. Nothing significant, but enough that combined with whatever passive thaumaturgy she has in her body she could gradually recover without casting anything.

Given how slowly the child was limping towards the stairs and her savior, the Witch doubted the girl's healing abilities were of any significance.

Shirou mentally winced as his heart spasmed briefly and caused his vision to white out for just as long. Unlike with all his other aches and pains that had disappeared when his body went numb, this particular shock had nothing stopping the painful jolt that went through all his nerves. Even after his heart beat normally again, his vision remained blurry around the edges.

… _So Thirsty. I could go for a nice long drink now..._

He was nearly out of time. Thankfully though, Sakura had made it far enough up the stairs to call the final bluff.

"How many command seals do you have left?" He asked darkly as Sakura made it halfway up the stairs, not that he knew exactly where she was as he had not taken his eyes off of Marjatta and Caster since he exposed himself.

"Do you intend to take me for a fool?" Marjatta growled darkly, her body shaking in rage. "You have already taken away my victory and know of my servant's Noble Phantasm, but now you wish to make me reveal the status of my remaining vital resource as well?!"

The back of Shirou's hand glowed menacingly. "If that is the case…"

"She has two remaining." Caster spoke up, rising her head enough that she could make direct eye contact with the boy. "Forgive me for speaking, but I believe it is faster this way. I hope that you will not punish us for this one transgression…" What were his plans? What did he intend to do? The Witch of Betrayal, who was used time and time again against her will by man and god alike was curious.

"Caster! How… How DARE you go against your master's wishes and betray me like this!?" Marjatta cursed in both disbelief and rage.

_Well she IS the Witch of Betrayal…_ Shirou mentally scoffed at the girl's lack of oversight before nodding slightly to the servant, allowing her pardon for speaking against his previous command. Given the fact that she had just made things go much faster, he was willing to let it slide. He had more important things to do anyways.

"Use your second command seal to make Caster teleport the both of you back to your home."

Whatever derogatory term that Marjatta was about to spew from her mouth was caught dead in her throat as she gazed dumbstruck at the sole male in the room. The painful smirk of satisfaction that had been on Caster's face had dropped, and Sakura had stopped climbing the stairs to look at her savior dubiously.

The word "what?" was clearly scrawled on all of their faces.

"I will not repeat myself." He stated coldly while hoping they would hurry up.

Even though he didn't need Caster alive anymore, the fact of the matter remained that save for summoning Saber and using a command seal to kill off a weakened subpar servant, there was no way he would be able to finish her off. He knew he was risking many lives doing this, but it would take a great deal of time for both Caster and her Master to recover, and they'd still be down to their last seal. They'd be forced into a corner and would no doubt walk on eggshells for a while before they were confident to start up anything in the war again. By that time Shirou should be recovered and have gotten through a good portion of his to do list…

Then again, he wouldn't be surprised if one or both of them would get killed by someone else by that point. Zouken certainly wouldn't mind capitalizing on easy prey given the chance, wherever the hell he was.

That, and from what his father had laid out and the legends about her, Caster had a history of killing off Masters in general. Heck, she had more kills than either Assassin did in all of Kiritsugu's visions regardless of how things turned up. It wouldn't be surprising that she picked a fight with the wrong enemy soon enough now that she was backed into a corner.

Marjatta leveled her gaze at the teen, but it was obvious that she was thinking about the situation very hard as her eyes seemed to fade in and out of focus occasionally. "Are you an idiot? What is there to prevent me from simply forcing you to summon your servant and then do exactly that, forcing you to waste one of your seals? You have just revealed a weakness in the situation to me."

Of course, if she could have done this earlier, she could have escaped with Sakura and not have shown Shirou Rule Breaker, but no one bothered to bring that up.

"The difference is one way will give you a chance to return home alive, while the other will ensure that I will either hunt you down, or find your body when the war is over and destroy your circuits and crest before sending it back to your family and pictures to the Clocktower." The Emiya rasped in a final tone.

More blood was coming up his throat now. His heart was beating more erratically. His vision was half blacked out and the rest was shaded red. Judging from the moisture he felt around his mouth, he wouldn't be surprised if he was bleeding from the nose and made a silent thanks that his shroud was the perfect color to hide its presence. The deep musk of the catacombs prevented anyone from smelling the blood too. Regrettably the small blessings didn't help him from feeling as if his entire body was slowly imploding however as the pain slowly crawled back into his being like a sadistic disease.

… But he held on. He was too close to finishing things up to pass out now. "I swear as a representative of the Queen and the Barthomelloi on this."

That last bit was honestly useless as far as he was concerned, but Shirou knew that any Noble worth their salt would take such a declaration seriously considering he was a pseudo representative of the Vice Director. It just went to show how utterly ridiculous higher society could be sometimes. Being a royal murdering dog in some places made you more important than being a noble, a productive member of society, or even a doctor.

When it came to dealing with nobles, the line he just said tended to end the conversation in his favor. In their minds, swearing on the lineage of the Barthomelloi was akin to a member of the Church swearing on the Lord, more so if you're a high ranking member of the organization.

Then again, there were very few people who were dumb enough to dishonor the name of the Barthomelloi and managed to die at an old age free and or intact… let alone live.

The room was silent for once as Marjatta hesitated on what she should do. The conflict of deciding of what to do was clearly written on her face. Caster on the other hand had schooled her face into one of disinterest and discomfort as she continued to slowly heal her stomach with what little prana she had left in her being.

As far as the Servant was concerned, the smart move was to call the boy's bluff and make him waste a command seal. The weaker Saber's position was in the war, the better. After they escaped, they would simply gather their things and make way to Caster's Workshop without telling anyone and bide their time. The boy couldn't do anything to her circuits if he was dead after all.

He was weak for whatever reason, so they had time to prepare adequate defenses, summon Assassin, and gain more allies needed to fight back. No doubt once word that Saber and Rider of all classes had joined forces, and that Emiya could use Noble Phantasms, reached the other masters will join together as well to counteract them. Then when everyone is fighting and distracted, they can order Assassin to kill all the masters.

Simple. Easy. To the point. The few details that would need to be addressed in this plan could be solved later without much hassle. Heck, she might not even have to sacrifice her other self if things went according to plan. Saber's incredible potential to channel prana would more than suit her needs quite well if her assumption about the grail was correct…

"… By the power of my command seal I command you Servant Caster…" The witch's master spoke up in a commanding, albeit scornful and distasteful tone, causing her Servant to look at her with surprise and a hint of disgust. So much so that the thought of actually saying anything and provoking the enemy into summoning Saber had been completely forgotten. Surely the girl wasn't going to give into the boy's pointless threat?

"Teleport us back to Edelfelt Manor."

Yes, yes she was...

o. o. o.

In the woods to the southeast:

"▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅!"

"▅▅▅▅ ▅▅▅ ▅▅▅▅▅▅ ▅▅▅▅▅ ▅▅▅▅▅▅!"

"▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅!"

Illya shivered in disbelief as she looked at the absolute destruction around her. Crushed, fractured, split, splintered, and otherwise just completely annihilated described pretty much everything, and she did mean EVERYTHING, that had encompassed the square kilometer below. The girl would not be surprised if the maps covering the area would have to be remade once it was discovered.

Nearly a quarter of a year ago she had summoned Berserker, without the grail, without aid, without mercy. In exchange for her torture and pain, she received a force of unstoppable nature in the form of a black giant that stood over two and a half meters tall. Every time he moved she hurt, but in turn her enemies died almost comically. Nothing thrown at the giant could hurt him. The hottest fire, the hardest stone, the strongest winds. The monster was untouchable.

She loved and hated him. She hated the pain he made her experience just by existing, but at the same time he was the first thing to truly care and protect her outside of the Einzbern since… _him._ More importantly, the servant was _hers._ True she still belonged to her family in the mountains, but Berserker and all his power was in turn her property, not theirs.There was no alternative motive for the mindless beast. No secret plans, or conflicting interest. Only the desire to destroy on her behalf, and he did so without any trouble…

That was until she tried to kill the fool that dared to call himself her brother.

Even now she had trouble understanding how on earth the Emiya had managed to accomplish such a feat. She had anticipated that perhaps one or two of the other servants in the war might be an issue to deal with, but a single magus? The very idea of such a thing was absurd! Berserker had at one point slaughtered a dozen magi at the same time when she was still testing his abilities in Germany, yet this one boy proved to be too much to get?

As bizarre as the scenario had been, Illya had to relent to the fact that there may have been more than just hot air to her stepbrother's rather extensive reputation. She still didn't believe he killed an Apostle Ancestor though.

After that night, the girl resolved herself to not underestimate any potential opponents in the war. If a single Master was strong enough to hold off Berserker even for a short amount of time, then who knows what the other Servants could accomplish? Still, they would all eventually fall. Her Heracles was without a doubt the strongest servant. No one could match his raw power…

Or at least that was what she had thought until now.

Two hundred meters long and at least forty high it was on all four legs, each digit ending in claws that were longer than half the leg it was attached to. Its mouth was massive enough to be nearly a fourth of its length, making it appear to be a portal into another world that would suck in everything imaginable when completely opened. More than a fourth went to its tremendous tail that ended in three whip-like appendages. In between the two was a black furry upper body littered with metallic armor like growths that appeared like the brine that grows off of a ship.

All in all, the tremendous creature appeared more like a twisted mobile land bound whale than a dog.

The King of Earth. The Black Dog of Destruction. The Bell of Ending. The Beast of God. The Whale Dog. All of these names and more were given to the creature that served as Merem Solomon's right leg, and for good reason as the albino girl had witnessed firsthand.

"▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅!"

"I must say I'm quite impressed." The "dog's" owner smiled in wonder at the destruction below as the two monsters roared once more for what seemed like the millionth time that hour. It was an unusual chorus as the larger beast seemed to utter multiple deep layers of sound that echoed off one another and literally shake her to the bones, while the latter of the two was barely at a higher pitch but had an animalistic ferocity to it that could not be mistaken for anything else. "I was afraid that I had accidentally taken you out of the war when my right leg crushed your Servant, but then he surprised me with that revival skill of his. Even more so in that he became immune to being killed that way afterwards."

Illya wanted to snap back that he had no right to be the surprised one when her Berserker had been the one that was killed five times now by SHEER BRUTE FORCE. She didn't see how on earth such a thing was even possible!

What made things worse was that this large creature was obviously built for fighting swarms of smaller opponents. Its wide sweeping motions and attacks couldn't be designed for anything else unless it was fighting against one of its own kin. Armies. Monsters. Salvos of high level Thaumaturgy. These were things this creature could be efficiently be used against. Not a lone, albeit rather large Servant.

True she could give the creature the benefit of the doubt when it crushed and tore Berserker apart with its building sized claws, but even so her Servant should have been able to destroy the beast by now!

She almost thought the fight was as good as done after her Servant was eaten (death number four), and had subsequently torn his way out of the "dog's" stomach as violently as anyone could imagine, but that only seemed to enrage the larger beast even more and cracked its whip like tail at Berserker and virtually split him in half, providing death five and sending the giant man through at least fifty trees in the process.

Of course the battle had not been one sided as the massive beast sported its own list of injuries with broken teeth and claws, torn up skin, a hole from its stomach to the outside, one of its tails ripped off, and its right front leg partially cut in half.

All in all, Berserker was getting very good results for a man fighting something roughly a thousand times his size.

"▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅!"

"H-how?" The girl shivered as her sole anchor of power continued to battle mindlessly against its foe, roaring just as loud if not louder than the beast. "How on earth is it able to kill Berserker so easily? He has divine protection! Only A ranked mysteries and higher can harm him! He's the strongest! Being simply crushed by that Phantasmal Beast shouldn't be enough to kill him!"

Merem shrugged. "If your Servant was up against such a creature like a Phantasmal Beast, maybe that would be the case. However, my familiars are not Phantasmal Beasts, but Divine Beasts." He patted the creature he was sitting on with his right hand. "The more of them that are out, the less the rules of Gaia are followed."

Illya's already pale complexion turned ghost white as she looked down once more, but not at the battle between the black beasts. Instead she gazed upon the rainbow colored manta ray like creature that she had been sitting on since the battle had begun. In the initial throws of the chaos, the Einzbern had not paid attention to the vampire as his left leg turned into the creature, which should be noted is just as big as its whale dog counterpart.

Illya had confidence in Berserker's power and ability, but even she knew it was suicidal to stay even remotely close to this battle and ran away as fast as her prepubescent legs could take her. As she did so, Merem's airborne familiar creature "swam" in the air with its master on top of it, circled around the battle, and then picked up the endangered homunculus with its tail while she was trying to get away from the battle.

After she had stopped panicking and realized that she was stuck alone with an Apostle Ancestor that wasn't going to make a meal out of her, she decided she might as well watch the show as there was nothing else she could do without getting killed.

It was an interesting experience in more than one way. She had of course met the occasional magus who had lost a limb or finger to their experiments and was still very capable in their craft. This however was the first time she was in the presence of an individual, let alone in the shape of a boy, with no legs and a single arm that made her genuinely fear for her life.

She would have laughed about the absurdity of it all if she wasn't a barrel roll away from falling to her death.

Regardless of how absurd the matchup was, llya had expected Berserker to win without too much trouble. Yes there was a ridiculous size difference between the two opponents, but with her Servant's Noble Phantasm protecting him, she had been confident that he would not have trouble at all ending the fight.

But that was when she had assumed that the target was just a powerful Phantasmal Beast. A Divine Beast though… a creature that was beyond age, power, and accurate definition by modern standards… Berserker might as well have been fighting another Servant. Every move, every breath, every thought of a Divine Beast might as well be considered a mystery bordering on True Magic as far as modern Magi were concerned regardless of how mundane they appeared to be. It would certainly explain why the Mad Servant was dying from such simple attacks at least.

To be in the presence of not one, but two of them was unheard of in this day and age since they were all supposedly extinct or in another plane of existence. Even the lesser but still immensely powerful Phantasmal races were all but gone from this world, leaving only a sparse few Monstrous Beasts around the world in places most humans can't or won't access.

"▅▅▅▅ ▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅ ▅▅▅ ▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅!"

A tremendous deafening inhuman roar of pain echoed through the sky as Berserker once more proved why he was deemed humanity's strongest. Having used his superior speed and agility, the madman had somehow found himself on top of the giant dog. Instead of attacking the beast with his sword like he normally did, the giant had instead in a moment of slightly greater creativity, ripped off one of the brine like growths on the beast with his bare hands and jammed it down through the Divine Beasts massive skull, bathing him in its red blood in the process.

"Your servant really is quite a handful." Merem commented, clearly impressed and not at all worried about his limb's state of pain. "No wonder a good part of the world recognizes him as the strongest legend. I'm impressed you can manage him as well as you can, even if you are a homunculus."

"Of course. Berserker won't lose to anyone." Illya eyed the vampire next to her warily. Despite his seemingly innocent demeanor, she had no doubt that he could kill her at any time. She often played the same role herself when she was in control of a situation, even though this was obviously not one of those cases. "… What do you want Apostle? You can kill me, and in turn Berserker, whenever you wish, but instead you are simply playing. You can hold me hostage and force my servant to fight for you, but instead you are doing nothing. Why are you interfering with the war? Doesn't the grail's power to grant any wish tempt you in the slightest?"

Merem briefly glanced at the albino before donning a knowing smile. "I am not interested in the grail or this ritual, though it did take me a while to remember why it seemed so familiar to me. If I was inclined to participate in the slightest, I would have already done something about it years ago."

The Einzbern blinked in confusion. Years ago? Familiar?

"What I am attracted to however is something far more entertaining and intriguing, and I have no intention to allow it to stop before any fruit has had a chance to be born." The Ancestor continued. "Your arrival at the residence would have put an end to things before they had even begun."

"And what are you waiting for exactly?" The girl frowned.

"The wonderfully exciting beginning of something new." Merem smiled eagerly as if he was the child-like age he appeared to be.

"▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅!"

Down below, Berserker had finally been thrown off the massive demon after the creature had rolled over a few times, and had returned to attacking with his massive stone axe sword, roaring as violently as its tremendous target and shattering the fifth claw since the battle started.

"The beginning of something new?" Illya blinked in confusion. What could the boy mean by that? Better yet, why did she care? She was going to die by the end of the war anyways, so such a thing shouldn't even concern her in the first place.

Before she could even make a comment on the subject however, a small bird flew by her face and landed on the Apostle's shoulder and began to make noises.

"Hm?" Merem blinked and turned to the avian curiously. "Is that right? And what about the one I told you about?" He waited as the bird chirped a few times in his ear. "I see. So it is as I assumed unfortunately." He sighed. "It's a good thing I planned ahead then. Very well. Please go on and signal the others to go home. Thank you for your help."

"Do you often talk to animals?" Illya raised an eyebrow skeptically as the bird flew away.

"Oh yes." The vampire nodded. "You'd be surprised at what they know and they enjoy gossiping quite a bit when they trust you enough. However we will have to talk about that another time. There is no longer any need to hold you back my lady, and I doubt that you will wish for your servant to die any more than he already has."

The albino didn't argue against Merem's suggestion. Berserker had lost nearly half his lives against that single beast, and even if he had come on top and she continued the battle, she still had this flying creature to deal with… and whatever the boy's right arm could more than likely turn into.

Illya grit her teeth in frustration as she admitted to herself that the impossible was true… that Merem Solomon was a person that she and Berserker would not be able to win against.

With a silent command, she urged Berserker to distance himself from the creature and hold his ground despite being in the middle of hacking off a slice of meat the size of a truck off of the beast and waited to see what would happen.

Despite her skepticism of the vampire's sincerity, the giant whale like creature didn't pursue her servant despite the savage wounds it had suffered and stayed in place while making rather loud and deep noises. If the girl wasn't so unsure of the creature's genealogy, she could have sworn that it was acting like a normal wounded dog would act.

She couldn't help but squeal in surprise as the manta creature she had been riding on wrapped its tail around her waist and gently lowered her to the ground near her servant. Moments later, the flying creature had seemingly twisted on itself, shrinking rapidly until it had once more resumed its form as the boy's left leg.

Regardless of how absurd the difference in their two states was, Illya couldn't help but shudder with the realization that both seemed impossibly… _natural_ for the Divine Beast. It was as if her very existence accepted such an unnatural phenomena as something that is normal.

She barely noticed Merem landing unharmed on his "dog", and the second creature followed the first's suit and turned into his other limb just as easily and _naturally_ as the first, though his right leg was notably cut up and bleeding in several places.

"Well then." The seemingly young boy smiled sheepishly. "I admit that this was not exactly an ideal first meeting, but it has been a pleasure to speak with you."

"The same cannot unfortunately be said in return Apostle." Illya frowned and pouted slightly, but never taking her eyes off of the still very real threat. "You were not exactly accommodating."

The vampire laughed. "I deny nothing I'm afraid, though you were not exactly willing to talk things out in the first place."

The red eyed girl frowned as she remembered why she lost her composure in the first place. "I am an Einzbern. I refuse to accept being addressed by that man's name." She narrowed her gaze. "How do you even know who my sperm donor is in the first place?"

Merem blinked in surprise before sighing in disappointment. "Let's just say I have sources and leave it at that. From what I have learned about your father, he was quite an intriguing human. There's far more depth to him than most would ever assume or bother to contemplate. I'm somewhat depressed that you are among them."

Illya grit her teeth and clenched her fists. Her reaction was enough to nearly set Berserker on the vampire again. "How DARE you lecture me about that man! He sacrificed mama and threw me away just to spite my family and never came for me once! Then just to throw it into my face, he adopted that idiot to be his legacy and legend in the tower!"

Despite the girl's outrage, Merem looked at her with only pity. "… Believe what you want child. I never had the honor of meeting your father, however at this point I believe I unfortunately understand him better than you ever did."

Had anyone else said that, Illya would have killed them on the spot. The only reason why she didn't this time was simply because she was not able to and was lucid enough to remember the fact, if only just.

He turned to the darkness and walked away calmly with his back seemingly exposed. "Out of respect to his wishes though, I will give you some information to dwell on: Your brother was not trained by Kiritsugu Emiya to be the next Magus Killer. He was not raised to be a magus. Nor was he to seek a future in the Clocktower either. Shirou Emiya was merely designed to fight in this very war." The Apostle disappeared into the shadows of the forest.

"And his goal does not involve winning the Grail."

o. o. o.

By the River's Edge:

"Oi…" Lancer growled in irritation as he stood on guard a good twenty meters away from Archer. The concrete sidewalk, road, hill and various other pieces of construction that made up the area had all suffered some sort of damage in the process of the battle and sported either deep gouges or were cut in half. "What's the deal? You're holding back."

"My master told me to keep some of my tricks to myself, unless you've forgotten." Archer snorted with his swords at his side in its usual taunting position. "And don't pretend that you are not holding back either. There are only a handful of Lancers with your kind of speed and ferocity. Not to mention your demonic spear and the fact that your armor has hints of Irish design. You're better than this Hound of Ireland."

The man in blue's eyes flashed dangerously before he let out a dry chuckle. "Heh. Looks like being too famous is a bit of a bad thing from time to time. I would ask that you give me your name too, but you're not the type to humor your opponents."

"Your insight is astounding." The knight in red and black replied dryly. "You did not answer my question. You are not the type of fighter to do so. To be blunt, it concerns me more than the safety of my master at the moment."

Lancer blinked in disbelief for a moment before spitting to the side. "Tch. I feel bad for the girl then. If you gotta know though, I've heard that there's something off with the grail."

Archer's eyes twitched briefly, but still maintained their unwavering hawk like gaze. "And you believe such a ridiculous thing?"

"Not completely, but from what I've seen and heard something's definitely different from what we were informed when summoned. My master doesn't know as much as I do, but even she can tell something's up." The Hound grunted reluctantly. "If what I was told is right, then killing off the other servants will only make things go to hell faster until we find out more about what is going on. So I'm holding back for now unfortunately."

"How pragmatic of you. It must be torture doing this I'm sure." The mystery servant drawled sarcastically, getting a look of irritation form his opponent.

"Oi. I don't mind killing a strong opponent for the sake of it, but I draw the line if doing so screws me and a huge number of innocent people over in the end. I am a heroic spirit after all." Lancer snorted as his stance lowered just a bit. "Though because I'm doing that, I get to fight more strong guys more often, which is why I wanted to do in the first place!"

The twenty meters were covered in an instant by the servant in blue and sparks flew once more between the red lance and the black and white short swords…

A short distance away, the two masters were having their own battle, but one that was less evenly matched.

Rin yelled in frustration as she set off another one of her weaker jewels at the ground between her and her opponent in order to gain more distance from the pugilist. The valuable gem exploded with a great deal of power and utilizing the earth based spell it had been set with before being used, converted the concrete into small but deadly pieces of hardened and pressured shrapnel that were sprayed in the Enforcer's general direction with no gaps to slip in between.

She didn't stop there however, and the Tohsaka then jumped back as quickly as possible while her hands each moved on their own, one grabbing another jewel from her pockets while the other pointed forward and fired off as many Fin curses as she could pull off for additional suppressing fire. Her bombardment was constant and her eyes never strayed from her target lest she be killed.

She couldn't hold back against an opponent like this. There was no room for pointless things such as talking when up against a foe that outmatched her by this extreme.

Her panic was well founded as her elder foe continued to charge forward with her arms crossed in front of her, granted at a slower speed than Rin was retreating. Despite the bombardment she was undertaking, the unstoppable force that was Bazett Fraga McRemitz did not falter in the slightest as she continued forward like a juggernaut while shielding her vitals.

Every shard of stone, every black curse that collided with her body shattered or was knocked aside against the greater force with little to no damage done being done against the latter. She was just far too protected against the natural and the unnatural to be hit with anything less than higher level spells… or a speeding car. Either would be welcome at this point by Rin.

The only part of the woman's head that was visible was a small part of her side that peeking out from behind her arms and allowing the woman to stare down her unnerved opponent with a cold and sharp glare that said everything that needed to be said.

_You cannot stop me. You cannot escape me. I will get you._

Bazett had been the only one to take damage so far in the fight, but that was not saying much. A few cuts on her body and suit mattered little so long as she still had the power to charge forward and the runes on her person remained intact. Some minor cuts littered her arms, lower torso, and legs, but they were all easily ignored. The small gash on the top of her head that she received in a moment of carelessness was slightly more annoying, but only because the blood coming from it was slightly dripping over her left eye and impairing her eyesight to a small degree.

It did nothing to change the fact that if Bazett got within arm's reach of Rin, the fight would be over.

This game of cat and mouse had pretty much made the entirety of the battle. Rin had originally been confident that she could at least force Bazett into a corner with her charged jewels, advanced thaumaturgy, and crest, but as things dragged on she realized that despite all of these advantages, she could not trump the Irishwoman's raw speed, strength, defense and experience. Granted she did not DARE risk using the gems she had been charging for the past ten years due to the constant presence of Fragarach, but still the difference in combat ability was far too much.

Had Rin known about and prepared for the woman, she would have probably been able to fight to greater efficiency and planned something. A few bounded fields. Some conceptual weapons. A spell that preys on runecraft in some way. Maybe even an extra familiar or two.

However, that was not the case as she had spent an ungodly amount of time before the war trying to figure out a way to counteract Shirou's primary weapons...

… Which she shamelessly did.

The best she could do right now was try to survive and hope she could come up with something fast, or else she might be forced to do something drastic such as use one of her command seals to quickly summon Archer and kill the woman before she could do the same… something she highly doubted Shirou would appreciate.

However as with everything else, this fight too must eventually come to an end.

Despite being trained and skilled in martial arts and combat by both Kirei and Shirou to some extent, Rin was nowhere near what one would consider experienced. Combined with the fact that she had constantly been back pedaling for nearly fifteen minutes, there should be little wonder that the girl finally messed up and tripped over the curb between the sidewalk and the street next to it.

The poor girl didn't even manage to fall to the ground completely before Bazett came on top of her like a demonic freight train and hammered her stomach into the concrete with her fist, cracking the ground underneath.

Pain unlike anything Rin had ever experienced echoed throughout her very being as her stomach was practically turned inside out with her lungs matching suit. Had she not been preoccupied with being in shock and emptying bodily fluids from her mouth, the girl would have thanked Shriou immensely for training her in refining her abilities in self reinforcement, as she was certain the blow would be more than enough to turn a normal human's organs into paste.

Still, she was not going to be able to get back up from being hit like that for a while. She wasn't unconscious, but being able to form words and sentences, or breathe properly was beyond her.

Standing straight back up slowly, the enforcer looked down upon her downed target coldly. The girl was still alive. Temporarily crippled and no longer able to fight, but certainly alive. She had delivered a normally lethal blow to a normal human, but it appeared that the girl was good enough in personal reinforcement to not only survive, but remain conscious.

Good. It meant that she wouldn't be a hindrance for later if they needed to team up.

"You're not bad." Bazett stated calmly as she stood straight up once again. "I didn't think I'd have so much trouble catching you like this with my new equipment, but it seems Shirou was right. You are quite talented."

Rin could only gasp and glare sparingly at the woman in response. Understandable since she couldn't really control her lungs at the moment.

"I didn't come to kill you. Not this time at least." The woman continued before she was distracted briefly by a small flock of birds that flew overhead. "I have no need to stall you anymore either."

She just barely jumped out of the way of a ghost white disc that nearly cut her head off.

"Rin!" Archer shouted as he appeared next to his master almost instantly, grabbed her, and then jumped away just as Lancer landed next to his own master. Moments later his lance blurred in the night and hammered the spinning blade that had flown back towards his master with prejudice into the earth.

"Sorry about that." The man in blue said, but with no feeling behind it. "Bastard caught me off guard with those annoying swords of his when you downed the kid. He kept on chucking copies of them around me that wouldn't go away even when I hit them to buy time to get here. Makes me think he's a Chinese, Indian, or Middle Eastern legend from the way he kept on using them. Plus he's got that tan."

Bazett frowned at the servant in red and black, who returned the look with focus, yet indifference.

"Whoever that guy is, he's good." Lancer continued. "He could tell who I was just from how I fought and determined that my lance was demonic." The red spear spun so quickly in his hands that it looked like a crimson disk before it suddenly stopped again. "Hey, I know that we were only supposed to test the girl out, but I'm really interested to see what else this guy can do. I've been itching for a real fight since we held off Berserker."

"We were almost killed by Berserker." The enforcer glared at her partner.

"The best ones always have a good level of mortal risk to them." The demigod smirked. "Archer here seems to know of that pretty well."

"If you are insinuating that I am some sort of thrill seeker, I'm afraid you'll be disappointed." The enemy servant replied evenly. He was at a distinct disadvantage. With Rin immobile she couldn't protect herself, and Lancer's Master was without a doubt someone he could not ignore. Regrettably, with Lancer here he might be forced to do just that. If things got chaotic, Rin would all but be assured to be killed in the process regardless of what he did.

Unless of course he used…

"We're done for the day Lancer. This girl isn't a threat to us. At the very least she might be able to take out some of the other servants by the time we meet again, though I doubt it." Bazett stated dismissively and began to walk away, surprising the enemy servant in the process. "Keep an eye on them until I'm out of range, and then follow me back."

"You're the boss." The man in blue shrugged as he relaxed his stance and casually looked down at the stunned Archer and Rin. "You two better be grateful. I'm practically getting blue balls holding back for so god damn long." He paused and gave them a deadly look. "And if you make a comment relating to that statement and my outfit, I will kill you now regardless of what my master ordered."

It was probably a good thing the Tohsaka had yet to regain control over lungs, else there would have been some choice colorful language spoke by her at this point in time.

"Wouldn't dream of it." Archer rolled his eyes and pretended to ignore the murderous glare his master was giving the enemy servant.

Lancer frowned. "You're a bit of a smart ass you know that? Not much of a talker either. I doubt you'd be a decent drinking buddy."

"So I've been told. I never was that interested in alcohol to begin with." The counter guardian shrugged before looking over Lancer's shoulder. "Though now that your master has left, we could just resume where we left off without interruptions. I doubt you would object to that."

"Don't tempt me." Sighed the Hound of Ireland. "I'm still on a minor high and if we fight anymore I won't be able to hold back, and then my master will get all pissed at me." He nodded at Rin. "Your master's already got a firsthand experience of what happens when you piss that woman off."

Archer looked down at his master analytically, ignoring the attempted vulgar terms coming out of her mouth and the vengeful look on her face. "… Personally I still think you got the better deal personality wise." He looked up at his enemy and ignored the glare his master was giving him. "I'll keep in mind what you said earlier, but don't think that makes us allies."

Lancer snorted. "Of course not. You piss me off. I've already decided that I'm going to kill you at some point, just not right now. There's more important things to deal with at the moment."

Before Archer could speak up again, Rin froze in his arms and grabbed his armor. "… kura… Sakura…" She croaked as well as she could with her wounded diaphragm.

"Eh?" Lancer blinked in confusion. "What's got the little shrew worked up?"

EMIYA's eyes widened momentarily as he realized what Rin was getting at before eyeing the enemy. "It wasn't my master's home that was attacked. It was the Matou household." He stood up slowly. "You are working with them weren't you?"

The Irishman raised an eyebrow and crossed his arms. "And if I was, would it make a difference? This is the Grail War. We're all enemies unless the conditions say otherwise."

Archer pretended to ignore the sudden stillness in his arms. Rin was probably realizing that Lancer was correct in this, but he didn't bother to address it. "You're right, but that still didn't answer my question."

He closed his eyes and groaned tiredly. "Look I don't know who started the bash over there, but I can tell you that Master and I had nothing to do with it alright? We just ran interference to get info and stall you for some reason." He shrugged. "Why? Beats me, but it at least does something to pass the time. It's boring just waiting for days on end for something to happen."

Yawning, the servant began to walk away. "Regardless, you have two options at the moment. Either pick up where we left off, endangering the girl here in the process, or run back to what I've been told is your neighborhood and check up on the Matou Master."

Lancer didn't even make it halfway to the nearby buildings before Archer and Rin were out of sight.

o. o. o.

Edelfelt Manor:

Luvia grit her teeth in frustration as she sat in her living room and dwelled heavily on the events in the past few hours. The tea in front of her that Sebastian had made was left untouched. She was not worried about being found by any other masters or servants as Caster had erected several bounded fields that would render the building invisible, undetectable, and unable to be thought up in passing to other magi and servants so long as they weren't focusing too hard or looking at it directly.

Even if it was found, the Princess of Colchis still had her Ace, which unfortunately could only be used in certain circumstances…

The night had been going so well for them at first. Their assault on the Matou residence had started off smoothly with Rider on the defensive the entire time and distracted while Marjatta had begun to sneak around the area to get to the enemy master directly. Luvia would act as distant backup, hiding in the woods nearby in case her sister got into any trouble or if another Master arrived to join the fun. It was a strategy that would take both enemies out cleanly without much issue…

Then things progressively got worse.

It first started when Rider hijacked one of her Caster's bulls and immolated the entirety of the woods she was hiding in. It was only due to dumb luck that she managed to avoid getting trampled or burnt to a crisp from the initial blaze.

Had the servant not been so focused on the two spellcasters, Luvia would have been certain that she would have been found out and attacked. Despite that though, she still had a difficult time getting out of the magical blaze itself, especially since Rider's loop around the forest had spread the inferno far more than she had anticipated.

She had found herself in at least three dead ends before she finally discovered a section of burning forest that was thin enough for her to make a path out of without exhausting herself.

She then had to waste some more prana to get rid of all the smoke and ash off of her body.

During this time Saber had run interference on a Motorcycle of all bloody things, teamed up with Rider, and ran off after the two Casters like wolves after very plump sheep. Luvia had gained as much as she utilized the spell that allows magi to look and hear from the perspective of their familiars. She shivered at the realization that Saber had A ranked magic resistance. No doubt the servant of the sword was just a great a threat to them as Berserker…

Come to think of it, it was somewhat unfair that so many servants in this war had such high level magic or general protection abilities. Rider, Lancer, and Saber all had at least B ranked magic resistance, and Berserker had… well whatever he had it certainly extended past thaumaturgy. If Archer had anything above C ranked magic resistance too she might as well wait out the entire war... not that it wasn't a viable strategy with her servant, but still.

After checking on her servant, Luvia then utilized her crest to observe how her sister was doing. One of the many interesting traits of the split crest from the Edelfelt family was that those that shared crests could utilize unique magic with one another. Normally these spells were used to share information with one another, or raise the ability and efficiency of joint spell casting should the pair be working on a large project, and was a great boon to furthering and accelerating the family's studies.

It was also great for mercenary work as the elder sister was soon watching her sister fight the Matou girl from Marjatta's point of view. She had missed much, but she had still managed to bear witness to Sakura's façade break down.

She had originally felt bad for going after Sakura, but now? Now she just wanted the girl gone so she didn't have to deal with the girl herself!

From far down the road, Luvia switched her focus back and forth between her sister and her servant's fights worriedly as one was slowly being destroyed by her opponents and the other was fighting an unexpectedly unstable yet powerful foe. She couldn't move closer to the Mansion as there were no suitable hiding spots that didn't risk getting her burned to death by the raging flames in the area, so she stayed in place.

If she summoned back her servant now, then her sister's would without a doubt be killed instantly, but if she told her sister to summon hers now, then she might open her sibling up to an attack by the Matou girl.

It should be noted that because she was distracted while focusing between two fights and trying to keep an eye on the road and the massive prana rich fires that were still near her, Luvia didn't notice the earth shaking slightly on occasion, nor the two loud but distant primal roars in the distance, nor the massive sources of prana coming from the same direction.

It was only through sheer luck that her sister summoned her Caster first, not because she realized or bothered to find out that the heroic spirit was in danger, but because she needed help dealing with all those… _worms. _Luvia had no doubt that Marjatta would be rather crass about the turn of events, it was a price worth paying in order to keep her sister alive, and it ended up saving her Servant in the end anyways. Moments later she remembered about her own servant and barely managed to call the woman to her side before Saber cut her into two.

Luvia briefly made a mental note that Servants could indeed suffer from whiplash before breathing a breath of relief that her servant was okay and that Marjatta was safe…

Before her heart went up her throat as she watched the unmistakable figure of Shirou Emiya dressed for battle stagger into the blaze that was the Matou Mansion and no doubt to where her sister was still residing with her servant and Sakura.

It was a stupid mistake. She had been too far and too distracted from the entrance of the house to detect the Magus Killer earlier, and now it was too late. There was no way that she could catch up to Shirou before he got to her sister now. If he had his servant with him, which he most likely did, then a straight upfront confrontation was out of the question. Caster was too weak to do anything, be it summoning or any other spells.

It still did not stop the girl from following him from a distance while trying to frantically contact her sister through her crest and warn her that she might die within the next thirty seconds. Not for the first time, Luvia cursed her sister's exceedingly short temper and inability to focus on anything but her ranting when stressed while she watched her sibling kick around the Matou in unbecoming anger.

At the very least she could have killed the girl and get her out of the way before things went to hell! Whatever her Caster had planned for the girl was irrelevant compared to the fact that the most dangerous Master in the war was right on top of them!

Luvia had managed to make it halfway down the catacombs before she watched Caster's stomach get impaled by a Noble Phantasm. At first she thought that it was Lancer's, but her ability to record information about other Servants as a Master quickly disproved that theory. Watching the weapon disintegrate much like every other projection that Emiya made only furthered her suspicion that it was not Lancer's doing…

She had seen and heard it all. She heard Shirou's threats of summoning Saber. She paled at the revelation that Saber and Rider were coming back as they spoke. She shivered as his eyes shone blood red and silver, indicating he had inhuman blood in him. She swore as Caster revealed her Noble Phantasm to him. She cursed at Sakura recovering and retreating back to her savior. She broke out in a cold sweat as she learned how Shirou managed to kill Louvre…

And yet she did nothing.

She had been in the perfect position to take out Shirou. He didn't seem to notice her presence for some reason, and if she moved just a bit further down she probably could have chosen from a wide range of spells that would have finished him off…

But she didn't. Her side was too weakened, she rationalized. Neither Caster were in any condition to even prepare for another confrontation, and Saber was one of the worst enemies to go up against, even if the siblings teamed up again. All it took was for Shirou to think that something was wrong before, during, or after the ambush, and Saber would appear and tear them to shreds. The Servant of the Sword's mana level was so massive that even if Luvia did kill Shirou, his servant would still last more than long enough to kill them all should he manage to bring her there with his dying breath.

Instead, she advised her sister from a distance. Now that the girl's temper had been calmed somewhat, she had managed to talk to her and give her advice so that she wouldn't get herself killed. Actually she had advised against Caster revealing her Noble Phantasm since she had determined that he could replicate them, but obviously the servant had decided for them.

However the biggest hurdle she had was convincing her sister to use her second command seal to escape and not provoke the Emiya. As it stood, the last thing they wanted was to further provoke the team of Rider and Saber. Shirou knew where they lived, and he was the bloody Magus Killer. The longer they stayed out of his line of sight, the better a chance they had to survive the next time they fought him. Provoking him to go after them as soon as he recovered was the worst thing they could do…

So as soon as she determined that her sister finally followed her advice, Luvia followed suit and ran outside of the Matou property as fast as possible without looking back to make sure that she wasn't around when Saber and Rider returned guns blazing. They had already wasted three command seals that night and got nothing but information on their enemies. There was no point in further risking their situation anymore than they already had.

Emiya and Matou were allied. Emiya could replicate Noble Phantasms, and thus was a credible threat to all servants. Saber was horrifically strong to the point that she wasn't even wearing her battle attire for her fight and was still kicking both Casters around easily. Rider was the Legendary Gorgon Queen Medusa. Shirou possessed inhuman blood of some kind. Matou was mentally unstable and had knowledge of very efficient absorption thaumaturgy. Shirou knew of Casters' identities and could most likely replicate Rule Breaker. Matou would need to relocate herself, most likely to the Emiya household, meaning that two masters and servants would be in one location.

These were the basic facts that Luvia could determine from their confrontation.

All of them however were secondary to the main issue that was haunting her and her Servant for the past hour.

Neither Marjatta nor her Servant had been seen in the Edelfelt Mansion at all that night. Their possessions were gone, their materials disappeared… and neither could be contacted or located through any means.

o. o. o.

Emiya Residence:

"Hurry!" Sakura coughed as she was carried by Rider and led Saber through the back yard with the blonde female carrying her unconscious Master on her back.

Less than ten seconds after Caster and her Master had disappeared, Shirou had collapsed back against the wall of the catacombs and passed out before he even hit the stairs. Thankfully he had been high up enough that Zouken's surviving worms wouldn't reach him, but it was still not a good place for a person to fall unconscious. Sakura, despite being exhausted and injured as she was, had managed to drag him a good way up the long stairs before Rider had materialized right next to her to help…

… And was nearly bitten by the unconscious Shirou for her trouble. Neither of them missed the blank look he had in his slit blood red eyes, nor his elongated canines.

Those were the first signs they got that Shirou was not simply suffering from a case of severe Prana exhaustion. That there was, in fact, something else going on with the Master of Saber...

It was only after Sakura shoved some of the Emiya's holy shroud in his mouth that Rider could manage to move the both of them up the stairs without worrying about her master attempting to bite her again. Strangely enough, though Shirou kept trying to bite Rider, Sakura didn't seem to even register to him despite being so close.

After dragging him up to Saber, who was waiting outside on her motorcycle, they all bolted for the Emiya residence with Rider carrying Shirou and Sakura sitting shotgun to Saber. Rider somehow managed to keep up with the Motorcycle for the most part. Although that might just be because she didn't have to dodge the late night traffic through the residential area. As such, all four of them managed to arrive at Shirou's home at the same time.

Not bothering to park the bike in Shirou's workshop, they rushed the boy inside. Saber hovered over her progressively thrashing Master as Rider put him down and helped take him inside.

All three of them were deeply worried, for different reasons about this development. Each of the females ranged widely from the others with their individual thoughts, concerns, and fears.

Sakura was frantic about the health about her lover and the only person she believed could truly save her from the hell that was her existence. Without Shirou, there was no real purpose in her life. He was the one who gave her purpose. Who gave her hope. Who gave her back the relationship she had with her sister. Who made her forget about Zouken and the hell that her life. Without Shirou, Sakura was certain that she would not be able to muster up the ability to continue on living, Matou legacy be damned.

Rider was concerned about the stability of her current situation. Shirou was if nothing else, a dedicated individual and a reliable support for Sakura. The fact that the boy was suddenly displaying the symptoms of being contaminated by inhuman blood was not a positive sign for her. Had Sakura not been so reliant on him, she would have very much considered killing him right then and there in order to ensure that he would not pose a threat later. Granted she would do so with some regret as the boy seemed to actually treat her… like a person and an equal… but still Sakura's safety always took priority.

Saber was heavily conflicted as she tried to figure out what the hell was going on and how to fix it. This was far from the first time she had been summoned for the grail before, but she had already grown more attached to her current master than any prior. Not only that, but she had been entrusted with Shirou's safety completely by Shirou and Kiritsugu. She would be an absolute failure as a knight if possibly the most important charge she had ever taken was killed within a day of guarding him.

Shirou had hinted to Saber that several key things had already gone differently from his father's visions, and while the servant had gone over many of the notes her previous master had left behind, she had no idea what could have caused the teen to be in this state…

"Who's there?" Rider suddenly went on guard as the group entered the house through the hallway were making their way to Shirou's room.

"Another enemy?" Sakura paled. "Here? Now?"

"I don't sense another servant… but there is something present that shouldn't be…" Saber frowned as she held Shirou and prepared to move. While Sakura didn't seem to get a reaction from Shriou and Rider seemed to make him aggressive, Saber seemed to be in between them as her Master seemed to shift in her grip as if unsure of what to do or go for instinctively.

"I command you to show yourself!" The King of Knights roared as her free hand pointed her invisible blade at the anomaly. To this, challenge an unexpected response came forth from the darkness.

A leisurely elderly chuckle, like an indulgent grandfather to a child, made itself known from the living room area, clearly not at all threatened by the servants demanding his presence. "Oh my. Please don't be alarmed. I mean you no harm." Walking out from the doorway, an old man in an elaborate priest's garb appeared with his hands raised in surrender. "Please rest assured I am a friend of Lord Emiya."

"You are a rat." Rider frowned without hesitation. "No… a creature that assumes the form of one, yet is also something far greater…" Even as she took the 'old man' in from her four remaining senses, she could feel the nature of the one in front of her. Not truly a creature of Gaia, but not one managed by Alaya either. An existence influenced by both worlds in a sense…

"Much like yourself lady Medusa." The elderly man bowed, not at all denying the woman's claims. "One could say that our origins are close enough to make us cousins, though we have never had the fortune to meet in person till now. The stories truly do your beauty no justice."

Rider faltered. "How do…"

"Enough of this!" Saber snarled. "My master is injured and you are wasting our time! Unless you are here to help I will eject you from this dwelling in any way I see fit!"

The priest chuckled and shook his head before looking analytically at Shirou. "I would not be so quick to make threats my Liege. You see, as of right now, I am only one of two people on the planet that are aware of the full scope of Lord Emiya's condition, and the other is rather preoccupied at the moment." He stepped forward without concern for his well being and looked closer at the boy. "Yes. It would be a very foolish move to harm or send me away right now."

"And why is that?" Rider asked calmly with her nails in hand.

The rat in human form shrugged before walking back into the living room. "Because Lord Emiya is currently dying." He declared as though it was the most obvious thing in the universe.

"What?!" Sakura yelled with her face paling to a ghostly white while Saber grit her teeth and Rider's posture stiffened.

The creature in human skin turned around, clearly not as disturbed as the three females there and gestured for them to follow him. "Well? What are you waiting for? Bring him in here and lay him down so I can get a better idea of what his condition is. The longer you wait the worse he'll get."

"And how can we trust you with him?" Saber growled dangerously. "Just because you claim to know what is happening to him does not necessarily mean you mean to or will help him."

The priest paused before looking at Sakura knowingly. "Unlimited Blade Works."

The Matou's eyes widened in surprise and disbelief. "H-how do you… no one knows about that but…"

Saber also had trouble believing that this unidentified individual was aware of her master's greatest power. Something was amiss.

"The Second Magus Killer has more allies than you are aware of child." The rat smiled gently as he continued to walk into the room. "Now come. We have a mutual friend that needs our aid."

"What's wrong with him?" Sakura was surprisingly the first of the females to move forward, silently urging the others to follow suit into the living room and placing the apparently dying teen on the cleared floor in front of the rat turned human. She asked warily as the elderly man attempted to touch the boy's face to see his eyes, only to pull back as the Emiya thrashed the moment skin contact was made. Granted his now red eyes conveniently opened as he moved but the thrashing didn't help much. "Why were his eyes silver and red? Why are his teeth like this? It's almost as if…"

"He has the blood of the moon folk in him." Rider stated gravely. "He does not smell of the demonic or the divine."

"Quite correct." The priest nodded as he noted that Sakura had reached forward and managed to calm down his patient without agitating him in the slightest. "How peculiar… conflicting subconscious impulses… to be strong enough to naturally restrain his Apostle instincts…"

"Is something the matter?" Saber questioned sternly while keeping her hands on her invisible blade.

"No. No. Just an observation. That's all." The "man" weakly smiled at the blonde and got back to work. Using this window of opportunity Sakura gave him, he quickly inspected Shirou's temperature, eyes, and cut him slightly to check his blood before placing a hand on his forehead and focused on the boy's soul.

"You seem to be familiar with Master and the history of his condition." Rider commented aloofly. "It would be wise to tell us how this happened."

"I believe you were there when he received it Lady Matou." The priest replied with his eyes closed, focusing on the task at hand. "During your encounter with the children of the deceased Tenth. The Daughter attempted to drink his blood, and in turn both his neck and her mouth were shredded apart. Blood was exchanged that night, but in very minute amounts and in the opposite intended direction."

Sakura paled as she recalled the horrific experience and sunk back into a sitting position, her hands went over her face. "It was me… it was my fault. Because I was kidnapped… I turned Shirou-kun into a Dead Apostle… I killed him…"

"Not quite." The man corrected her, grabbing their attention, forcing her to remove her hands from her face. "Lord Emiya's situation is rather unique as far as Apostles go. Like I said before, he is currently dying, which means he is not dead yet. One can't call him a Dead Apostle if it is only half true after all." He removed his hand from the teen's head and nodded to himself understandingly. "Though that does not mean that he is immune from their rules either…"

"Did you find a way to help him?" Saber asked sternly while gripping her sword tightly, having not banished her weapon since the rat in human clothing first appeared.

The priest nodded. "Yes. It's actually quite simple really. I'll explain later but for now…" He looked between Saber and Rider for a moment before finalizing on Saber. "Yes you would be the better choice. If you would, my Liege, please pour some of your blood into his mouth. The rich blood of a dragon will be most efficient in remedying the situation."

Saber's face hardened. He knew who she was. There was no doubt about it. Then again, he knew of Rider's identity as well and made no effort to hide the fact. How he knew these things she did not know, but she would find out by the end of the night.

Regardless though, Shirou's current situation took priority. As such she slowly made her way to her master's head and prepared herself to cut her hand on her sword. Perhaps it was because she was so willing to follow the rat's directions without question that Rider too remained silent and watched from a distance, though she did have her nails out just in case things awry.

He turned to Sakura. "Lady Matou, if you would be so kind as to hold Lord Emiya still while this happens, and remove the shroud around his mouth. I'm afraid you are the only one who is able to do this without getting harmed in the process." He paused as if he said something unusual before shaking his head in dismissal. "No. I'll look into that later. It's not important now…" He muttered to himself quietly.

With Sakura's help in calming Shirou down, feeding him Saber's blood was actually quite easy. The small stream of red fluid that fell down from the servant's hand to the teen's mouth went down his throat with no issue at all, almost as if he was drinking water instead. Despite the tenseness in the situation, the priest seemed to be content just sitting there and watching everything unfold… of course, it was equally possible he probably wasn't moving because Rider was right behind him with her nails still in her hand.

It took roughly half a minute for results to be seen, but sure enough Shirou's body slowly began to relax. His teeth began to return to normal, his eyes returned to their normal human shape, his breathing calmed, and he didn't seem to react poorly to the inhuman priest being near his mouth anymore.

"He's ok…" Sakura teared up from behind her lover and held onto him tighter in relief. "He's ok."

"What happened?" Saber commanded darkly, not paying attention as the wound in her hand disappeared thanks to her Avalon. She had to cut it open two additional times while treating Shirou due to her accelerated healing closing the wound so quickly. "Master has a powerful healing factor due to his link with me. He should not have been in a life or death situation as you said because of it."

The rat shook his head. "I am well aware of your recovery abilities, but there are limits that even it cannot address. Tell me. If you cut off your arm and then eat it, will your abilities help you put back the material to where it originally belongs?"

The King of Knights blinked in disbelief. "My… you mean to tell us that…"

"His body was consuming itself." Rider summarized the issue. "Healing would recover damage, but it would not be able to take into account natural body processes. Healing will at best delay the demise of someone starving to death."

"An adequate analogy." The priest nodded. "Lord Emiya's body had, after the incident with Louvre, reached a sort of equilibrium with its living human side and its cursed undead Apostle side, the latter of which was significantly smaller than the former. It is why the Queen of the Clocktower has yet to detect his… contamination, in her words. Thankfully."

He shifted in his seat to get more comfortable. "Under most circumstances he has this new change of his body well managed. Save for some lethargy during the day and an increased taste in rare meats, one would pressed to determine that anything of this nature has happened to him. However that does not mean that there have not been any deeper changes."

"I take it that what just happened is one of these deeper issues." Saber stated coldly.

"Indeed." The rat confirmed before thinking of the right thing to say. "The human body on average uses at most only ten percent of its full strength for daily activities. It is only in extreme life or death situations that require additional power that the remaining ninety is used. What has occurred could be considered of a similar nature to this process."

"Normally, Lord Emiya's body is fully capable of maintaining and producing its own prana via human functions. He is alive, so his body is not decomposing and thus does not require additional prana, via blood in this case, to maintain itself." He continued. "However the natural function and process of consuming the blood and flesh of others to maintain the body is still very much within him as he is an Apostle. Under normal circumstances, due to his training and self control, he only has to put some minor effort into resisting the small impulses to feed, which come up rarely if at all. However…"

"He was already low on prana when the Casters attacked, and we both fought them." Rider nodded in understanding. "Because we were consuming what little power he had left when he was already low, his body instinctively began to resort to another natural option that was available in order to sustain itself."

"And when it couldn't feed on an outside source, it began to turn towards an internal one, Shirou's mostly human body." Saber concluded with distaste before she paused and realized something. "If that was the case, then why didn't he attack Sakura before we got to her? No… it wasn't even that. It was almost as if he didn't even see her as food…"

The priest nodded, understanding her concern. "That, I am not so sure about, but I am convinced it has to do with the fact that Lord Emiya was already a rather… distorted individual before he was changed. Even unconscious, his original irregular subconscious state would probably override anything his Apostle instincts would command if they were to clash."

"Original irregular subconscious?" Rider echoed in confusion.

"How do you know so much about him?" Sakura asked warily. "He's never told me about this, and I know enough about him to get him killed a hundred times over."

"My dear child." The priest chuckled. "Who do you think taught him to control his apostle blood in the first place? His silver eyes, which you most likely saw earlier, are a product of his new blood and all the information he has gained through them during his life. The Pure Eyes of Structural Grasping would have rendered him, or anyone else, a vegetable by information overload without the proper aid and instruction."

"I remember he had trouble with structural grasping objects quickly at one point, but he said…" Sakura frowned as she recalled the time when Shirou had just awakened his pure eyes.

"That it was the result of his latest encounter with an Apostle." The priest nodded. "Yes. Not a lie, but not all of the truth either."

"You're one of them?" Saber asked warily.

"No." The rat denied. "My master is however. Despite Lord Emiya's current occupation, My master is quite attached to him. He considers our companion to be one of his greatest friends. In fact he is the reason why I am here, as he was concerned that with what had occurred tonight that our friend would experience some difficulties."

"You knew that this was going to happen." Rider accused. "And Master didn't."

"I cannot confirm nor deny your claim." He relented without any shame. "I told you before didn't I? His condition is unique. To be frank Master and I did not know what would happen when events continued to deteriorate tonight. I was merely sent here in case things did turn out as they did. In addition to that I am also to save this information for future reference. He could have simply passed out from the strain of supporting two servants, or his Apostle blood could have been more aggressive."

"And by simply feeding him blood he returns to normal?" Saber skeptically concluded.

"Not quite." The priest sighed. "You see, his blood was awakened by the combined and prolonged _absence_ and _need_ for prana. Had the conflicts tonight happened tomorrow or later, this issue would not have arisen as Lord Emiya would have had more power in his body and more rest. However this was not the case."

He looked down at Shirou. "Once his blood was awakened, only satisfying the instincts awakened or placing his body into a deeper state of inactivity would calm them down and allow his dominant human instincts to regain full control again. An exorcism or other divine rituals would only harm his body since the blood has long since become a part of him. As the latter option is rather risky, not to mention unavailable, the only practical route available was blood for blood. The more rich in prana it is, the better the results. Still, it would be best to avoid putting him such a situation again altogether in the future."

"I can see why you'd use Saber's blood." Sakura muttered tiredly. "Her mana ranking is high enough to make her a Caster Class."

"It was still a difficult decision. Lady Medusa here has some divinity left in her existence." The rat nodded to Rider approvingly. "Even if it is diminished, the blood of the Gorgon Queen would still be deemed as top quality. Master would be jealous of Lord Emiya. Having such easy access to both Dragon's blood and Divine Gorgon's blood…"

"I did not get summoned to serve as a living meal." Rider all but growled. "I was summoned to fight in a war."

"As did I." Saber frowned. "I thank you for your aid, however I cannot help but feel uncomfortable with you around. Regardless of how my Master feels about you and the benefits of your services, unless you have any other information that you feel you should share with us I am going to have to ask you to leave."

The priest looked at all three females there with tired old eyes before smiling gently and slowly got up. "Very well. I can tell when I am no longer desired. It was an honor to meet women of your caliber, and I apologize if I have offended any of you. Please rest assured though that I am not serving any other masters in this war, and that your secrets are safe with me."

He smiled. "As a token of good faith, allow me to give you some information I believe you may find value in. I have it on good authority that either tonight or tomorrow night the last of the servants, Assassin, will be summoned."

The room went cold as Saber's and Rider's stances stiffened. If this was true, then the following nights were the servant's best chance to take out Sakura or Shirou. Changing locations was pointless as they had nowhere to go, and with Shirou still weak, both servants had to hold back when fighting.

"I don't suppose you would tell us who Assassin's master will be would you? Or who they intend to summon?" Saber asked with an edge to her voice.

The rat shook his head in denial. "I'm afraid not. Master has already interfered with the war more than he originally intended. He strictly wants to stay as an outside uninvolved party in order to avoid conflicts with the Church and the Association. This is as much as I can do without pushing things. If it has to do with Lord Emiya's condition feel free to ask me anything, however I am all but mute when it comes to your war. My apologies."

Saber kept her face impassive. "Your War." He said. He had already decided that this was not something that was not his concern. Regardless of who won or lost, he would not lift a finger. She had heard similar words spoken when she searched for allies during her campaigns in England. Cowards who waited until the last moment to team with the winning side, or fools who assumed that they would remain unscathed from battle if they claimed neutrality.

Rider called him a rat. Even though she probably meant it in a different context, Saber had to agree that it fit him quite well.

The rat turned to Sakura and bowed politely. "I wish you luck in your endeavors child. You are quite strong to endure as much as you have as well as you have. Rest assured, Lord Emiya is in stable condition now and only requires rest. I only advise that you do not risk putting him in this situation again frequently, as it may cause his Apostle blood to become more dominant in his body."

"… Why?" Sakura asked as the man was halfway across the room. "Why do you call him Lord Emiya? What has he done that makes you respect him so much?"

A dry, but kind chuckle was made. "I call him Lord, child, because my master and I see great potential in him. I call him Lord because he is respectful, but not oblivious to the world around him." He made it to the doorway.

"I call him Lord, because he is one, even if he does not know it yet."

o. o. o.

Ryuudou Temple:

The Witch gritted her teeth as she looked at Assassin, clearly at conflict with the servant she had summoned.

Since she had laid eyes on all of the Servants but Assassin and Archer since the War began, and the Tohsaka girl was rather confident that her unidentified Servant was powerful, it left little doubt that the remaining class remaining was Assassin. Knowing this, Caster had conducted the summoning ritual in the graveyard of the temple in an attempt to gain a stronger link to death and thus a stronger Servant.

Instead she got this enigma.

Covered in a dirty tan cloak from head to toe that seemed to be made of materials that belonged to the modern era, she could not discern much from his appearance other than the fact that he was had white skin, was of average height, and was a male.

As she was now a Master, Caster could see his stats and… was left less than impressed. Half his stats were D ranked or less. His agility was only barely above average, which was less than the standard for Assassin class Servants, and thankfully slightly higher ranked mana and noble phantasm. All in all, in a physical fight, the Witch honestly believed that even SHE could beat him senseless.

However that was not the end of her worries as she looked at his other abilities…

Independent Action and Mental Pollution. If there was any combination of abilities that indicated that the Servant would be a pain to control it would be this, even if the former was surprising to have on anything other than Archer. Granted they weren't that high ranked, but their mere existence would make dealing with him a bigger headache than she wished.

Had this been all to her servant, she would have attempted the ritual again using him as a medium without hesitation… however…

"You're the one who summoned me." Assassin stated in a soft but dry tone as he inspected the Witch, causing her to suppress a shiver. There was no emotion to his voice. It was young and full of confidence, yet… it sounded as if he was completely broken, but there was an undoubted foundation that indicated that he would not be pushed to do anything. If there were any doubts that his Independent Action and Mental Pollution had impacted his personality in any way before, they were without a doubt gone now. "You're a Servant."

"How acute of you." Caster smirked. "Tell me your name."

"I refuse." Assassin replied point blank without hesitation.

The witch clicked her teeth irritably. She had hoped she would have at least last a bit longer before a conflict started. "And why is that? I am your Master. You are my Servant. You are duty bound to follow my commands."

"You are not a real Master." The man stated, not changing his tone in the slightest. "You provide me with prana, but I can tell you used this land as the foundation to keep me in this world as you cannot. I am obligated to do nothing save make you one of my last kills so long as you don't fight me earlier."

"Oh?" Caster donned a condescending smirk. "I wouldn't be your last kill? I'm not good enough?"

Assassin didn't say anything as he stared at her for a few seconds before he turned to the entrance of the temple, the only safe exit for Servants out of the area.

Obviously she wouldn't be his final kill if he wanted to win the war. She held his command seals. All it took were a few words and some focus and she could make him kill himself whenever she wanted. If there was no one else to distract her, then she would turn to the only remaining threat there, the one she was in control of.

Caster held back a chuckle. Her slave would be difficult to control and use, but at least he wasn't a complete fool.

"Well well, how thoughtful of you." She taunted. "You're already going to your main job. If you are going to be disrespectful to your Master, the least you could do is serve your purpose. Guard the entrance to the Temple. No other Masters or Servants are to pass save for those that I grant are to pass."

"Do it yourself." Assassin replied to her command without slowing down or turning back. "You're Caster. Make a Workshop."

Caster couldn't help but falter at how bluntly he turned the command back onto her. "Wha… how dare you! I doubt that Berserker could be any ruder than you are! I am your Master! You are to obey me and fulfill the contract! Once you leave this land, it might as well be as if you don't have a Master! You will have to return within a day every time you leave regardless or else you will disappear like the fool you are!"

The retreating Servant said nothing as he continued to exit the property without stopping. Clearly he didn't care much for the woman's words, even if he knew that they were true.

Had Caster been in better condition, less frustrated, or stronger, she would have attempted to attack her new minion and force him into submission, or attempted to scare him with the identity of some of the other servants, or noticed that he was simply walking away instead of turning into a spirit or using his presence concealment, or actually moving faster if he wanted to get away without possibly getting hit from behind…

… However as it stood she was still weak a bit on edge from the chaos that occurred that night… and as such…

"By the power of my Command Seal, I order you Servant Assassin to be obedient to my commands from this point forth." The witch growled venomously as the symbol on the back of her right hand glowed crimson before a third of it disappeared.

The moment the words left Caster's mouth, Assassin froze and grunted in irritation, as if he was fighting something with his entire body, yet slowly failing in the process. Normally such a vague command would be drastically weakened compared to its intended effects as it was spread out over time, but as the master was the Servant Caster, making her pretty much the most powerful Master ever, the results were far more powerful. It took roughly half a minute of fighting the impulse, but in the end it was too strong and Assassin was forced to kneel in front of the Witch. "What is your command… Master?" He growled out in distinct irritation, the first emotion he displayed since being summoned.

Despite her success in finally reigning in her Servant, the woman was far from happy as she had just wasted the THIRD command seal in her possession that night. "You will guard the entrance of the temple from the enemy. If they come, you will drive them off or kill them. Whichever is most efficient at the time. You will keep Saber alive though, as I need her. You will not show yourself to anyone that comes here, nor will you contact them. You are to remain unknown. Do I make myself clear?"

"Yes. Master." Assassin grunted, clearly not happy with his situation.

"Good. Let's see if you are as good at killing as you are at annoying me." Caster spat on the man before disappearing in a show of black magic.

The Servant of Murder remained in place for a few moments before getting up and walking once more towards the entrance of the temple… and then down the steps and into the quiet woods where he would not be disturbed till he found a wide enough clearing to work in efficiently.

From there he began to take out objects from his cloak and lay them on the ground in front of him… and more objects… and more until it became quite apparent that these weapons were somehow a special ability or a Noble Phantasm of his.

Each and every weapon and tool was laid out in a neat and organized position, proof that he had not only used them before, but that he knew what he was going to use them for.

Once he was done unloading the contents of his person, the man reached forward to the first of his tools of destruction, picked it up with one hand, channeled some prana…

… And broke it.

Then he carefully put it back down on the ground and began to repeat the process with the next tool…

Back in the depths of the temple, Caster cursed under her breath as she walked down the hallway towards her Workshop. Well, in reality the entire temple itself was her Workshop, but the caverns below the temple contained the location of her biggest projects.

As it stood now, all of the residents of the Temple would for the most part ignore her as a normal person and avoid the places where she conducted her work. She would still have to spend some time placing hypnotic suggestions into all the residents in case a Master asked them about her. Then there was increasing the efficiency of her spells in the area and creating some more useful devices... her work was endless. It would have been so much easier if her other half had been aiding her in this project, but the Witch knew that the Princess would never agree to going to this extent to win the war. A pity.

The Witch would have to make do with giving up one ally to gain another that was loyal only to her. One stronghold that was known for another that was unknown and more appropriate for her needs. One set of resources for another that was grander and less restricted…

The room she was going to now had most of her work in it…

… As well as the most power.

"Really Master." The woman sighed as she entered the room and walked past the piles of books, items, ingredients, and other objects of unknown origin. "I can almost sympathize with you now with regards to unruly Servants. They really can be such a pain to manage if not addressed properly."

Marjatta didn't say anything.

"Oh I know I am being a bit hypocritical, but so long as this keeps up you will without a doubt be the winner of the war. Had you proven yourself more capable, I wouldn't have to be forced to take such extreme measures. Besides, I wouldn't have been able to summon Assassin so quickly unless I did what I did." Caster continued with a hint of amusement as she caressed her hand on the glass in front of her. "And it isn't like you aren't contributing."

The Edelfelt remained silent as she floated in the unidentified fluid and stared almost blankly at her Servant. Her body could not move as several objects were implanted into her body, paralyzing it with a concoction of fluids that kept her alive but unable to move, and she couldn't use her last command seal as a bracelet similar to the one she used on Sakura earlier that night had been placed on her hand.

All she could do is float in her own private hell and suffer as she was used to channel an absurd amount of Mana from the leylines below the mountain through her body into her Servant and her projects.

Unable to Move.

Unable to Rest.

Unable to Scream.

"I told you before Master. You of all people should know how useful some origins can be. The concept of "Burst" will indeed be most useful for my attempts to win this war…"

o. o. o.

A/N:

Once again, thanks Maximorph for betaing.

Ok, this is why I don't switch between writing my stories. Getting out of crack mode takes forever for me.

So, I didn't kill Marjatta like many wanted, but I'm guessing what I did here is a suitable alternative. Plus it lets me still use some of my other plans for Witch Caster for later.

To be honest, I don't really like how this chapter came out. There's more exposition than I liked and not enough plot development, but it honestly had to be done. Thankfully because I got over this hurdle, I can start getting into more of the twistedness that I have planned…

Such as Assassin destroying several of the other Servants one by one by himself in the very near future. Heheh.

I know people are pissed that Shirou didn't go nuts on anyone and it looks like he's going to be weak for the bulk of the war… but I have no intention of keeping him this way for the bulk of the war. Keeping epic characters under severe power limits until the end of a story is an overused and stale tactic, however there is some use in doing it for the beginning of a main conflict in order to let things get more chaotic and out of hand.

And I do so love my chaos.

So… Oh yeah. Thanks to Naj P. Jackson for the epic new FFD fanart which is used as the logo for the fic now. It is beautiful, and also in deviantart if you search "from fake dreams".

Best Fan Christmas Present Ever.

Also once again there's the tvtropes page if anyone wants to play around with it.

So that's about it. Sorry for the long wait guys! I'll make sure that the next one comes out sooner.

Review! Worship the Log! I fear my mind will never be a stable place! And Review Again!


	27. Chapter 27

Chapter 27: Calm and Storm

I do not own Fate/Stay Night and stuffs:

o. o. o.

Tohsaka residence:

Rin woke up in a dark mood.

This was normally not an uncommon occurrence as the girl was not a morning person in the slightest and could not function without tea or coffee. However, this particular morning her irritation was supplemented by the aching pain in her stomach from the previous night's bout with Bazett, if that one sided beat down could even be considered a bout.

The single blow landed on her had damaged her throughout her body and bruised everything from front to back. Not to mention making it almost agonizing to breathe. And all this was after the amount of time she had wasted trying to heal the original damage.

Biting back a long string of curses, the Tohsaka managed to push herself up into the sitting position and slumped over. "Archer. You better be halfway done with my morning drink or so help me…"

The Servant chuckled as he appeared by her side and chuckled with mild amusement. "Everything is already in place Master. I just need to reheat the water and you'll be in the possession of a soothing cup of your favorite tea."

"Boil it with one of your elemental swords if it'll finish it faster." The girl winced as she held her stomach. "Damn. Did she have to hit me that hard?"

"If she knows you as well as I do, maybe." The spirit shrugged mockingly as he walked out the door. He couldn't dematerialize and go through the building's foundations as the bounded fields there prevented it. "It would be too dangerous to underestimate you after all."

"Shut up Shirou. It's too damn early to deal with your cocky attitude." Rin growled irritably and clenched a fist before relaxing it in defeat and letting out a sigh of depression, aggravating her stomach in the process. "Couldn't you at least take what happened last night more seriously?"

It had been a complete defeat on her part. Archer had been able to hold off Lancer without too much trouble despite the fact that his opponent actually had a legend to boost his power, but Bazett had completely destroyed her. Had the woman not been simply delaying her, Rin was certain that she would have been killed. In fact it was a miracle (no pun intended) that she had managed to not get any ruptured organs in the first place.

Every throb in her stomach was a reminder that she had screwed up and was only alive because her opponent had some sort of plan for her. Personally she didn't believe Archer's retelling of his conversations with Lancer, but the fact that there was something there that made the Hound of Ireland hold back in a fight was enough to at least be a bit more skeptical of what was happening around her.

It didn't help that the man's supposed amnesia once again got in the way of answering any possible questions. The best thing he could get was that there were indeed "issues" with the war, but he could not recall any details. He seemed to be perfectly fine remembering details about Lancer once he laid eyes on the man, but that only seemed to give her the impression that he wouldn't remember anything of use until the subject of said memory or some key event came to pass right in front of him.

It wouldn't be so bad if he didn't clearly enjoy her frustrated reactions every time she reached a dead end. Obviously the future gave him a sadistic sense of humor. For a mere moment, she wondered if this was some sort of divine retribution for her behavior around her Shirou before shoving that thought aside as she heard Archer speak up.

"You're alive. We haven't lost anything of value. And we got more info out of our enemies." The servant shrugged nonchalantly as he disappeared downstairs. "Now if you'll excuse me, I do believe I hear the water boiling downstairs…"

"So help me... if he keeps this up I swear I'm going to use a command seal to force him to get back his memories." The girl growled dangerously as she slowly pushed herself to the side of the bed and let her feet rest on the floor.

Allowing herself some time to get used to the pain in her stomach again, Rin went over more of the previous night, or at least what she could remember. Bazett's blow had left her fading in and out of consciousness for a long time.

She recalled arriving near the Matou residence being surrounded by fire and the local authorities trying to put it out. Thanks to Archer's maneuvering, Rin had gotten to her target: the fire captain managing the situation. The guy was some unremarkable forty something year old man she'd probably never remember, but at the time he was the one person Rin had to get a hold of come hell or high water. She managed to isolate him and hypnotize him and learn that there had been no bodies discovered, which could be a good or bad thing.

Archer had also noted that there had been a long trail of fire and destruction leading away from the house, meaning that there had been at least two servants duking it out for a good while, and one of them had been the one to torch the building before speeding off into the distance. Seeing as the battle lasted a while, it most likely meant that Sakura's Servant had been around for a long time…

Meaning that there was a very good chance her sister was still alive. Her servant couldn't give much of a fight without a power source after all. She was nowhere in the area, but Rin wouldn't have stayed either if her home had gone down in smoke when she was in the middle of a secret war.

Thankfully, despite the Enforcer's claim that Rin could be a bit forgetful at times, the teen had not in fact forgotten to activate the bounded fields around her home and accidentally risk burning her property down, much to its owner's relief. The girl's last conscious moments were of Archer lying her onto her bed before the world went black…

And then went red once more as she dreamed of her friend's future. Always walking forward, helping people and not caring how stupid he looked in the process. He never asked for something in return for his services. No one would do such things for the sake of doing them. … No one but Shirou, but most people did not know that. Most people were not broken like he was, so they distanced themselves from him, and he was further isolated, not that he cared.

It was somewhat odd that he seemed to not wear his shroud around his head in the memories, but she assumed that his identity had been spilled at some point so there was no point in hiding it anymore…

Still, it did not explain why he seemed so… alone. He was always pressing forward. He pushed everyone close to him away eventually, even when they wanted to help him. Sakura. Waver. Bazett. Sirius. Herself. Why were none of them around him as he kept going towards his goal? As she recalled, he seemed to ignore everyone for his goal of being a hero… even if they were the ones he depended on and trusted most. For that impossible selfless dream he had given up everything…while leaving everyone behind.

But… why did it feel as if something was not right with these memories? It was if something about them did not seem to match the Shirou Emiya she knows now. It was almost as if she was…

Her stomach throbbed again, breaking her out of her memories of the past night. She clicked her tongue in irritation. She couldn't even think or sleep properly anymore thanks to the damn war.

Gingerly placing her feet on the ground and standing up, the Tohsaka winced. Despite her best efforts, she apparently had not healed herself as much as she thought. She would have to call in sick today and not go to school, lest Luvia see her in her current condition and try something underhanded…

… Not that she wouldn't do the same thing if the roles were reversed. She was fighting in a war after all.

She paused as the blonde made her way into her thoughts. It was very possible that Luvia was the one that attacked Sakura last night. She knew that the Matou was also a Master, not that it took much deductive reasoning to figure that out, or where she lived, but it was possible. Of course by that logic, any of the other Masters in the war would be as likely to attack her as well… save for Bazett and Shirou. The former had been preoccupied with Rin and the latter would rather die than raise a hand against her or Sakura…

But this still left two other possible culprits with motive other than Luvia. This in turn made the task of trying to figure who did what absolutely pointless, which of course did nothing for Rin's temper.

Sakura hadn't been found at her home to her knowledge, so she was in hiding. Zouken… he could have died in the fire for all she cared. Bazett was still at large and if what Archer said about his spear was true, which she had little doubt about, Lancer had the best Noble Phantasm for killing efficiently ever.

Archer could use it too now that he had seen it, but she knew of her servant's abilities well enough to know that it was pointless to do so against its original user in a straight up fight… still it wouldn't be pointless to showcase the spear's ability to the other enemies. It wasn't as if it was _her _servant's Noble Phantasm after all…

She was interrupted from her plotting as Archer appeared with her tea. "How odd. You're plotting already and you haven't had anything to wake you up yet." He spoke, reading her stance like an open book.

"Keep talking and I'll be less inclined to account for your safety in my future plans." The brunette grumbled as she began to drink her morning fuel. She was never a morning person and her stomach made her temper even more volatile. As the tea made it's way into her stomach, Rin had to hold back a wince as her tender organs tried to absorb the liquid.

"Duly noted." The spirit smirked. "By the way, given your condition are you going to school today?"

"No. I'm still recovering from last night." The teen narrowed her eyes in irritation. It would ruin her perfect academic record, but it was unfortunately something that would have to be done lest she risk exposing her weakened condition to enemies. "It'll probably take a day or two to ensure that I'm good enough to fight again."

"Very well then." EMIYA shrugged nonchalantly. "So… I guess that you'll be calling the school to tell them that you have stomach pains."

Archer soon realized that Rin did not classify her taking her violent anger out on him as "fighting".

o. o. o.

Emiya Residence:

"Should you be up Sakura?" Rider asked skeptically in spiritual form as the addressed moved around the kitchen to make breakfast.

"So long as I don't make any sudden movements or move too much I should be fine." The Matou went around Shirou's sacred ground with practiced ease, looking for various ingredients. "Ever since I managed to get a better grasp of my powers, I've managed to heal pretty quickly so long as I have access to one of the bounded fields I have set up to supply me with extra mana. Thankfully, Shirou let me set one up here on his property and I tapped into it before I went to bed last night."

"He is quite accommodating for a magus." The spirit commented. "According to my knowledge of the era, most would rather die painfully then allow another to set something like that up in their property."

"Shirou isn't like most magi." Sakura grabbed some onions and peppers and began to chop them up. She was still better than Shirou when it came to western meals, but only by a small margin so she decided to get some more practice in and make some omelets for breakfast. "He cares too much about others to be one, and I'm glad for it…"

"You are lucky to have him as a friend then." Rider knew that her true Master was far more than just "glad" for the Emiya's aid, but she kept the comment to herself and continued to watch the girl continue to cook. "About his condition…"

"We will bring it up, but he will talk about it when he is ready." The girl interrupted in a slightly firm tone. "Shirou would never betray or take advantage of us."

"I have heard of the people say the same thing of the gods when I was alive." The goddess turned monster evenly lectured. "And now the world knows what happened to me and what I am."

Sakura shook her head in denial and a small bit of depression. "You don't understand. Shirou is different than anyone else in a way few people know about. He's… broken. Distorted."

Rider paused in confusion and curiosity. She had not expected this sort of word to describe the boy. "Those are a rather odd choice of words to use."

The girl paused in her chopping. "I know, but it is the best way to describe what he is and why he will not harm me, even if his life is on the line. Do you remember what the Rat muttered yesterday when inspecting him and when he noticed that Shirou would not try to bite me? 'Conflicting subconscious impulses?'"

The Servant paused before connecting the dots. "Whatever was wrong with him before was naturally preventing his moon blood from reacting to you on a fundamental level… I admit, I've never heard of such a thing before. This goes beyond mere self control or influence of attraction."

"Like I said, Shirou is different from most people." Sakura smiled sadly before finishing up the vegetables and getting the eggs out. "He's the only one I can trust completely anymore… so I would appreciate it if you would please stop treating him as a potential enemy."

Rider looked down at Sakura evenly, her face not giving any signs of her thoughts. This girl was so much like her it was terrifying. Slowly being turned into a monster by the one she was entrusted to. Left with little to no allies to trust in save for distant relatives whose concern for your well being was skeptical at best at times. Slowly suffering in silence as your very mind turned against you and the little that you still treasured…

But… but the boy that was now her Master was slowly becoming more relatable as well. He too is slowly turning into a monster against his will, yet he did not seem to care so long as those he treasured was safe. Instead of aiming to preserve himself, he aimed to preserve those he treasured, so much so that even his monstrous side was unable to see them as anything other than allies…

Didn't she once rage and kill to protect her sisters, both unmarked by the passing of time while she aged? When did she start fighting to slaughter instead of to protect? At what point did her mind become that of a monster instead of the divine? How many years had there been between her death and the moment she ate her beloved siblings?

Shirou Emiya. Yes. By the time the war ended, she would come to a conclusion about the boy and what would become of him. Perhaps, if the fates were on her side for once, Sakura would not be the only worthwhile individual she would be able to save…

The loud slam of the front door opening snapped both females out of their musings and caused them to turn and see what on earth the source was. Rider had initially assumed it was a potential enemy, but the lack of prana from that general direction indicated otherwise.

"SHIROU!" The loud and frantic voice of Taiga Fujimura yelled as rapid footsteps were heard approaching the living area. "IT'S TERRIBLE! SAKURA'S HOUSE BURNED TO THE GROUND LAST NIGHT ALONG WITH HALF THE FOREST IN THE AREA AND WE CAN'T FIND HER OR ANY BODIES AND I SPENT ALL LAST NIGHT LOOKING FOR HER AND-!"

The woman's foghorn worthy rant came to a screeching halt along with the source's body as the teacher stopped to see Sakura cooking breakfast.

The silence obviously did not last long as the woman dove straight to her student with tears in her eyes, completely ignoring the fact that said girl was cooking with the fire up and there were several knives lying on the counter nearby.

"WAAAAA! SAKURA YOU'RE ALL RIGHT! I WAS SO WORRIED WHEN I HEARD WHAT HAPPENED! I THOUGHT YOU WERE CRUSHED OR BURIED OR BURNED TO A CRISP OR KIDNAPPED OR IMPALED OR CRIPPLED OR… OR… OR… WAAAAAAA!"

Rider wisely remained silent as Sakura attempted to calm down the ecstatic woman trying to smother her in her grip. It wouldn't do to reveal her presence, and the woman was crying so loudly that Rider doubted that Sakura would be able to hear her anyway.

She was not disappointed that she would be forced to wait in order to eat anything again. Nope. Not in the slightest.

It took a few minutes of attempting to calm down Taiga… and the smell of one ruined burning omelet, before the woman had managed to relax enough to let the girl get back to making breakfast.

"Are you sure you're ok?" Taiga sniffed with watery eyes as she inspected the girl from every angle. "Oh who am I kidding? Of course not. Not after something like that. You poor thing…"

Sakura laughed nervously as she recalled the fact that for a few moments she had almost cut off another person's arm in cold blood and sadistic glee… before she winced and held her stomach. She had recovered a good deal from her injuries, but she was still very sore all over her body and extremely tired. "It's nothing sensei. It's nothing serious."

"Nothing serious my butt!" The teacher roared, already switched into vengeful woman mode. "I don't care if he rescued you and deserves some special reward! You should be the one being waited on hand and foot! When I get my hands on that boy I'm gonna…!"

At that point, divine intervention decided to intervene in the form of Saber opening the door to the main rooms with a calm businesslike demeanor in her jeans and white button up shirt. "If you don't mind, I would appreciate it if you kept your voice down. Shirou is still recovering from last night's events."

"… Huh?" Taiga blinked in utter confusion as she tried to comprehend the presence of this complete stranger and what she just said.

Sakura on the other hand, wisely took this opportunity to get back to cooking and get out of her teacher's radar for the time being.

Saber did not relent as she crossed her arms and narrowed her eyes at the taller woman. "I am saying that you are too loud. Shirou is still asleep and recovering from aiding Sakura from last night's ordeal."

"… Huh?" The teacher seemed to shut down as she attempted to make sense of the situation. After all, finding out that your potentially dead student was in another student's home the entire time, and then suddenly being told to be quiet by a young woman, who she has never met before, because other said student was supposedly injured WAS a bit much to sort out all at once.

"Sensei. This is Saber-san." Sakura tried to help things along before Taiga got even more confused. "She's a family friend of Shirou's father from Europe that's staying for a few weeks. She helped Shirou get me out of my home before it was too late."

"You give me too much credit." Saber politely replied. "Shirou did most of the work. I just helped get both of you back to the house."

"Wait wait wait." Taiga shook her head frantically as she attempted to reorganize her thoughts. "Shirou's hurt?! How badly?!"

"He'll be fine in a day or two." The Servant factually answered as she walked to the table and sat down. "He pushed himself too hard and inhaled too much smoke getting Sakura out of the fire, but it's nothing more than that. Be that as it may though, I advise against seeing him now. What he needs most right now is rest."

The teacher relaxed as she heard that her little brother figure was all right. "That's a relief. Shirou's always been a pretty fast healer for some reason, but still running into a burning building is definitely a first for him."

Technically it would be the third time he's done that since working for Barthomelloi, but no one needed to know that.

"Honestly. I thought we managed to get that Hero thing out of his system and then we get this." The woman shook her head in frustration before pausing and laughing apologetically to Sakura. "Ah! Ahahaha! Not that he did the wrong thing mind you! If he didn't you wouldn't be here with us and of course I'm glad for that, but you know… I mean…"

"It's okay Sensei." Sakura smiled genuinely. "I was a bit surprised when he showed up as well."

"Appearing when least expected." Saber noted with a tone of contemplation. "That is indeed something one would expect of Kiritsugu's son."

"Wait a minute…" Taiga paused as she turned onto Saber with a surprising amount of scrutiny. "You! What are your intentions with our loveable but horribly misguided Shirou?"

The blonde raised an eyebrow at the woman's description of her Master. "I have a task in the area that requires my attention and Shirou has been kind enough to lend me a room as my father was an acquaintance of Kiritsugu and pointed me in his direction. Shirou and I were discussing my sleeping arrangements when we were informed of the fire and moved to help Sakura."

The teacher groaned in frustration and massaged her temples. "Just like that you joined him to help out with the fire? Am I going to have to worry about two reckless kids no… wait… SLEEPING ARRANGEMENTS?!"

"Sensei! Shirou's resting!" Sakura scolded as if she was the adult in the room.

"I unfortunately did not have any fallback plan regarding my housing when I came here, and I don't have enough funds to get a hotel room and perform my tasks." Saber sighed as if admitting something embarrassing. You had to hand it to her, the King of Knights could definitely twist the truth when she needed to.

"Just how old are you?!" Taiga frustrated spun her arms around childishly, but reducing the sound level of her voice by a few decibels. "You look younger than Sakura! How could a responsible father allow his daughter to travel around the world alone at such a young age?!"

"I don't blame you for your concern." Saber nodded in agreement. "You are not the first to comment on that. Rest assured, I am older than I look and can take care of myself if needed. It is only my housing situation that I require assistance."

"Sensei. Can we please talk about this later this afternoon? If we keep on arguing it will take longer to get breakfast ready and you'll be late for work." Sakura tried to reason diplomatically.

"Urk!" The woman froze as she was caught between a rock and a hard place. On one side was her overwhelming concern for Shirou's well being and her distrust with this woman who seemed to appear out of nowhere. On the other, the girl did help Sakura escape the fire. That and she didn't want to be late for work again.

The rumbling of her stomach several seconds later seemed to push the conflict into a conclusion.

"So we should expect you for dinner then Sensei?" Sakura smiled pleasantly while still focusing on making breakfast.

The teacher cried childishly as she sat down at the table in defeat and kept her head down in defeat. "Yes. I'll be in your care."

Rider couldn't help but shake her head. The previous night both masters and Servants had fought to the death in a secret war, yet that morning they had nearly been thrown out of their second home by a childish woman with no real power whatsoever. This war really was abnormal and different from what she had expected. She still wasn't sure if she liked it or not…

She made no mention of disappointment that she would be delayed in getting her own breakfast either.

o. o. o.

Church:

"How sloppy." Gilgamesh commented lazily as he watched Kirei rapidly go over the paperwork that needed to be done in order to cover and explain all the destruction that happened the previous night. "Even if they are nothing compared to me, these paltry Servants still managed to make it to the Throne. They should at least fight as such. To allow so much evidence of their excursions and yet leave not one body in its wake is simply unsightly."

"I agree. The least they could have done was get one of themselves killed in the process." Kirei nodded.

He had expected to have this sort of workload when the war started again, but not until at least the halfway point when the remaining participants started to get a bit more desperate. In fact he was probably doing more now than he did when he was covering up the finale of the fourth war. At least during that event it could almost all be excused as a single massive fire. This however covered three different battles in three different locations with three different types of damage.

The battle by the river's edge he could cover fairly easily as it was mostly just gouges in the earth and destroyed park equipment. Fixing that was easy as it only required blocking off the area for a day while the men under his command cleaned everything up.

The fight in the woods to the south of the city was a bit more difficult to cover up as the area destroyed was far larger than anyone had anticipated. Four square acres of land had been crushed and there were giant claw prints everywhere in it. Even if he taped off the area to prevent hikers and the like from stumbling on it, he would be very hard pressed to prevent satellites and airborne vehicles from flying above and getting a good view of it for long.

Right now he had managed to get men to place a massive bounded field around the area that would prevent people from noticing the area and make electrical devices distort their recordings of the location, however this was only a temporary solution until he could manage to get someone there to either regrow the plant life or come up with some clever way to explain the damage.

His biggest pain though was with the battle that started at the Matou property and extended halfway to the nearest town. Explaining and covering the damage from this one was proving to be a handful. The fighting had been done on a road that was used more often than not, and the damage was so varied and spread out over miles of road that there was no way to simply just blame it on an earthquake or other natural disaster. Mix in the extensive damage done to the Matou home and the forest across the street from it and he might as well claim that a "magic bullet" did it.

… Or in this case, a "magic" runaway eighteen wheeler towing volatile experimental rocket fuel, starting from the end of the battle and conveniently making its way miles down the road while hitting virtually everything in its path until it plowed through the woods in front of the Matou residence, u-turned, and then crashed into the building itself, blowing it all to kingdom come. The unfortunately deceased driver, whose body was destroyed in the explosion so he was never properly identified or found, was suspected to have overdosed on some sort of illegal drug or two, had been completely unaware of his load's immolated state until he was in front of said property.

It was a paltry excuse at best, but luckily no one but his men would look closely at the damaged area and write up the reports, so he was given some legroom to make some believable evidence at least.

It also gave him a bit of satisfaction to see Zouken's home burn to the ground for such a stupid reason. Should the creature still be alive, he would no doubt be tweaked to hear that his property was publicly thought to have been destroyed by an addled fool.

"Indeed." Gilgamesh nodded absently while staring up at the ceiling in thought. "Had I not been as generous as I am, I would have gone out myself to rectify this mistake."

The priest did not bother to ask the King of Heroes who he was being generous to. To do so would be considered an insulting question by the reincarnated spirit, and learning the answer would serve no purpose. "Hopefully Assassin's summoning will ensure that you will not have to undertake the task."

"Humph. Of all the classes that were made for this war, I have the least faith in that lowly title." The crimson eyed King frowned. "It is tailored for the snakes. It is a class comprised of filth who cannot even win their battles by relying on their strength."

Kirei noted his use of snakes in his remarks, a creature that had in the end been the cause of his ultimate downfall and thus one that the man visibly disdained. "I take it that you were not pleased in killing one of my servant's personas in the previous war then. Agreeing to fake his death in order to ensure his greater freedom must have been an insult in your eyes."

The Golden King lazily waved one of his hands as if brushing off the comment. "The man was a tool. I tolerated his mockery of an existence and the foolish plan simply because it served a purpose. Once it was served, he was thrown away like the trash he was."

The priest didn't need to be told this. He was the one who commanded the servant to its doom after all.

Of course the real reason why Gilgamesh said this was his subtle way of telling him to shut up on the subject before he too was disposed of. "Regardless of whoever he is and what his goals are, let us just hope that his coming will serve as the catalyst we desire and progress this war. I would very much enjoy at least one fatality soon so that the likelihood of an event such as last night does not reoccur."

"My, how dull you have become Kirei." Gilgamesh sighed as he swirled his drink in front of him. "And to think just ten years ago, you had put so much effort into finding out the motivations behind all of the other Masters and Servants."

"It is not my fault I lack the means to do so at the moment, but even so I can accurately predict what half of the Master's desires are." The human did not look up from his paperwork. "Rin wants to restore her family honor. The Edelfelts merely wish to add to that which they already possess. Miss Fraga is simply fighting on behalf of the Association. All of their wishes and goals are mundane and not worth the time to twist."

"True. I suppose we could do something regarding the siblings, however that by itself would only serve as a cheap thrill." The king relented with disappointment. "The Faker is to be left alone for now, as he seems to play a role in the retainer's script. It would be a poor choice to end him before his efforts yield even some results, as it would make for a poor comedy. Are not the Tohsaka and the Matou siblings as well?"

"Yes, however I believe there is already enough strife there with Emiya in the middle and Zouken there that our influence is not required to yield results." Kirei admitted. "If needed, I can offer a few choice words to Rin to aggravate the situation, but it would not be difficult to light that powder keg. To be honest I am more interested in the Einzbern girl."

Gilgamesh hummed in curiosity. "The doll with the mindless demigod? What use do you have for a mere puppet whose end is within sight?"

The priest let out a small smirk. "She seems to harbor a deep ire for Emiya, something that surpasses that spawned by a mere family grudge. I only possess suspicions at the moment, however if they are correct, she could be quite the piece on the board."

The golden man blinked with a bare hint of curiosity as he pondered Kirei's statement before giving up on trying to figure out what the man was hinting at. "Well then, I'll leave it to you my play write. Do come up with something to pass the time adequately before the other plays and my wedding with Saber approaches."

There was a brief pause.

"And do make it more creative than those paltry excuses you are writing down."

o. o. o.

Fuyuki High School:

Luvia felt horrendous, and that was putting it mildly. With bags under her eyes, a slumped posture, and shorter than average temper, the girl had dragged herself through the day with the grace of Rin when she just woke up.

Any conversations with her were limited to the smallest number of words used possible, and while everyone knew that something was horrifically wrong with the girl's situation, none risked pointing it out lest they suffer her wrath.

Caster, still injured from her previous battle but thanks to her magic would be back to full ability within the next day or two, hovered over her Master invisible and concerned. Despite what she and Luvia did, neither could get into contact with their respective counterparts nor locate them. Many of their possessions were gone, including a couple of Marjatta's trunks, and there had been no damage or chaos done at the mansion in the slightest.

As terrifying and frustrating as the idea seemed, the most logical conclusion that the two could come up with was that Marjatta and her Servant had run away to fight on their own and utilized some sort of method to block the more stable pair from finding them. It would not be beyond the ability of a Caster to do so, and they both had to admit that with the previous night's failure the pair would be more inclined to go off on their own, however there were still some issues with that theory.

If the Witch and the younger Edelfelt did go rouge, then it would have been more intelligent of them to destroy the mansion where they stayed at originally. It would have drastically weakened Luvia's position in the war, especially since the Princess was at the most dangerous when inside her temple, more so than most Caster class Servants in their territory even if she was weakened by the manner of her summoning.

Of course, it was also logical that the Witch was merely using them as a distraction since Emiya and Matou knew it was them that did the attacking last night and would without a doubt gun for the building sooner or later and hope that the elder Edelfelt could get rid of some of their enemies for them.

Regardless, as of right now the situation was that Luvia and Caster were on their own, which made their odds of winning or even surviving the war uncomfortably low.

"When I get my hands on that brat I call a sister I swear she will never even consider questioning or going against me again…" The blonde girl growled murderously as she nodded off in class despite Taiga's rather energetic efforts to teach English to her students.

Caster sighed as she observed her Master's deteriorating condition and shook her head. She would have been more alert of her surrounding had any of the other identified Masters and Servants been present in the building, but much to her and her Master's surprise Matou, Emiya, AND Tohsaka were all absent from their classes for the day.

Obviously there had been more than just the battle between the Casters, Rider and Saber that had occurred last night.

Oh well, at the very least Luvia would have something to hold over Rin's head when she finally did bother to come back. At least SHE was capable enough to manage her public and secret life efficiently.

After what seemed like an eternity to the foreigner, the final bell to the school day rang much to her relief. Regardless of how dangerous it was to do so instead of plan and prepare, Luvia was going to sleep until night came as soon as she got back home. Then she would grill Sebastian as much as she could and try to figure out where her soon to be reamed sister was hiding…

"Ah! Luvia-san!"

Struggling to reign in her murderous thoughts, the blonde donned a strained smile and turned to her teacher. "Yes? Sensei?"

Taiga Fujimura blinked with confusion and worry as she walked up with several large envelopes in her arms. "Uh, well I was going to ask you for a favor, but… are you okay? You don't look that good."

Laughing haughtily, but there was a distinct weakness in her demeanor. "Ohohoho! Do not worry about me Sensei. There was just a lot going on with my family last night. I am a bit tired, but I have more than enough energy to perform any task you have for me before going home. It would be rude after all to put my issues before the requests of my teachers."

Caster didn't show it, but she knew instinctively that this was somehow going to bite her Master in the rear very quickly.

Looking uncertain but unwilling to argue against the girl, Taiga shifted a little. "Well if you're sure…" She handed over the packets to the girl. "Can you deliver these for me? I would do it myself, but there's a teacher's meeting today regarding the fires last night and all the other events that have been happening recently. Clubs and afterschool activities are going to be closed down until we get a better idea of what's going on."

Luvia nodded understandingly as she took the packets from the woman. "You chose wisely. I'd be glad to help. Where am I going to deliver these?"

Taiga perked up. "Oh well, one of those is the homework and lesson notes from all the classes Rin had for the day, and the other two are for Shirou and Sakura."

She didn't notice Luvia's face suddenly pale in an instant and her body freeze as she grabbed the last of the packets.

"You might not know this, but Sakura's home was caught in that fire last night, but thankfully Shirou managed to get her out of the fire and is nice enough to house her until things clear up." The teacher whispered in a childishly way as if she was hiding a secret, while still completely missing Luvia's rapidly deteriorating demeanor. "Don't tell anyone about it though since it's against school rules for them to do this. Sakura really doesn't need the attention right now which is why I'm letting it pass."

"Matou's… staying… with Emiya?" Luvia summarized in a tone that would caused most people to start staring at them in concern. _Of course she would stay with Emiya! _She mentally berated herself. After the efforts he went through to help her, it would only be natural for her to stay with him.

"Yeah." Taiga nodded. "But the fire really did a number on the both of them. It's why they aren't here today. To be honest no one else knows that she's there now other than us, and since you are such good friends with them and you have that driver of yours I thought you'd be able to get it done better than anyone else."

"Of… of course you would!" The blonde squeaked with a higher pitched voice than normal before she began to laugh erratically in a slightly concerning way. "Do not worry Sensei! I will fulfill my duties! What sort of classmate would I be if I couldn't help my fellow friends in their time of need! Ohohohohohohohohoho!" Mentally, Luvia began calculating the odds of whether or not her enemies would break the daylight truce for an easy kill.

Unnoticed by all, the Princess displayed a rare moment of frustration and put her face in her hands in despair. Hopefully Saber and Rider would not hold a grudge for last night's events and…

Oh who was she kidding? She was doomed.

o. o. o.

In a dug out cave somewhere beneath Fuyuki:

Zouken was less than pleased with his current situation. He was not at the point where he could consider himself outright furious, but it would not take much to get him there at this point.

No one could really blame him for it. After all, his home had been turned to ashes, along with a good portion of the Matou library, and his main workshop had been exposed and deemed unsuitable to rely on for the remainder of the war. As soon as the fighting had started, the worm user had escaped by simply using one of the secret passages he had constructed in his workshop that not even Sakura knew of and watched from a distance through the worms that remained in his burning home.

Sakura had indeed performed adequately against the Edelfelt girl, far more than he had expected against a trained combative magus, however the girl had in the end proved herself to be the lesser of the two as her inexperience led to her downfall.

He was somewhat amused that the girl had anticipated that his worms would come finish the job should she fail to defeat her opponent, however that soon fell down the drain as soon as the blonde's Servant was summoned and destroyed or scared off all of his familiars to the point that he couldn't see or hear anything.

By the time his worms had come out of hiding, the catacombs were empty and his storage of crest worms was slashed in half. Sakura was still alive if the signal he was getting from the worms in her body were any indication, and none of the Servants in the war had been killed yet. In fact Assassin had been summoned a few hours after the incident… or not. For some reason the servant's imprint on the grail system was faded… incomplete…

He could only assume that the Emiya boy and his servant had upheld his part of the deal and managed to drive off the enemy, but it still left several questions unanswered. The boy certainly had the power to kill the girl and her Caster, but instead she still lived. Had a deal been made or was there something preventing him from doing so?

And if he did come to her aid, then what of the other two battles? Three battles at the same time required six sides, of which there were total… and yet three of them were involved in one of the fights. This would mean that there would be a seventh party involved… but Assassin wasn't summoned until later…

Bah. There was no point in dwelling on such minor possibilities now. The main issue was that his supply of worms had been drastically cut and he needed them in order to maintain his bodies. Throw in the fact that his home and workshop were both unusable meant that he had to lay low for the entirety of the war or he'd risk getting killed.

… Which posed a problem since he would need to contact Emiya at one point or another in order to keep the boy in line, and he needed to be near Sakura in order to unleash her darker aspects or control her himself…

Slowly the magus closed his eyes in weary defeat, unable to conjure a suitable solution to his issues at the moment. Perhaps when he woke up that night he would be rested and lucid enough to come up with something…

Or if he couldn't do that he would at least go out and hypnotize some of the politicians and pest control workers in the city to get rid of the rats that have been running around lately. He didn't know why, but the furry blights had suddenly developed a taste for his worms recently…

o. o. o.

Emiya Household:

The first thing Shirou noticed when he woke up was that he felt as if something was right with his body…

No, not "right", more along the lines of "relieved". It was almost as if a weight that had been on his body for a long time had been lightened. It had not gone away, but its load had been drastically reduced to the point that he noticed that the weight had been there in the first place.

"Nnnn." He groaned as he picked himself up and massaged his temple. Judging from the light outside, it was way past morning. "Huh? Did I oversleep?"

"Considering what you went through last night, one would suggest that you have not rested enough." Saber sagely stated from the side of his room on her knees and waiting patiently, completely unnoticed until then.

Given how he had been raised and trained until that point, it should not have been surprising that Shirou's first reaction upon Saber speaking up from his blind spot when he was still half asleep was to jump in the opposite direction and instantly project a dozen nameless broadswords around him all aimed at the speaker. It was only due to his self control and recognition of the target that he held himself back from actually firing his projectiles at his Servant.

"S-Saber!? What the heck are you doing in my room?!" The Emiya stammered in surprise. Other than Sakura, he had never woken up with another female in his room before. "I thought we said that you were going to take the room next to mine while you stayed here!"

The King of Knights did not change her demeanor in the slightest as she stared at her Master with sharp eyes. She did not say it, but she did approve of the teen's quick and appropriate reaction to her unexpected presence while still half asleep, even if it wasn't warranted. "Given what your state was when we brought you in last night Shirou, I believe that my stay here was the correct decision."

"Last night?" He frowned in confusion before flashes of the fire and confronting Marjatta echoed through his head. "Shit! Sakura…"

"Is staying here temporarily, as is Rider." Saber answered knowing exactly what he was going to ask. "Your teacher came this morning, and after some negotiation Sakura and I managed to convince her to let us stay without any issue. In addition to that you are both excused from going to School for the next couple of days due to the traumatic fire that destroyed Sakura's home and the injuries you sustained while getting her out."

The Emiya blinked in confusion several times as he processed what his partner just said before a small grin made its way onto his face and the swords around him shattered silently. "Well I guess I overdid it this time. When I learned that Sakura's home was on fire I rushed there as fast as I could. It was a bit rough going through all that fire and smoke, but thankfully I had enough clothing on to protect me from getting burned."

Saber's lips twitched in amusement. "It was still a very foolish thing for you to do Shirou. One might even say you had a death wish going in headfirst like that."

The redhead shrugged casually and brushed off the comment. "It wouldn't be the first time someone's accused me of that."

Saber's smile became more vibrant. "Indeed. So much so that it would almost make one ignore the fact that said individual has apostle blood running in their veins."

Just like that, the temperature in the room dropped like a rock and Shirou stood in place in pure shock.

"Tell me Master." Saber smiled politely, but referred to him by his title instead of his name, her tone sickeningly sweet. "Was this one of the things you said was different from Kiritsugu's visions that you wanted to talk to me about? I am somewhat surprised that you would wait so long to inform me of something so important."

"Important?" The Emiya squeaked in fear and confusion, clearly knowing that he was in deep trouble at the moment. "I didn't think it would be that big of a deal! I've never had any problems with it before and all the impulses I get are controllable!"

The King of Knights sighed in frustration and shook her head. "Yes. It was so controllable that it nearly consumed you from the inside out last night. Had the Rat Priest not come last night to provide us with advice and aid, your body would have slowly and quite literally consumed itself."

Shirou frowned and his body language instantly went from an uncertain state to a more solid but precautions one. "The Rat Priest? You couldn't mean… no… no of course he would be here. It would be just like him to be interested in watching the war if I'm involved in it."

"I take it you know who this "Priest's" master is. This Apostle, that you somehow managed to become acquaintances with despite your occupation as their hunter." Saber questioned knowingly.

"Sometimes I wish I didn't. Don't get me wrong, he's a good guy and I trust him, but you probably know how… distant and different his kind can be compared to humans, and he's one of the oldest ones out there. Sometimes it's impossible to tell what's going on in his head." The Magus Killer relented tiredly as he scratched his head.

"I'm slowly becoming quite familiar with the sensation." The Servant pointedly stared at her Master.

"Very funny." Shirou humorlessly glared at the woman before looking at her sharply. "Since I'm still very confused right now, can you please tell me what I missed last night so I can have a better idea of what to explain to everyone and what to avoid to prevent things from getting worse?"

Saber nodded before going over the trip back to Shirou's home, his unnatural state, the King of Rats and his diagnosis, cure, and his warnings. Throughout the entire explanation he remained quiet and did not break eye contact with her in the slightest.

"I see." The Master bowed his head and closed his eyes. "So I have to make sure that I'm away from people if I am too drained of prana. Sounds simple en-" Whack. "Ow! Saber!"

"If that happens, then Rider or I will give you some of our blood." Saber corrected sternly in a final tone as she returned to her sitting position. "And that's only IF the situation has deteriorated enough that you are forced into such a situation."

"Er… right." The teen laughed nervously, not willing to argue against the glare Saber was giving him.

The emerald green eyes sharpened. "Shirou. You WILL inform us when you are running low on prana, won't you? We would be most… _displeased_ if you were holding back such important information from us during battle."

"Yes Ma'am." Shirou surrendered obediently. There was no point in trying to argue against Saber at this point. He would not win and admitted there was no reason to argue against her valid points.

Damn B ranked charisma.

"Good." The blonde nodded in satisfaction before getting up and walked to the door. "Now I can leave you to clothe and bathe yourself while I eat. It would be best if you looked and smelled adequately when you encountered Sakura. She was the most distraught out of all of us when your condition regressed last night."

It was only at that point that the teen remembered that he was still in bed, dressed in blue and black pajama pants and a plain white t shirt over his upper body. Moments later, the aroma of his own body reached his nose. Obviously while his body had been thrashing and yearning for blood, it had also caused him to sweat enough to make him feel like he's covered in grime. Shirou's first thoughts agreed with his Servant's comments.

His second thought however…

"Saber? Who… who changed me when I was unconscious? Sakura was too injured last night to do anything and the only people in the house that were capable of doing so were you, Rider, and the Rat Priest."

"…"

"… On second thought, I think it's best if you didn't tell me."

"I agree completely."

Shirou laughed nervously as he picked himself up from his futon and realized how good he felt. "Hey Saber?"

The door had by this point closed behind the Servant, however her silhouette was still visible on the other side. "Yes Shriou? Do you need anything?"

"No it's… I just wanted to say thanks for… well… your blood. I know you didn't have to do it but still."

The King chuckled softly. "Shirou. I pledged to be your sword and shield, and the war itself is anything but peaceful. Even if your plans go as expected, I doubt I would not shed any blood in the next few weeks. Spilling a few more drops for my Master every now and then is not even worth paying attention to. As far as I'm concerned, I am merely doing something that is expected of me. Please don't consider it as a sacrifice on my part as I will never see it as that."

The sounds of her footsteps soon faded away, leaving Shirou alone in his room.

"Damn. I didn't even make it a full day before becoming a burden for everyone."

Several minutes later, Shirou was clad in only a towel in his bathroom and sitting on a wooden stool, pouring hot water over his head periodically to wash himself off.

It was a soothing and therapeutic repeating process, filling the small bucket with water and pouring the contents over his head. He made sure to wash himself in between rinses, but letting his body run on autopilot in the warm environment really helped clear his head.

Now that he had time to think, he realized that he felt good. Actually he felt better than he did in years. He had little doubt that it had something to do with Saber feeding him her blood the previous night, but he couldn't be sure if his relaxed state was due to simply being fed, or because he had drank Saber's blood, high quality dragon blood, in particular. Merem had said that he was barely turned, so the normal Apostle instincts were significantly weakened or nonexistent with him, but Shirou didn't know if this was one of those cases.

Would he be addicted to Saber's high quality blood if he kept this up? Or would he be addicted to blood in general now that he finally had a taste? He admittedly liked the current relieved state of his body, but he would bear his previously unknown burden times a thousand if it meant that people wouldn't be inclined to bleed for him.

On the other hand, there was some merit into storing away some blood for emergencies. He could feel his body generating prana easier than it ever had before, and it wouldn't be long until he was back to being full even if he was supporting two servants at once. Once more he was forced to recall the fact that Dead Apostles were feared for a reason. Despite their many weaknesses and dependencies, they were still naturally exceptionally powerful existences.

If it could help him manage the war to keep everyone alive… if it was only for the duration of the war and he was very sparse about his use of Saber's blood… if it prevented everyone from being in danger later on…

Instinctively he held out his hand and pulled Rule Breaker from Unlimited Blade Works. It would be so easy to just get Sakura to the priest now, de-worm her, stick a copy of Avalon into her body and then use Rule Breaker to get rid of the worms in her nerves with Saber nearby and sever her connection to the grail…

But he didn't, because Zouken would be impossible to find or hunt down if he did. As much as it sickened him to do so, he had to use Sakura as live bait to lure the demon out otherwise he'd just find some other way to make their lives miserable…

The destruction of the Matou household was a bit of a mixed blessing that way. On the one hand, he could keep a close eye on Sakura at all times now and Zouken would have a harder time of using or torturing the poor girl. On the other hand, now Shirou had no solid way of getting into contact with the sorcerer, meaning he had no sure way of luring him out to whatever location he needed.

So at the moment, Shirou was stuck unable to move anywhere. The best he could hope for was that Zouken decided to get into contact with him soon before any of the other Masters or Servants tried to attack him… something he highly doubted would happen if his last encounter with Illya was any indication.

"Honestly. I knew I would have to change plans quickly during this war, but all this after the first day? At least you had some time with Saber before the fighting started Dad…" The Emiya chuckled bitterly as he disrupted the prana in the dagger he was holding, destroying it in an instant.

Sighing to himself and pouring water over his body again, Shirou decided to talk to Saber about storing away some of her blood for him. He would normally be completely against the idea, but if it meant that he wouldn't pose as a risk to his friends later on when their lives were on the line, he'd suck up the shame and embarrassment. Of course, if Saber said no, then he'd probably just have to go to a nearby clinic during the night, raid the freezers there and…

The sudden pull on his reserves snapped him out of any plotting he had been making an instantly put him on guard, stiffening his body like a strung bowstring. None of his bounded fields had been triggered, however both Saber and Rider appeared to be at the front door and ready for battle.

Without thinking, the soaking wet male ran out of his bathroom at full sprint, forgoing his clothes as time took priority over modesty. He was far from fully recovered, but at least now he could fight a bit before Saber and Rider drained him dry, and Sakura would not have to be in harm's way.

There had been many things running through his mind as the Magus Killer skidded to a stop in front of the hallway that led to his front door. Several dozen weapons to trace. Tactics to use. Curses of frustration that he was going to fight again so soon…

None of them prepared him for the reaction he got from the two humans and three heroic spirits, all female, turned to look at the well built teen clad in nothing but a small towel stand in front of them ready for battle.

Shirou had been right in a way. His quick appearance had indeed ended the potential fighting rather quickly. Just not in the way he had planned.

o. o. o.

Einzbern Castle:

Illya had spent the entire day in bed, save for when she went to the bathroom.

She ate in it.

She slept in it.

She read in it.

She ordered her servants around to do meaningless things in it.

She thought and planned in it.

Five lives. Berserker had lost five lives in a battle that had nothing to do with the war last night. This single fact had not left her mind all day long and it did nothing to temper her dark mood. Supplying her mad Servant with power was easy, she had plenty of prana. Restoring his lost lives however was tiring, even for her. It would take her days to replenish those valuable resources, even if she did nothing but rest in the castle…

She grit her teeth in irritation. The beginning of something new? Why would she care about such a thing? She was going to die soon! Her very purpose and goal in life had been stalled by something as meaningless as that? No wonder the Church and the Association hunted Apostles if this was the way they acted all the time. Even the ones that are reasonable are completely out of their minds.

She didn't bother to try to guess what the bloodsucker was trying to hint at when he left. Why her brother was trained by her father didn't matter to her in the slightest…

Had she bothered to think about it more, she would have found it odd that Kiritsugu had started to train Shirou for the war almost a decade before it started… since the Einzberns didn't know that the war was going to start prematurely until about a year ago.

"Sella." The girl ordered out loud for her servant to come. The fellow homunculus was nowhere in hearing distance of her, but due to the enchantments on the castle the servant would always be aware of when her master needed her.

Two minutes later, the door opened to the touch of the woman clad in a maid outfit. "Yes Mistress?"

"What progress have you made on gathering information on the other Servants and Masters?" The albino asked coldly, however due to her small statue many would interpret her demeanor as "adorably grumpy".

The maid bowed. "There were three battles that occurred last night including yours and the one at the Matou residence. The third took place on the opposite banks of the local river. Given the damage done to both areas, it would not be far off to assume that Lancer was one of the servants at the river, and either or Rider and Caster were among the servants battling at the Matou residence."

Illya nodded. It made sense. From what she had been told, the sheer distance of the battle Matou's servant had participated in was ridiculous, and the massive smoldering hoof prints left in the concrete of the area didn't hurt noting either. There had been at least one mounted beast in that battle, and to Illya's knowledge only Casters and Riders were capable of summoning anything like that. Sabers technically could as well, but there had only been one type of animal tracks in the battle and Sabers were as a general rule couldn't summon mounts of that level.

"Wait." She frowned. "Tell me of the tracks left behind. There were burning hoof prints, but what else?"

Sella bowed her head apologetically. "No other trace of animal existed my lady. There were several sets of the hoofprints, but nothing else out of the ordinary. I would like to add however that there were several trees at one point that appeared to be ripped straight from the ground and seemingly used as projectiles, and the craters in the road appeared to be caused by primarily fire based thaumaturgy or pure prana based."

"Rider and Caster then." Illya concluded. "It would make sense. Rider possesses an ability to summon multiple fire themed mounts, and Caster would have some thaumaturgy to fly and attack from a distance. It would explain why there were no other marks on the road." She paused. "And since it is well known that neither Tohsaka nor Matou would willingly summon a Caster class Servant, we can determine that Matou is Rider's Master."

"We can only assume so my lady." The maid nodded, humoring the girl as she smirked proudly at her deduction.

"Can you tell me anything else in particular about the battle by the river?" Illya continued to interrogate her maid.

"Other than the fact that it appeared to be a brief skirmish that primarily dealt cuts to the area, no."

"Then we can assume that Saber was the one to fight Lancer then." Illya rushed to her conclusion. "Archers don't do close combat, and even if they did there would still be some projectile based damage in the area of which there is none. We have Berserker. Caster and Rider were fighting one another, and Assassin was summoned later last night. It makes perfect sense."

"Indeed it does." Sella replied, not bothering to shoot down the girl's assumptions as mere speculation as mood seemed to improve by doing this. Besides it didn't matter if she was wrong anyways. No one could beat Berserker. "Now that you have examined the situation, may I suggest that you shower my lady?"

Illya's moment of glory fizzled out quickly as she slowly leered at her maid. "… Are you by chance implying something Sella?"

The older looking woman didn't flinch. "Yes. I am implying that I need to do my chores around the castle, which includes washing your sheets."

She did not comment on the fact that the girl had been stewing in yesterday's grime all day and was starting to smell.

The childish teenager pouted and puffed out her cheeks. "Humph. Fine. It would be selfish of me to stop you from your tasks." Sulking slightly and getting out of bed, dressed in nothing but a white nightgown, the girl made her way to clean herself. "I expect breakfast to be made by the time I'm done."

Sella waited several seconds after her mistress left eyesight before allowing herself to sigh in relief. "Finally. I thought I'd never get her out of bed. Sometimes I wonder if she really is older than I am."

o. o. o.

Emiya Residence:

The table was quiet as the people sitting around it waited on edge for the food to be served.

On one side sat Saber, Rider, and Sakura. All of them unflinching and unwilling to take their eyes off of the newcomers for a second.

On the other, Luvia and Caster both wondering if this was their last supper.

At the very least, they had an interesting show beforehand.

"If I may?" Caster spoke up hesitantly. "Can I ask why is he doing this? Master and I really were here to just deliver the parchment for your teacher… as unbelievable as it sounds…"

"He", referring to Shirou, was working frantically in the kitchen with a great deal of ingredients to make a rather large and unnecessarily elaborate dinner.

"Shirou cooks when he is stressed." Sakura replied calmly, with neither warmth nor coldness. "Despite your blatant attempt to kill me and Rider last night, he seems to trust you enough to not try anything until after you leave tonight."

"We don't." Rider added factually with a very dark tone.

In a way it showed how much she disagreed with Shirou's rather stubborn and ludicrous decision to have the newcomers for dinner. She was beginning to rekindle her thoughts about turning against the boy and returning to Sakura in the later part of the war if his behavior continued along this route.

"Yes well… you shouldn't." Luvia hesitantly agreed with them. "We are at war after all."

"Master. How do we know that the food isn't poisoned or that they won't attack us when we leave?" Caster asked warily.

"It would be the farthest thing from his mind." The blonde human answered without thinking. "Shirou prides himself on his cooking and a welcoming host. He would be insulted if he was ever told to do such things."

"You are familiar with my Master." Saber's eyes narrowed. She did not know how close she was to Shirou, but right now she was an enemy. Enemies that knew your secrets were among the most dangerous ones to have, and Shirou unfortunately had plenty of things to hide.

"We've frequently talked at the Association and when I moved here." The Edelfelt answered honestly. "I found him more interesting and tolerable than most of the people back home."

"I can sympathize with that at least." Sakura nodded evenly, though showing no emotion in the process. "… Why did you attack me in particular last night? I understand that we are at war, but I want to hear your reasons for doing so. Was it because you knew who I was? Or was it because you thought I would be an easy target?"

Luvia remained quiet for several seconds before she let out a long breath. "Honestly? I had no intention of engaging in many battles for the beginning of the war and had planned to simply gather information, however certain events had prompted my sister and I to attempt to obtain another Servant, or at least reduce the competition faster. In that regard, yes. We went for you because we knew of your identity and your apparent lack of experience."

She did not mention that her sister was the one with the grudge against Matou, nor that she had witnessed Shirou's fight against Berserker.

"And what information would that be?" Saber asked, continuing her interrogation.

"The kind that is none of your business." The fellow blonde retorted bluntly. "We needed a target and Sakura happened to fit the criteria… or at least we thought she did. And in the end the mistake cost us three command seals and the loss of the secret that my sister and I both have a Caster, and their identities."

"Medea of Colchis." Rider nodded shallowly.

"Lady Medusa." Caster returned the gesture. "It is regrettable that we had to meet again under such… unstable circumstances. Ones such as us should have the greatest reason not to fight one another for such reasons. Have we not suffered enough?"

Rider didn't respond, however the cold aura around her lessened slightly.

"You may speak sincerely, however I doubt that your counterpart shares such sentimentality." Saber observed. "If I recall correctly, Sakura mentioned something about her wanting to her as some sort of experiment, and that Marjatta seemed to have gone out of her way to make that happen…"

Luvia's and Caster's eyes widened momentarily before they both narrowed considerably. "Is that so?" The Master grunted in irritation. "THAT apparently was information that my dear sibling and her Servant had conveniently not informed us of. I will most certainly talk to her about this when I see her. Human experimentation is NOT something I condone."

"Neither do I." Caster nodded. "While my counterpart draws her strength from the more unsavory parts of my legend, I still have love for my fellow humans and would not use them in such a way."

Sakura looked at her skeptically. "Forgive me for asking, but doesn't your Noble Phantasm Aeaea possess the animals that were transformed by humans by your aunt, the goddess Cerce? Would that not mean that the creatures you summon were at one point tricked humans?"

Medea had the guilt to flinch and look down in shame. "I am indeed capable of summoning those cursed by my aunt's whims, lions and wolves of great numbers, however I will never allow myself to use them. I stayed on that island to repent for my sins, even though said actions were prompted and urged by the whims of petty gods. My aunt, while cruel to most, was most kind to me and aided in my self-imposed exile, taught me more of my craft, how to take care of the animals, how to defend myself from the subtle machinations of the other gods, and had the heart to get rid of that selfish fool Jason. It truly was the land of redemption…"

"… Unfortunately, it appears as if Jason grabbed some other poor woman after he left and passed her off as me in order to claim that he was with a princess and blessed by the gods, thus giving me a tainted legend that you are all familiar with, and enabling me to be summoned alongside my counterpart who walked down a darker path in life."

"You are fortunate." Rider nodded in approval. "Your tale is as stained as your hands when you killed your brother, however you attempted to redeem yourself with self exile and learned your craft for the betterment of others. I was not so fortunate, and sunk further into insanity after I killed my own siblings."

"May Athena, Aphrodite, and Poseidon rot in Tartarus for what they have done." Caster growled. "Any being that deems forcing others to commit parricide as inconsequential to their goals is damned, god or not."

The gorgon queen donned a faint but bitter smile. It really was a shame they would have to kill one another. Rider was becoming quite fond of the woman…

Saber on the other hand remained quiet for another reason completely.

"_Fa-Father…"_

Had it been only a little over a day since she had been summoned from that cursed hill? Since she had last laid eyes on the still body that had once been her own flesh and blood?

No… the better question was how long had it been since she thought about "him" and not just the chaos he caused?

She had not raised "him". She had not clothed "him". She had not fed, washed, taught, nor even laughed with "him". In fact "he" had been a product between a sick immature joke of Merlin's and Morgana's witchcraft… and yet…

"He" had called her father with "his" dying breath from a wound she had delivered herself. Her child had laid her land to waste, raised a rebellion, slandered her name, tried to take the throne from her… and yet out of all the things that could possibly come out of "his" mouth with the final seconds in "his life… it had been a longing call, almost begging for something simple like a child…

She had slain her kin out of duty, denied "him" happiness out of no human's or god's prompting, but out of her own cold judgment.

"_The King does not understand people."_

Those words echoed through her head once more and caused the King of Knights to think about something that she had rarely gone over before. When had her son first lost sight of the noble path? Until "his" betrayal, Mordred had been one of her most loyal knights, right up there with Lancelot, Bedivere, and Gawain.

Ah… now she remembered. It most likely started when "he" told her who "he" was. When she as King rejected Mordred's right to be her heir and denied "him" the right to call her family…

When she had drawn the sword from the stone, she had willingly sacrificed herself as a woman and as a human to be the perfect King. She undertook trial after trial to ensure that peace and fairness reigned in her Kingdom, certain that with Avalon inside of her to ensure her immortality her land would one day reflect the nature of her sheath with her guidance.

To accept that Mordred was her son was the same as accepting that not only he would be next in line to be King, but that the possibility that she herself would one day fail her people and fall, leaving her land in less suitable hands than her own… and to that day, she had never encountered anyone who was more suited to be the king than she was.

How could she have not? None had sacrificed more than she did. None had the blood of the dragon and the skills that she possessed… the willingness to make the hard sacrifices that she had made, and the blessings of the fae…

No. None of them had the capacity to be King like she did, and she would only be willing to hand down her reign to someone of equal or greater capacity than her…

All for her beloved Britain…

And yet here she was. Her land was gone, her men slain. Her loyal knights of the round either abandoned her or dead in their service to her. Her child killed by her hands and she by "his".

All caused not by a God's whim or the aftereffect of humanity's beliefs, but simply by her own "fair" and "just" judgment.

She doubted that these two heroic spirits, each with legends that were the complete opposite side of the line of nobility and morality of hers, would accept this tale with understanding.

It was rather ironic in a sick way.

Perhaps this was yet more evidence that she had not been truly fit to be King… perhaps…

Everyone's thoughts were interrupted however as Shirou walked in a literal feast on his arms. Dishes of various origins were on plates on his arms, carried out in a professional manner before placed on the table between the females. Steak bits accompanied by three different sauces, fried rice with teriyaki sauce, shrimp and vegetables, chicken dumplings and pork rolls with herbs and spices, sushi, penne ala vodka with garlic, onion, pepper, mozzarella and provolone cheese… It truly was a feast that could fill a person just by looking at it all.

The sheer amount of it, let alone the quality of the food was astounding to the females there as it had all been done by Shirou within an hour and a half. Even Rider was visibly surprised by the Emiya's reveal of his culinary prowess.

Sakura shifted on her legs nervously. This was a first. As far as she could tell, Shirou had gone all out on this meal and his mood still didn't seem to improve much. He must have had a lot of pent up stress if this much cooking didn't significantly relax him.

"Please eat." The chef stated tiredly as he sat down at the head of the table and began to serve himself slowly. "Servants included."

Caster looked around skeptically. "He does know that we…"

"Yes." Saber and Rider answered on reflex as they served themselves rather large portions of food.

"Of course he would feed you anyway." Luvia sighed in defeat as she joined the crowd. "Far be it for Shirou to not let someone eat simply because they don't have to."

"Shirou? Are you ok?" Sakura asked worriedly, and for good reason. Despite his protests that he was fine, the sole male there looked exhausted with small bags under his eyes, slumped shoulders, and a slightly hunched over posture.

The Emiya's eyes looked up at her, tinted slightly grey, but with a sharp metallic shine to them that betrayed how much they truly saw. "I'm ok. I'm just a bit tired from last night, same as you."

Luvia quietly listened to the brief conversation in confusion. Why would Shirou be tired? Save for supporting Saber in last night's fight and shooting off a single projection at her sister's Servant, the Emiya had done nothing that would put a load on his body. Maybe it had something to do with his peculiar eyes. Perhaps he had some sort of ability stemming from demonic blood? His true lineage was unknown after all, and Japan DID have a rather large population of human hybrids…

… Or maybe it was simply because he had summoned Saber recently. He obviously didn't have her around two nights ago when Berserker attacked him. The fresh strain on his body could easily have been the cause for his exhaustion.

"Good." Caster blinked in surprise as she sampled the various dishes in front of her. "My word. This is wonderful. Never has such dishes or tastes been made on Aeaea, or back in the royal palace of Colchis."

"Indeed." Saber nodded in agreement as she worked on her second serving. "Shirou's cooking is truly a feat in itself. I would have had him knighted had he provided for me like this in my court. In fact I do believe that wars could be started in order to obtain this kind of skill."

"_Knighted?"_ Luvia noted the word carefully as she started to eat in silence and watch as the others there converse casually... before realizing that what she was eating was abusing her tongue with delicious textures and tastes of which she had rarely partaken of, even with her high class lifestyle.

If this is how Shirou cooked when stressed out, she would have to find a way to get under his skin more often while staying on his good side. It would be well worth the risk if she could manage to pull it off.

Even Rider was captivated by the quality of the dishes in front of her, evident by her lack of effort to hide her self control and fast movements to refill her plate in almost the blink of an eye. While her servings were smaller than Saber's (granted they were still on the large side), she finished them faster as well all but ensuring that she ate as much if not more than her sword wielding partner.

Within an hour, the feast had disappeared, mostly in part to Saber's and Rider's deep stomachs, however it turned out that Caster was a surprisingly big eater as well. The Masters there guessed it had to do with the fact that the three women were not human and thus could absorb the energy in the food faster.

Surprisingly enough, Sakura had managed take cleaning duty away from Shirou, leaving him to sit at the table calmly with the other women there. Thankfully at this point the mood at the table had lightened significantly. The Servants were still on guard, but the malevolent intent between them had all but disappeared.

"So Fuji-nee really sent you to give us our class work?" The redhead chuckled disbelievingly as he took the envelopes from Luvia, quickly structurally grasping them as soon as he made skin contact with them to ensure that there was no tampering of magecraft done to the contents to be safe. "Honestly, even without meaning to she makes things like the war more chaotic than is necessary."

"I am not doing that woman any more favors until the war is over." The Edelfelt grumbled sullenly. "She nearly killed me doing this. Thankfully I had Sebastian send Tohsaka her work while I came here. I don't think she would have any trouble ordering her Servant to attack me while my back was turned."

Shirou laughed faintly, knowing very well that not only would Rin indeed do that to Luvia if given the chance and no reason not to, but that Luvia would most likely do the same if their positions were reversed. "Well, thankfully we haven't encountered that scenario."

"_Yet."_ Was the unspoken word that echoed through all the Servant's and Master's heads.

"While I do thank you for your hospitality and the meal, I do hope you don't assume that this means that we are allied Shirou." Luvia sighed with a hint of authority in her voice. "Obviously I'm in no position to make threats, but I am not going to reach my hand out to you either."

The Emiya shook his head and smiled sadly. "I doubt you would. You're too strong willed to do that so easily."

No one missed the blush on Luvia's face appear; no one but Shirou, being who and what he is, merely assumed that he had simply just embarrassed her.

"Y-yes. You're correct. There is no way I would let a chance like that slip away if I had the chance. Considering who my competition is I would obviously need to take any advantage I could get in order to win. This is a war after all." The Edelfelt stammered before getting up. "A-anyway. Thank you very much for the meal, but I'm afraid I have to leave now. There are things that Caster and I must see to at home."

"I see." Shirou nodded. "That is after all where your workshop is. I doubt you would make any other place in Fuyuki your base of operations."

The blonde looked at the host skeptically. "Of course not. Why would I even consider storing my valuable equipment in any other place but a building tailored to my family's craft? I have used a great deal of my family's funds to restore the mansion to its former glory and then some. It would be insulting to the Edelfelt name if I did not put the results to sufficient use."

"I'm just stating facts." The Emiya raised his hands in mock defense. "There's no need to take it as a slight Luvia."

The Edelfelt huffed pompously, her confidence somewhat restored by the conversation. "Well if that's all, I will take my leave now…"

"Yes. Rider. Please escort Luvia and Caster until they are a block or two away from home. Not that they would, but it would be good to make sure that they don't try something…"

"Am I to assume that they are not to be attacked after we reach that point?" The Gorgon asked evenly, causing a chill to run down the spines of Caster and her Master.

"So long as they don't do anything suspicious or against us, you are not to hurt them." Shirou sighed. He thought that went without saying, however with everyone as high strung as they were, it apparently needed to be said after all.

"Thank you very much for the meal." Caster bowed politely as she and the other two females prepared to leave. "You have been a most gracious host. If nothing else, please know that your hospitality has been one of the highlights of the war for me, and that I do regret the nature of our first encounter. While I have been summoned to fight, I take no pleasure in violence."

"Neither do I, yet it seems to be a necessary evil in our world. Regardless, thank you for your kind words. It's a pleasure and an honor to be praised by royalty." Shirou courteously replied, pretending to not notice the leer that Saber gave him from the side. "Please think nothing of it."

The Servant nodded with a grateful smile before turning to follow her Master outside, leaving Shirou with Saber and Sakura still in the kitchen.

"You seem quite content." Saber stated calmly as soon as the guests were out of earshot.

"Why shouldn't I?" The redhead asked curiously. "I managed to cook, get complimented by everyone, and prevented any major fighting or blood to be spilled in my home."

"And you pleased someone of royal stature with your culinary skills." The blonde added casually with just the barest hint of annoyance laced in her tone.

Shirou blanched at his accidental goof. "Er. Well, I was trying to throw them off. They would assume that you weren't royalty from that comment."

"Mhm." The King of Knights humored the teen unamused. "At the very least your cooking more than makes up for your inability to lie."

"Well would you look at that. I have homework." Shirou laughed nervously as he desperately grabbed the envelope that Luvia left for him, opened it up and began flipping through the notes. "Might as well do it. Let's see. English. Math. Japanese. Histo…"

A small piece of paper fell out of the small packet of notes and fell onto the ground, catching their attention.

"How odd." Saber mused. "I was under the impression that all your parchment would be of the same size."

The Emiya frowned as he bent over to pick it up. "It should be…" He paused to read it… and a moment later used his magic to destroy the note, turning it into a small pile of shreds. His eyes had taken a cold steel hue, and his body had stiffened significantly.

"Shirou?" The Servant asked warily and prepared herself for some sort of conflict. "What is the matter?"

The Magus Killer didn't reply immediately as he contemplated what his next move should be before he met the King of Knight's eyes. "… After Sakura goes to sleep, we're going out for a walk…"

o. o. o.

With Bazett:

"So what are the odds that we actually come across someone tonight?" Lancer asked his Master curiously as they jumped around the residential area of Fuyuki. "I mean from what I heard, yesterday was one hell of a bash. Don't get me wrong, that Archer was pretty interesting, but the damage done on the other side of the river… man. I bet you a drink that Berserker was at least one of the guys responsible for those."

"All the more reason that we should be thankful that we weren't over there." Bazett chided her partner as she landed on the roof of what appeared to be a general store. "Until we find out a way to beat him, or until we find another Master to partner up with, it would be best if we stayed away from that one. Right now we're just scouting and seeing if we can find any more info on any of the other Masters and Servants."

"Well that's no fun." The man in blue mumbled sullenly. "Where's your sense of adventure?"

"Partnered with my sense of self-preservation." The Enforcer shot back humorlessly.

"Yeah yeah. Killjoy. You should live it up a little. You're good looking. You're young. You aren't poor. You can maim any normal idiot that tries to take advantage of you. Go on a vacation or something." Lancer shook his head depressed. "It's really a waste for someone like you to spend your entire life working for those wrinkled old bookworms. I mean I can understand if you work for that grandfather of yours. I'd kill for a boss like that, but still…"

"Lancer, shut up or I will use a command seal to do it for me." The Fraga grunted, not wanting to be reminded that her social life was very limited. Spending all that time playing the political game and hunting down Sealing Designates and Apostles really did a number on her social skills, and thus her life outside the Association. In fact, beyond Sirius, Waver, and Shirou, Bazett could count the number of people she frequently interacted with outside of work on a single hand.

"Touchy." The Hound of Ireland snickered before pausing as something caught his attention. "Oi Master. We're in luck. I feel a Servant nearby. He's trying to hide himself but he's not that good at it. I can tell the general direction they're in."

"Really?" The woman raised an eyebrow before readjusting her gloves and turning to the direction her partner was looking. "How far do you think…"

She was interrupted however as a red blur close to a mile away phased into existence and shot towards the mountain area. About halfway to hitting the forest, the blur seemed to splinter and multiply into at least a dozen copies of itself. Upon impact, each of the lights light up considerably and set a few trees nearby aflame, causing a good portion of the mountainside to light up like a Christmas tree.

Two… Three… Four more of these incendiary scattering projectiles fired off from the distance at the same general mountainside, spreading the flames all over the forest in a wide spread that would without a doubt catch the notice of the locals.

"Well isn't that interesting?" Lancer chuckled as he looked at the slowly growing fires. "That didn't feel like a Servant's doing, so it must have been a Master. I wonder what was going through his head?"

Bazett didn't need to think as she looked closer at the area. "Isn't it obvious? Look further up. There's the local temple…"

The spear wielder blinked before understanding what his Master was saying. "Ah, I get it. The guy's pointing out where one of the other Servants is to everyone else without getting his hands dirty. This thing will be the talk of the town tomorrow… but wouldn't the Servant there just up and leave now that he knows his cover's been blown?"

"No." The Enforcer shook her head. "I have a good idea who just fired those spells off, and he wouldn't do something so obvious unless he knew that the Servant there was reluctant to move." She paused. "Ryudoji temple… I remember now. That place has some history to it and is built upon a leyline. There's a powerful natural bounded field around the mountain that acts against spiritual existences. The only opening to it is through the main doors."

"My kind of entrance." Lancer grinned hungrily.

"Be serious." Bazett chided. "The place is a natural fortress when it comes to fighting spiritual beings, is the perfect place to set up shop during the war, and there is only one viable place to attack from. I should have remembered it sooner."

"You're worrying too much." The spearman snorted as put his hands on his hips. "All we have to do is burst in through the front door, kill whoever tries to stop us, get the servant and then leave the way we came. Unless Berserker is the door guard, I highly doubt we'll have any real trouble getting through. Besides, everyone knows that this guy's hideout is busted now, including the one crashing there. It's better to attack now while they're trying to figure out what's going on than wait and let them prepare their defenses more."

Despite how simple the plan was, Lancer did have a point. Waiting now would only make things harder in the long run, and the element of surprise was no longer an option. "Fine. Let's go."

The Hound grinned savagely before taking off in an instant. "All right. Come on."

"O-oi! Slow down!" Bazett stumbled, not ready to move so quickly after agreeing to attack. "I'm not as fast as you!"

Ten minutes later the pair had landed at the base of the temple's steps. The glow of the fires made earlier gave the sky an ominous dull orange hue just above the tree line, and the smell of smoke had already met their noses with vigor.

"Huh." Lancer looked around curiously. "I don't feel anyone here. I assumed that the guy who fired off those spells or the Master on the mountain would have appeared by now to see how things turned out."

"It is odd." The enforcer leered as she looked around warily. "I have a good guess as to who made those fires. If I'm right, then there's a chance he didn't anticipate anyone actually coming tonight. He just wanted the info to spread…"

"Tch. That's a cowardly move." He frowned. "He's making us do all the dirty work. Not that I mind doing dirty work, but being used without even meeting the guy whose pulling the strings is not something I can get behind."

"Be careful." The woman frowned in thought. "The guy who made the signal is one thing, but the fact that the one staying in the temple hasn't shown up yet is another completely. I don't like it."

"There's only one way into the place." Lancer snorted as his spear materialized into his right hand before casually moving forward. "Of course they've prepared something. It's probably at the top from what I can tell. Regardless, we aren't going to find anything just standing here and worrying."

Bazett held back a retort and followed her servant up the stairs. The whole situation screamed "trap" to her, but in the end she was willingly walking ahead anyways. She had little doubt that Shirou was the one that had started the fire. He was the only Magus on this side of the planet that she knew of that could pull off mysteries a mile away from where he stood under his own power without a ritual. The red light was obviously one of his fire sword projections molded into an arrow form, and the dividing was a result of a time released gradient parallel.

More importantly however was the fact that Lancer detected a Servant in the direction that the lights originated from… meaning that Shirou was a Master. That alone was going to give her a massive headache, especially if the kid managed to summon Saber of all classes…

But still, it wasn't like him to point out a potential enemy to everyone and let them handle it. In fact, Shirou would either leave the person be if they weren't doing anything wrong, or attack them himself if they were. To actually lure the participants to fight or gang up on one of the others… it simply wasn't like him at all…

Unless there was something seriously dangerous going on up there… and Shirou was in bad enough condition that he actually admitted that he couldn't handle it himself…

Suddenly the quiet forest with the orange and black sky became far more ominous to the Enforcer.

They were halfway up the stairs when the ground in front of Lancer exploded violently without any warning, throwing both Master and Servant back down to the next flat portion of the stairs by the mere shockwave itself.

Lancer had taken the brunt of the damage, and while the explosion itself did not seem that powerful compared to what other Noble Phantasms were capable of, the man in blue had none the less sustained a surprising number of scratches and burns across the entirety of his body, as if whatever had exploded had managed to do the max possible damage to him at that distance.

However that alone would not keep him down. Nothing short of a decisive killing blow to his heart or head would end the ferocious Hound of Ireland, let alone slow him down. As such not even halfway through his decent, the man in blue had corrected his fall so that he would land on his feet… however his burning red eyes were proof enough that he was far from amused by the sneak attack.

On her part, Bazett had merely been blown backwards off the stairs by the explosion due to the shockwave and being behind Lancer, so she had as little trouble as he did correcting her fall. Raising her arms up to protect her vitals, the woman's eyes darted around to see if she could see her hidden assailant. A dozen possible plans for attack and retreat ran through her head as she attempted to figure out what the best one was given the situation.

However the first step to all of them was obvious. As soon as she landed she would move, preferably backwards. It would do her no good to get in the way of her servant's fight. Fragarach was next to useless here. There was no reason for their attacker to use their strongest moves right off the bat, especially if they were expecting more enemies soon. They would want to conserve their strength instead. They would…

Three feet off of the stone landing she would have landed on, the world around Bazett Fraga McRemitz turned white, and her mind knew nothing but pain for but an instant before blacking out...

o. o. o.

Omake: Why the Church (and Kirei) hate Americans and Hollywood:

Kirei Kotomine was jogging all night.

It had been a week since the Louvre incident and despite the fact that the master vampire had been killed, there were still a huge number of undead familiars meandering around both sides of Fuyuki that needed to be cleaned up. As a man of god and a member of the holy church, he was obligated to take up the task in case his young and naive charge proved to be incapable of doing so.

He had just been going around the south edge of the city that bordered the woods when he heard some shouting.

"What the fuck was that for?" Some young man swore in english. "Get away from me you freaks!"

"_Goodie."_ The Priest mused unenthusiastically as he approached the commotion. _"An American." _

Kirei had encountered many sorts of individuals in his travels, but inner city Americans tended to be dredged up from the bottom of the gene pool in his humble opinion. At least people growing up in rural areas knew the value of hard work and could do more with their time than hang out in gangs and pretend to look smart with the latest technology hanging out of their pocket.

Turning a corner Kirei saw that the fool was surrounded by at least thirty undead, trying to hold them back with a flimsy steel knife that probably would get stuck in the first body it was stabbed in. No doubt the idiot had been shouting enough to attract any and all of them in this part of the city. Deciding to not want to bother with covering a foreigner's death, the man sprung into action, whipping out his black keys and grabbing them between his fingers…

"What the…" The teen blinked in confusion as Kirei tore through the first five with ease.

"Holy fuck it's Wolverine!"

The priest had to suppress a groan as he decapitated another undead. He had forgotten how often members of the Church were compared to that ridiculous fictional comic book character those Americans made.

"Dual wielding for the win!" The idiot continued, not bothering to do something productive like run away for his life.

"_At the very least, I highly doubt he can get more annoying than this."_

"Sash! Whapow! Kaching!"

"_I stand corrected."_

"No wonder he's kicking ass. Two daggers always beats one." The American said out loud as he looked at his knife disappointingly.

"_Great. I'm saving a fool."_

Kirei had been so distracted by the boy's idiocy that he almost missed the blur charging out of the woods to the side and nearly slashing him in half. Instead it merely clashed against metal and pushed the man back, though destroying the black keys in the process.

"_Damn. My keys."_

"Fuck! His claws!"

Quickly discarding his ruined weapons, Kirei bolted forward and using his modified martial arts, combining it with some muy tai, blasted through his mutated target's defenses and crushed its chest with his elbow.

"Have some elbow!"

"_Is it just me or are his comments becoming even more juvenile?"_

The priest's next two moves left the creature with a dislocated shoulder and a shattered spine.

"Eat shit ya bitch!"

"_No. It's not me… unfortunately."_

Kirei was just about to seriously contemplate murdering the foreigner when several strings invisible in the night wrapped around him and held his arms apart taught.

"Spiderman's here too?! Why the hell is he here?! I'm arachnophobic! I hate spiders!"

"_I'm more surprised that he knows what aracnophobic means."_

Apparently it wasn't the red and blue mutant nerd as the pair soon found out. Instead, an undead that had progressed in its transformations and had developed some spider like qualities had appeared from the darkness, drooling some pale yellow fluid from its mouth.

As expected, the foreigner screamed like a small child and backed up. If Kirei was lucky, the creature would kill the uncivilized first and spare them both the agony.

Unfortunately, the teen didn't look where he was going and hit a treebranch with the back of his thick skull.

"Ow! Son of a! God damn it I fucking HATE TREEES! THEY SUCK MORE THAN THE SPIDERS!"

"_And just when I thought he couldn't get any more stupid."_

"But still, fuck the spiderwebs. Oi Wolverine, kill this asshole already!"

"_I am very tempted to believe he is speaking in the third person."_

Deciding to end the incident already before he got a headache, Kirei reluctantly obliged the man's request, flicking his wrist to whip out more Black Keys, cutting the webbing holding him in midair in a second, and then tearing apart the creature from behind.

The foreigner staggered to the bloody priest, smelling like the urine that he was all but bathing in and staring at the vivisected creature. "… So you think that's a boy monster or a girl monster?"

Slowly, the priest looked at the idiot, his face an impassive mask.

"Haha! Yeah you're right! Who cares if it's a man or a woman! You're fucking Wolver-urk!"

Kirei didn't even blink as his blades slid out of the teen's stomach.

"A-asshole…" The dying man whispered in shock as he fell to the ground holding his wounds. "I hope you… suck cock… in hell…"

"… Fuck you."

The Priest spoke for the first time during the entire event, not really putting any effort into it and in all honesty it left a bad taste in his mouth. He never really got the point of swearing after all. There were much more clean ways to make people suffer. Still, killing this particular fool did make him feel as if he was doing humanity a favor by enforcing Darwin's theory.

Five minutes later he had finished calling the men under his command to clean up the mess and closed his cell phone, stuck it in his pocket, and began to run again. He had more important things to do.

Back to jogging.

o. o. o.

A/N:

Not my best omake, but I just had to get it out of my system.

Bazett just can't get a break when it comes to the Grail War, can she? Heheheheh.

Sorry for the wait. Lots of crap happening at home and work, so my time was short. Also didn't help that my friend lent me his 3DS and Zero Escape… ah the brain puzzles and technical jargon, they amuse me so, especially since I can actually understand it.

Once again a rather slow chapter with me getting my sillies out. I actually originally wanted to have Merem point Bazett to Caster's direction, but the way I did it seems a bit less abrupt and smoother in the scheme of things.

For anyone expecting a fast paced war, sorry to disappoint you. There will be a lot of fights, but the thing about the war is that the participants need rest and time to develop their own plots, while other characters do their own thing. Otherwise most grail wars would be done in half the time. And with no potential lemons… save for emergency tantric rituals of course. Plus the more I drag the war out, the more plot stuff I can cram into it.

I apologize once again for my slower update speed, but it's just something that can't be helped.

Um… so I guess that's it… other than Heart of the Swarm is coming out next month… and the White trailer for Monty Oum's new series RWBY is coming out in a few days, which will be AWESOME. Actually the new Naruto ninja storm game coming out next month looks pretty good. All the jinchuriki are playable and story mode has some epic looking fights in them.

Blah blah blah, check out the fanart on deviantart and the tv tropes pages. I'd really appreciate it if someone could do the alphabet folder thing for my Yawaleh tv tropes page. That thing is massive.

REVIEW! WORSHIP THE LOG! DON'T TRY TO STRESS OUT SHIROU FOR FOOD BECAUSE YOU MIGHT END UP EATING A SWORD OF THE NON EDIBLE VARIETY INSTEAD! AND REVIEW AGAIN!


	28. Chapter 28

Chapter 28: Misdirection

I do not own Fate/Stay Night and stuffs:

o. o. o.

Emiya residence:

"You want me to what?" Saber blinked in surprise at the living room table as she and the rest of the occupants ate breakfast the next morning.

"If it wasn't too much trouble, I'd appreciate it if you would spar with me for a bit later today Saber." Shirou smiled apologetically as he served himself some simple omelets. Due to the previous night's excursions, he had woken up late that morning, letting Sakura get first dibs on cooking that morning's meal.

"Shirou." Said chef of the morning frowned. "You shouldn't push yourself so much. You're still healing."

Rider remained as stoic as she could while filling her bowl with more rice. She had not missed the fact that her stand in master and Saber had left the house in the dead of night after Sakura had slept, only to return about half an hour later. It had appeared that they had not fought anyone, however the boy's rather exhausted disposition had been hard to miss.

"Since I have to conserve my prana now, I have to rely more on my swordsmanship than I normally would. I'm not bad per say, but I never had an experienced sword master teach me before. The best I had was Fuji-nee, and while she's good, I wouldn't exactly consider her a master. Plus it would help give me a good idea of what to expect from other servants if I'm cornered." The redhead shrugged casually. "I'm not saying we'd be using our main weapons. Just some kendo sticks would work just as easily."

Saber inspected Shirou skeptically with her sharp green eyes for a few seconds before smiling confidently. "I don't see why not. It would be good change of pace to teach the way of the sword again, and I myself am curious as to how my Master fights."

Rider was the only one who caught the hesitant smile on Sakura's face at the mention of Shirou's fighting style. It was fairly obvious from the girl's reaction that there was some sort of unsavory aspect to the boy's method of combat that the Servants were not aware of, but she did not see the point in asking the girl what she knew. She would find out regardless in the next hour or so.

A short time later…

"_Ah. So that's how." _Rider mused as she saw Shirou fly onto his back in the dojo with a wooden sword in each hand courtesy of Saber. The fellow servant's expression was unreadable as she looked down at the boy as she took what she had seen in their spar.

All two seconds of it.

"Glaring openings aside, your reaction time was passable. However you need much work. You were fighting as if you were fighting someone with a shorter weapon." The blonde woman stated calmly as the teen grimaced and got back up, wincing as the beginning of a bruise made itself known on his left shoulder. "No. It was more like I didn't have a weapon in the first place. You greatly underestimated my reach."

"I figured that might be the case." The Master winced painfully, but with an apologetic smile on his face. "My only teachers in advanced melee combat were pugilists and most fights I get into use ranged thaumaturgy or claws as their main weapons."

"You are not used to combating against high speed opponents with longer ranges." Saber nodded understandingly before readying her sword again. "Let us correct that."

"Yeah." Shirou nodded with a grin, obviously not unfamiliar to the pain and stresses of intense sparring.

Moments later the two had clashed once more with Shirou being the one going on the attack, starting with an overhead slash with his right handed weapon, which was easily parried by Saber and normally would have been instantly followed through with a counter.

However she had to take a momentary step back in order to get out of range of the horizontal swipe performed by his left arm underneath where the other two weapons had momentarily clashed.

His follow up maneuver was going to be a thrust with his right hand blade again to keep Saber on the retreat and off her guard…

But the stars that clouded his vision got in the way of that.

"You underestimated me and overestimated yourself." Saber's voice seemed to penetrate the haze in his head before the ache in his skull finally registered. Thankfully he managed to stay on his feet this time. There was no mercy in it, but no cruelty either. "My sword is longer than yours and while I wasn't in your strike range, you were in mine. Be wary of your opponent's range in mind when you fight. I am also faster and more skilled than you are. A simple chain of attacks like that would not be enough to keep me, let alone any other heroic spirit busy for long."

Rubbing his aching skull with the back of his right hand and regaining his sight once again, Shirou stood back up. Despite the fact that his servant would probably turn him black and blue by the end of the day, he couldn't help but like this. True he hadn't been talked down in such a manner when learning since his first few months training with Bazett, but he didn't care much about that.

"Too fast." Rider spoke up for the first time since they got into the Dojo, grabbing both of their attention.

"Care to elaborate?" Saber raised an eyebrow, ignoring Shirou's momentary stumble to the side. "I believe I am giving him adequate training."

She also wanted to see just how good the son of Kiritsugu truly was. Her old master used despicable means, but if there was one thing that he was good at, it was planning and preparing. She wanted to see what the fruits of that man's efforts were in this boy.

Rider shook her head. "He's human… for the most part. None of us will take him seriously and use our full strength on him save for Berserker. Initially at least. He can barely react to your movements as he is. At your current speed he would need to use his spells to stay conscious, let alone learn anything." A faint twitch of her lips almost escaped the notice of Saber. "Of course if you keep on hitting him that hard, I would be interested to see what he would remember period."

The King of Knights had the decency to look a little guilty at the accusation as she couldn't deny moving a bit faster than she normally would have when engaging a human. As much as she berated Shirou for underestimating her, she was just as guilty for overestimating him. Her goal was to ensure that he could defend himself to buy time for help, not fight back.

"You have a point." Saber looked back to Shirou, who had managed to remember how to stand correctly without swaying by this point. "I may have been overdoing it."

"It's okay." The master laughed weakly as he got back into his stance and blinked out the last of the spots in his vision. "It was a simple mistake. The only thing we can do is keep going."

The blonde looked at him warily before putting on a small grin. "At the very least, you are a student that does not shy away from the pain. You would have made a fine squire."

The comment actually managed to get a small rise out of Shirou unlike the savage blows she had dealt to him earlier. "Oi. I might not be that good, but I'd like to think I rank higher than that."

Five seconds later he was once again on the ground with Saber pointing her wooden sword at his chest. "You may be my Summoner, but please do keep in mind that I am the Master in this room." She prodded him once more to point out who had been famous for swordsmanship in life.

"Ow." Shirou relented as he tried in futility to determine exactly what part of his body his servant had hit this time in order to lay him out. What mental processes he had left that weren't aching in pain made a note to never question the blonde's standards again.

Rider didn't say anything as she continued to watch Saber "teach" Shirou how to fight with swords. It was too amusing to interrupt anyways.

She would simply inquire about their brief leave last night later.

Swish! Crack! "Ow!"

No need to hurry.

Smack! Crash! BAM!

Now if only she had some sort of snack to eat while enjoying the show...

o. o. o.

Tohsaka Residence:

"… _have yet to discover what was the cause of the large fire that started last night at the base of the Ryudou Temple, however they are still looking into the incident as well as the bizarre chain of other events that have occurred in recent weeks. Thankfully no one was injured in the blaze that took the several fire fighter departments over five hours to control due to the location of the blaze."_

_Bzzt._

"Looks like someone was busy last night." Archer mused as his eyes left the inactive television and turned to his master holding the remote with a frown.

"It can't simply be just a coincidence." Rin glanced at the Servant with a skeptical gaze. "You know as well as I do how well of a base that temple can become during this war… and since we know that there's a servant out there that uses fire…"

"Hmm. You have a point." The white haired man crossed his arms and closed his eyes in thought. He knew that Rin was testing him to see if his memory would finally come up with something useful for once.

Truth be told he did recall quite clearly that the Caster from his timeline had taken up base there and used Assassin as the guard to the only entrance a Servant could access, quite clearly in fact, but that was the reason why he didn't want to risk going there without backup in the first place. Diving head first into the base of two Servants by himself and causing enough of an uproar to attract the attention of the other teams in the war, who were no doubt also watching the place by now, was not something he found advisable at the moment. And that was IF his memories were applicable to this world.

Even so, he knew for a fact that if he didn't do something now, Rin would probably get frustrated and cause them to go for the temple that very night seeing as it was their only lead in the war that potentially involved one of the unknown participants.

"Well?" The Tohsaka raised an eyebrow, indicating that she was getting slightly impatient. Even after her coffee, she was not a morning person.

"The temple does ring a bell." The Servant from the future admitted. "However from the little I do remember, it would be best to not charge in without more information or backup. There was more than one significant event that took place there. That much I can say for certain."

"Oh?" Rin mused. "I thought that I had summoned the best servant in this war. Don't tell me you're suddenly no longer confident in your abilities."

"Confidence has nothing to do with it Rin." Archer admonished. "The servant that's based up there has most likely made preparations after last night. There's only one way for me to get in there, and with virtually everyone knowing that there's a Servant, the odds are likely that the moment someone starts a fight, another team will appear to finish off the winner. I don't know remember who they were exactly, but there are some servants that I would prefer to only encounter one on one while I'm at my best."

There. That should do it. The temple is dangerous and there are a couple of servants that would cause the guy that can copy and spam Noble Phantasms pause. That should be enough to give the girl reason to slow down…

"Fine. Then don't fight them then." Rin stated simply as if what she suggested was obvious.

"… You mean recon?" Archer asked warily.

The girl nodded. "Of course. I'll stay here safe with my house's defenses set up, and in the mean time you scout out the temple from a distance. You are Archer after all. Your eyes are the best out of all the servants'." She stood up to stretch before moving to the kitchen. "Worst comes to worst, I'll be watching through you the entire time and if I'm attacked I'll use a command seal to warp you back here."

The servant frowned as he casually followed his Master. What she said made sense. If both Assassin and Caster were stuck at the temple like in his past, then Rin would have plenty of time to summon him back. Once again though, that was a best case scenario.

If this world's Illya was as bad as his when they first met, and had still summoned Berserker… well… Rin might want to look into staying at an alternative residence in the near future.

… Preferably not at his old residence this time. Though, it would put him in close proximity to the boy... no, odds are he'd lose his temper at some point and she'd slap some sort of Command on him. Patience, not just yet... there's still no indication that he's truly gone down the wrong path just yet.

"Fine then, but if I get into a fight I'm returning immediately afterwards." The retreat was not out of cowardice, but out of precaution. The farther a Servant is from their Master, the less prana they get from said Master. Granted as an Archer with Independent Action, this detriment was decreased by quite a bit, but it was still inadvisable to get into more than one major death match without recharging at least a bit unless you had Saber's or Caster's reserves.

"Sounds reasonable." Rin shrugged as she got herself a small snack from the cupboards. She normally didn't eat breakfast if Shirou wasn't around, but she did at least get something to curb her appetite with till lunch came. "Just remember to take any good shots you see, or use Lancer's Noble Phantasm at least once if you get in close."

"And what about Lancer's warning?" The red Servant asked skeptically. His lack of commenting on her instructions all but confirmed that he would do what she said.

If he was honest, he was more concerned about the issue than most would believe. It took him the better part of the war as Shirou Emiya to discover that the grail was corrupted, but in this timeline, there were already parties that were suspicious of its nature… but why? If the war had started again without any raised alarms and Rin was still adamant on winning the thing, why would outsiders have suspicions about the very nature of the grail itself? Only Kiritsugu, Zouken, Kirei, and Gilgamesh should have been aware of it, and one of them was dead, another didn't care one bit about the taint, and the last two were more interested on how much chaos the corruption would create.

… Wait. Perhaps having no one know was part of the plan. The Counter Guardian admittedly did not know as much of his father's past as many would have assumed, but he did know that Kiritsugu was a professional assassin. A brutal, cold, cruel, relentless, efficient, and even famous one at that.

Granted he was a shitty teacher when it came to thaumaturgy, but that was irrelevant at the moment.

If Kiritsugu had done something different before he died in this world… then the changes he saw… and the factors that remained the same…

"Ignore it for now." Rin spoke up before his mind could continue down that train of thought. "It could have some merit, it could be simple psychological warfare, but in either case we don't have enough info to make such warnings worthwhile. Even if it is true, I refuse to be left in the dark about something so significant on my territory."

Archer couldn't help but chuckle briefly at the girl. Despite the minor changes, Rin was still an open book to those that truly knew her. She wasn't ignoring the warning in the slightest.

She was being proactive on the subject while hiding her intentions. Staying inside her well defended home while using her servant primarily for recon. She was buying time to gather her thoughts and do her own research on the subject. When the time came to actually act, she would not hesitate to be on the front lines in an instant.

In reality, he doubted that she would be angry if he didn't kill any servants he encountered so long as he came back in one piece… well, not THAT angry at least.

o. o. o.

Ryudou Temple:

Caster remained seemingly neutral as she continued her work on inspecting the leylines beneath her and how it seemed to interact with the greater grail underneath the temple. It had been only by pure luck that she had managed to notice the magnificent piece of thaumaturgy during her previous inspections of the area with Marjatta and it was one of the many main reasons why she had chosen this location as her base of operations.

On a side note, Marjatta had so far been doing a marvelous job as a catalyst for channeling and funneling prana from the local leyline.

Silently Caster had to admit that the system was rather impressive, even for one that came from the Age of the Gods like herself. Despite being made from an era where humanity's capabilities of thaumaturgy were vastly weakened compared to that of her times', the grail's system was impressively complex and intricate. The mere part of the system that not only managed to call out heroic spirits from the Throne, but enabled the user to pick which one with a medium relating to a or several spirits and then naturally takes in the user's nature into account was a work of sheer genius.

To be able to design a ritual that made efficient use of such diversified and unpredictable variables at any time during an elaborate and complicated ritual was worth quite a bit of praise, even back in her time. No one would have thought of doing such a thing in her time, but that was simply because no one needed to.

The work on the leylines was all she could do in order to distract herself from her spiteful thoughts… or rather thoughts about Assassin. Her Servant did not like her. That much was obvious. Given the chance he was very likely to try and kill her with her back turned. Had she been in any other situation, she would have killed him on the spot…

But he was good… no, too good at what he did to get rid of just yet. She had desired a Servant good enough to protect her until her plans were created and despite being just an Assassin class, she had gotten that and more.

To be perfectly honest, if it wasn't for Berserker being Heracles, Caster would have said for certain that the greatest threat to her plans was her own Servant.

The still unidentified man never appeared, much less spoke to her unless she forced him to, and even then he frequently did the minimal amount of work possible not out of boredom, but out of sheer spite. Throughout their few interactions he remained impassive, rude, and emotionless. It was like she was working with a defective specialized golem more than a human spirit at times. The amount of trouble she had trying to get information out of him regarding the previous night's events had more than proved how poorly they interacted.

When she finally realized that the fire in front of the temple had been started by a third party and Assassin didn't do a damn thing about it… well, she had more than reasserted her wrathful authority over the man that night in a vain attempt to curb her frustration. Thanks to the fool, now everyone knew that she had taken residence up here not even a full day after she had moved in.

But regardless of his shortcomings, Assassin was still exceptional at what he did. Lancer was the perfect example of this. Lancer, who had by himself managed to put up a good fight against both versions of Medea of Colchis at the same time and had only retreated due to being overwhelmed by her counterpart's Bulls of Aeaea, had been defeated in five seconds.

Five.

Bloody.

**Seconds.**

Before she had even realized what was going on, having been preoccupied with her research inside the mountain, her Servant had dealt exceptional damage to both Master and Servant without even revealing himself, forcing them to retreat.

Granted, it was more than likely that Lancer had retreated due to his Master's wounds than his own, his Battle Continuation ability ensured that he could still fight for a good while even after half his stomach was impaled with shrapnel.

The woman though… well she was alive when Lancer retreated, but she would not be a threat anymore even if she did survive. And if she did…

Caster briefly glanced at the trinket she had acquired last night that was kept in suspended animation in the corner of the room.

Well, there were plenty of things a witch could do with just a drop of someone's blood or a lock of hair…

o. o. o.

Emiya Residence:

The sound of metal grinding and scraping upon more metal was therapeutic to Shirou. It was bizarre, but the sound just felt right to him. Whether it was from the sound of blades on blades, weapons on armor, or the mechanical parts of a bike being set into place, the auditory sensation was soothing to him.

It had been several hours since his "sparring" with Saber had taken place, and even though Avalon was still in him and working better than ever, he still oddly enough sported a good number of bruises on his person.

Apparently the sheath's ability to heal wounds quickly did not apply so much to bruises, something Saber took great joy in exploiting earlier that day, even if it barely showed on her face. Rider didn't seem to mind much either.

On the bright side, he had gotten comfortable enough against Saber's style to last longer than six solid seconds by the end of the day.

He was up to seven

Not the longest time for a battle, but enough time to pray for a small miracle, pass as a minute distraction, or manage to use a command seal at least.

Ignoring his aching body, Shirou put the finishing touches on the repairs to his Hayabusa, which were for the most part, thankfully cosmetic. With minimal effort, he screwed in the last bolts and locked in the last of the silver plastic frame that made up its shape and held a good number of the runes that provided its air resistance and hypnotic effects on pedestrians.

Breathing out slowly and standing up again, he stepped back to get a good look at his bike. A brief structural grasping told him that everything was in order, and save for a few small negligible scratches on the inside, his ride was as good as new. In reality, most of the repairs were thaumaturgical in nature as a couple of rune sequences had been slightly disturbed in the previous fight. Nothing major, but they would have to be addressed sooner or later regardless.

Hopefully when Saber learns of this she'd be a bit happier with him. He didn't know why, but even though his Servant was cooperating, she seemed a bit frustrated for some reason. The best he could guess was that she was still coming to terms with the grail being corrupted.

Looking around his workshop again, the teen vaguely inspected the various piles of paper on his desks, all in some way used at one point or another to further his chances of succeeding in his goals. All in all his research had been split into four main sections. Runecraft. Material Transmutation. Summoning Rituals. Bounded fields.

All in all it was at first glance a rather weak range of skills when compared to what most other Magi specialized in. Rin's list was nearly four times that length and she was further down the line with those fields of study than most of his save for his specialties.

His Material Transmutation abilities (which also included his crest spells due to how he worked with them) were probably only second to Sirius', and that was not counting Tracing. His Runecraft and Summoning abilities were rather average, even if he spent a good amount of time reading up on them. Sirius and Waver were good teachers in the subjects, it just that runes and summoning weren't Shirou's forte.

As for his bounded fields… well he wasn't certain where he really was with that. He wasn't bad by any definition, it was just he had more to focus on recently. Shirou hadn't touched them for a while, aside for when he experimented with his Reality Marble; not since that fiasco where he tried to use his elemental swords as focus points to try and give his fields new effects.

He learned very valuable lessons that day. Swords were not gems. They did not convert prana into stable wide area effects for extended periods of time well if left alone. Rather, they tended to disperse their stored prana in massive bursts at unexpected times. Above all else, don't experiment with fire element swords when trying something new unless you want to risk burning your home down again.

Especially when you know that the Tiger of Fuyuki is coming over in an hour to have dinner and looking forward to her favorite meal.

Shaking his head he moved to the ladder that took him to the loft of his workshop. Other than having a small bed for when he worked himself too long, this area contained all his and his father's notes and plans for the Grail War.

Some of Kiritsugu's plans he had used or he could potentially use while others he had needed to wait before consideration for various reasons. For example, Kiritsugu had advised planting remote bombs into the arc of the local temple in case Sasaki Kojirou was summoned like in his visions. Destroying the arc would remove the servant's anchor to the world, turning him into a bloodless kill and leaving Caster wide open for assault. Quick. Clean. Simple. And virtually impossible for anyone to predict.

As much as Shriou detested playing dirty in general, especially in this case since one of his friends actually lived at the location of said potential bombing, he had indeed set up several non magical explosives inside the structure of the town monument. However since the situation at the Temple was still uncertain, he did not see the need to follow through with the plan just yet.

Setting up explosives in the Church, on the other hand, Shirou would have had no problems doing if he had any chance of pulling it off unnoticed. Sadly, this was not the case as by the time he had gained his father's notes Kirei had made the church his permanent residence and stopped going out on missions. Provoking the ire of the fallen priest and the Original King was not an option before the war had actually started.

Other plots he had downright ignored though. The top of that list were Kiritsugu's backup schemes to wipe out the entire Matou family to prevent Zouken from living and Sakura from going berserk, and Shinji from just being a flat out liability. Save for the fact that Shinji was dead, Shirou was not going to sacrifice Sakura to kill Zouken or anyone else for that matter. End of story.

Another plan involved using Rin's and Sakura's relationship as siblings against them to orchestrate events to force their servants to either kill one another, or trick them to meeting at one select location or another. He would then proceed to blow up said locations to take out said threats from a safe distance.

The only reason why he didn't burn such ideas by now was because they were different than what he could come up with. They were things no one would be able to predict, and regardless of their despicable nature, good reference material for when he might be stuck in situations where he was less averse to killing…

Shirou's stomach momentarily went up his throat. He hated it when his mind went down that path. It was bad enough that he was neck deep in the world of thaumaturgy, hunting down dead apostles and occasionally having to kill entire village's worth of undead at a time while secretly harboring some of the vampiric blood himself, but the fact that he was getting used to the sensation of taking the lives of others was something else entirely. More so when he recalled that he no longer hesitated to kill undead children.

Regardless, deep down the Emiya knew that if he was stuck between choosing Sakura's, Rin's, or Illya's lives against someone he didn't know, he would save the girls in a heartbeat, consequences be damned. He still didn't know if he liked that or not. A part of him wanted to reject that thought, while another was actually comforted with it.

In a perfect world he would have preferred if no one got involved with his machinations, but in a perfect world the Grail War wouldn't be taking place either so the argument was moot point.

Turning to the screens and a keyboard on one of the desks there, Shirou checked to see if anything had appeared in the past twelve hours. The cameras were rigged to record if any large source of prana passed by their sensors, and when placed in specific locations such as the Fuyuki Bridge, the High School, the Church, the Temple, and select major roads, he could at least get a good idea of what part of the city certain Servants or Masters were at.

Unfortunately the road to the Einzbern's castle was too far away and too secured magically for him to monitor via this method, otherwise he would have known his sister had arrived long before she tried to kill him half a week ago.

Likewise, by the time he HAD managed to get to the recordings for the Temple, he had already received word from his contact that a Caster was there seeing as he was unconscious till then. This turned out to be useful as during some point during that night, all his cameras covering the area had been destroyed, giving him nothing but static.

The problem was that the one good shot of the perpetrator he managed to get did not look like a swordsman in the slightest. Instead all he saw was what appeared to be a man of average height covered in a large rag that covered his entire head and body, leaving only his nose and mouth visible.

No. Assassin did not look like a swordsman at all. But the lack of a skull mask indicated that he did not seem to be Hassan-I-Sabbah either, meaning that he was not a conventional Assassin. This once more indicated that Caster was indeed the Master.

Given what he knew from his father's notes, the mystery Servant probably had a physical anchor to the world that was outside of Caster's normal control. The "easy" way to kill them would be to destroy the anchor. However if his luck was as bad as he thought it was, it would most likely be inside the temple compound which meant he'd have to beat the servant in the first place to destroy it.

Then there was Illya and Berserker, Kirei, Gilgamesh, Zouken, Sakura, and the corrupted grail he'd have to manage all at once. But he couldn't do that now. He was barely running on half as it was, not to mention his lack of desire to cause his Apostle blood to go out of control again. Setting off those fires last night didn't help his condition much either. It really was a big risk for him taking on Rider, but since it prevented Sakura from getting out of control and going on a killing rampage, he didn't complain.

Back to the temple though, Shirou was concerned as to what the situation could mean. Despite the clear evidence that said that Caster had summoned Assassin, the issue was that there were two Casters that were supposed to already team up. Did this mean that there had been a betrayal, or could this mean that there was now a team of three servants in the war? The latter didn't seem likely as Luvia had come alone with her Caster the previous day and the pair did not seem to be up to anything… but that easily could have been a ruse to gather more information from him and Sakura.

… No. If both Casters were in on it, then Luvia wasn't. She was far too much like the standard Clocktower noble for his tastes most of the time, but he knew her well enough to know that she wouldn't go as far as to threaten the general populace to further power up her Servant. She would want to do things under her own power for as long as possible before relying on dirty tricks.

True her knowing that he had summoned Saber and was teamed up with Sakura and Rider would certainly put her on edge, especially since she had a weakened Caster, but she wouldn't lose her cool that quickly. She knew he wasn't one to go overboard and kill everyone, even if it would be the most practical thing to do. She knew that he would lay off her and would only kill the Servants if possible.

Marjatta on the other hand…

Regardless if one or both of the Casters and their Masters were stationed there though, the fact of the matter remained that they were getting desperate and were taking out prana from the local leylines fast enough to cause some noticeable damage to the populace. As such they needed to be dealt with and soon.

He was not in a good position though. After the past few nights, it would be best to not take a hands-on approach. Instead he would be more subtle…

It was only an hour later that he remembered that he still had to do the homework that Luvia had given him the previous day.

o. o. o.

In the main building:

It was a rare when Sakura was responsible for cooking both breakfast and dinner, but that was what was happening that night as Saber and Rider waited patiently in the living room and watched the news for any other potential new information to appear.

Neither one of them had commented on Saber's rather brutal training session that day, as there was nothing to say about it. Only the small occasional smirks on their faces were enough.

"It's getting dark soon." The servant of the sword commented as she looked outside at the setting sun. From the look of things, there was probably only about an hour or so worth of daylight left. It was a bizarre routine that she had adapted to. During the day the household was so peaceful it was bizarre at times. During the night however someone, most likely Shirou, got into some sort of life or death situation involving the arcane and or legendary spirits.

The sharp contrast between the two states was both akin and different than the wars that Saber was accustomed to, including the one with Kiritsugu. During normal wars, everyone was tense for a good amount of time before, during and after battle. Everyone was plotting, scheming, praying, or doing something with regards to the task at hand. Even during cease fires there was a heavy air among her army's ranks, leaving her soldiers and herself on edge for anything.

Kiritsugu was much the same way… no, he was worse. Perhaps it was due to the fact that the war had been ever present, or maybe her very existence put the man in "battle mode" as some soldiers called it, however whatever kindness and humanity Shirou saw in him was nonexistent with Saber. The man had been prepared and preparing for battle 24/7 during the war. Even during slow days he did not stop, and if what she recalled was correct from talking to Irisviel and Maya, he had been RUSTY during the entire thing.

Sobering thoughts aside, what she had been experiencing here was… pleasant. The good food, the relaxed conversations, the understanding comrades, the welcoming atmosphere... It was almost as if the war didn't exist at times.

Rider turned to her temporary partner and tilted her head to the side very slightly, her way of silently asking what she had in mind. Even if she was slightly more talkative than before, the blindfolded woman was still more likely to remain silent than not.

"I don't know what Shirou has planned, but we have to be prepared for whatever he comes up with tonight." Saber elaborated. "I happen to know that our Master is not the most self conscious of individuals at times. If he comes up with something that would risk his wellbeing too much, I am counting on you to help in stopping him."

The black and purple clad Servant nodded silently. She had already developed that assumption about the Emiya after he became her stand in Master. Her true loyalties were to Sakura of course, however the boy had warranted some attention. After all, he too seemed to know of the potential monster that the girl could become and was trying his hardest to prevent that from coming to pass. Yet the boy seemed to have other much grander plans in his mind that he was trying to accomplish at the same time while maintaining an equal amount of effort on Sakura.

The boy was a mystery to her. Granted, he seemed to genuinely care for Sakura and be on top of things when chaos wasn't all around them, but there was much to him that Rider didn't get. He seemed to be interested in everything BUT the grail from what she could tell. She wasn't interested in the grail too, but neither was she that involved or knowledgeable about virtually all of the other contenders.

What made things even more concerning was that Saber seemed to have joined him for the ride. She seemed to be more concerned about what events could mean in general more than what they could mean for the war itself and other factors that she seemed to be unaware of.

"I will act in my Master's best interests." She said neutrally. She was of course talking about Sakura, but the statement could include Shirou's well being as well so long as the interests of the two didn't conflict.

Saber didn't say anything as she grabbed another cracker from the table in front of her and ate it quickly. She was somewhat disappointed that she did not get along better with Rider than Caster did. True, the two came from the same era and chain of mythology and neither Rider nor she was rather conversational, but still there needed to be at least something they could do in order to increase their efficiency and companionship. Even if there were major communication issues during her time in Camelot, Saber had at least made some effort to talk to and know her most loyal knights occasionally to improve moral. So far, all of their conversations had been short and to the point and unless something was done it would stay that way.

She would be damned before she allowed herself to be in another relationship like the one she had with Kiritsugu… Ah. Of course.

"Rider, should nothing occur to hamper our status by tomorrow, I was contemplating if you would mind exploring the city with me during the day." The King of Knights started off casually.

Rider paused as she processed the absurd change of subject, as well as how out of place it was considering they were in a war. "I hardly see why we should do that. In their current states our Masters would be left defenseless to an assault, and advertising them together would all but tell the enemy that we are teamed up."

Saber shook her head. "We would be taking them with us. You also forget that many of the other Masters abide by the no fighting by day rule. At least two of the other masters are also aware that Shirou is friends with Sakura, and hence would not attack her unless prompted to even if they were enemies for the war." She closed her eyes and grabbed another cracker. "I was also somewhat interested in many of the vehicles of this era and was planning on visiting the specialized merchants for them if we had time. I was quite impressed with the Motorcycle… the Hayabusa I believe is the name, that Shirou supplied me with and was curious as to what other variants were made."

Even without looking Saber could tell she had managed to hook in Rider. The unnaturally quiet Servant had grown even more statue like as the King's words echoed in her ears. It had already been silently established that Rider was not to touch Saber's bike unless needed under penalty of death, however the Servant of the sword had no qualms with looking at more mounts with others.

"… I would need modern attire." The beauty finally relented after losing her self control to her personal desires. All in all it wouldn't be that much of a risk. They were just being a bit more creative while getting a better feel for the battleground. There was nothing suspicious at all about that all.

It wasn't like she had mount envy or anything. That would be ridiculous, a Rider envying a Saber's mount... Even if it was an interesting mount. One that... she could ride anytime she wanted without drawing unwanted attention… and cost little to no prana to use…

Saber suppressed a victory smirk, a skill she had mastered through years of politicking in Britain. "Shirou will think of something. He is quite handy in tasks like this."

"So I've heard." Rider admitted. "Sakura is quite fond of him."

"I've gathered as much. Few would willingly put their lives in the hands of someone they don't trust." The blonde nodded downplaying the fact that the other Master was rather smitten with her own.

The more mature looking of the two quietly agreed before grabbing a cracker herself. She wasn't hungry with the prana that Shirou was giving her, but she did enjoy the taste. To be honest, she had trouble telling if he was reciprocating those notions Sakura had. Shirou was fond and protective of Sakura, and there did seem to be a deep bond between them, however what he had for her did not seem to match what she had for him. Not completely at least.

"I am somewhat jealous. The populace in this era is weaker individually, but they have fewer major obstacles as well." Rider admitted truthfully. While she could relate to Sakura on an intimate level, there were still key differences. The girl's tormentor was not the gods themselves, but merely twisted and sadistic humans, and there were people fighting for her. In short, unlike Rider, Sakura actually had a chance of getting out of her situation without turning into a monster or dying.

"Who saves the hero, let alone in an era like this?" Saber nodded in understanding before wincing as she remembered that Rider was Medusa, one of the most legendary monsters in human history.

"Who saves the monster?" Rider replied with a hint of dry humor.

Saber paused for a moment before donning a weak smirk of her own. "Who saves the lone King that no one understands?"

The black and purple clad servant remained quiet before grabbing another cracker and eating it. "Only a fool would."

The blue and white clad Servant nodded as she finished the box. "A mighty fool he must be then…"

o. o. o.

Later that night:

"Seems like we were right." Archer said out loud as he stood on top of one of the taller buildings in the residential district, one that happened to be close to the Ryudou Temple. "There's definitely a Servant set up in there."

"_Well that's one question answered." _Rin somehow managed to sigh through her telepathic link to her Servant. _"Any chance you see anything out of the ordinary?"_

"You mean any chance they slipped up and are revealing something that could give us an advantage?" EMIYA translated as he focused prana to his eyes and briefly scanned the area. "No. There was plenty of fire damage to the woods, but none of the flames reached the trees near the stairs. I can't see anything out of the ordinary there. As for the temple itself, I sense a large amount of prana fluctuating, but that could easily be attributed to the leyline located there. My guess is that whoever's using the place as a base is taking advantage of it."

"_It would explain all the people falling unconscious lately."_ The Tohsaka noted in a dark tone. In the past twenty four hours, the number of people that mysteriously fell unconscious nearly quadrupled, and some of those cases had resulted in fatalities. If the culprit was prompted to act irrationally due to the previous night's events, everything would match up. _"Still just walking up to the front would be stupid. There's only one entrance and it would no doubt be heavily guarded by either the servant or by some kind of magic if it's Caster."_

"In short the main entrance is one big trap in one way or another." Archer snorted. "Why am I not surprised?"

"_Because you should have gone through this already Mr. Amnesia."_ The teen sarcastically replied.

"So that's where this feeling of déjà vu is coming from." The Servant chuckled, enjoying the wave of frustration that his master was unintentionally sending his way.

Despite the fact that he still did not have much to go by for this world, he was enjoying it more than he should have. Messing with Rin like this was almost worth the payback for every time she tricked him into doing "favors" for her back when he was alive. Now if only he had the fortune to be summoned with his full memories more often…

"_Annoying comments aside, you're too relaxed."_ Rin managed to grind out after regaining control over her temper. _"Shouldn't you be concerned that another Servant might appear and attack you?"_

"No." The Servant of the bow shook his helmeted head and turned his attention to the new Servant he had detected approaching him a minute ago. "Under most circumstances that would be the case, however I have a feeling that this one is a bit different."

Moving faster than a blur and as quiet as a shadow, a black and purple clad Servant shot up from the edge of the building and landed a good distance away from Archer. It took the man from the future a moment to recognize Rider as she stood up straight and stiff from her animal like landing, however even with that knowledge he did not truly let down his guard. The fact that she didn't attack him upon sight was already a sign that she was there for alternative reasons.

From the few times he did look ahead in his alternate summoned self's experiences, he knew that the woman in front of him was none other than Medusa, certainly a dangerous opponent… however she was rarely one for teaming up or elaborate plans. Shinji, the deluded fool unfortunately ensured that more often than not.

As for Sakura... bad things tended to happen when Rider began moving enigmatically.

"_Remember what I told you."_ Rin ordered out warily, trying to gain as much about the enemy as possible through her Servant's eyes. _"She's pretty strong physically. She has no mask or conventional weapon, so Saber, Assassin, and Caster are out."_

"I take it you are curious about the temple as well." Archer casually greeted the newcomer without truly relaxing. Given the nature of the war, it wouldn't be surprising if a fight broke out then and there. Accessing his reality Marble, he materialized a copy of Gae Bolg and spun it around deftly in his hands. Spears weren't his forte, but he could access the memories stored inside of most of them just as well as he could with swords. "Of course if you want to go a few rounds…"

Given that it was still at the beginning of the war, it could be assumed that many of the masters and servants didn't know of all the others. That being the case, Rin decided that it would be best for Archer to masquerade as Lancer for the time being, if nothing else than to inform others about Irishman's Noble Phantasm and hide his own.

Rider's body and muscles coiled like a dog's, ready to meet Archer's challenge in an instant, however she stiffened at the last moment before backing out of her earlier decision. Most likely her Master had managed to stop her at the last moment and was berating her.

Archer frowned. Come to think of it, there was no sight of her Master nearby meaning that he or she knew thaumaturgy. Did this mean that Sakura was in charge? Hopefully not. The worlds that he was summoned into where that happened normally did not turn out that well, and that was putting it lightly. He'd have to look more into this later.

"So what do you say?" Archer spoke up again. "You can talk, can't you?"

Rider remained quiet for a few more moments before slightly relaxing her stance. "That depends, do you think you are capable of taking on the Servants at the Temple Lancer?"

"Servants?" Rin and Archer echoed noting the woman's indication that there was more than one enemy nearby, one in disbelief and the other in skepticism.

In the back of her mind, Rin noted that the Servant in front of them couldn't be Berserker due to her ability to talk as well. Due to process of elimination and the fact that she obviously wasn't Lancer or Archer, it meant that the sultry woman there was Rider.

"Assassin." Rider spoke as if that would answer all their questions, albeit this time she too was somewhat surprised by it. Apparently her Master had been holding information from her.

"_Son of a… of course."_ Rin clicked her teeth in irritation. _"You wouldn't be able to detect that Servant from this distance. Not with Presence Concealment."_

"Your Master seems to keep much to his chest if he didn't trust you with this information beforehand." Archer chuckled. "Although I am grateful that he saw it fit to share it with us as well."

He did note that she was surprised that one of the Servants at the temple was Assassin. It was almost as if she had been expecting a different class to be there instead… meaning she's likely encountered Caster and some other Servant before at the same time. More concerning information.

"_Rider's Master wants to pair up with us and storm the place."_ Rin concluded factually to EMIYA. _"That is, if they aren't the ones living there in the first place and trying to lead us into a trap."_

"_Only if Rider was already partnered with the Servant that's already in there."_ Archer pointed out. _"And didn't you say that Rider most likely fought Caster in the battle that took down Sakura's home?"_

"_Most likely means it's still just a guess_." Rin pointed out. _"She could easily have been responsible for that giant patch of destroyed forest near home. It takes a Servant with a lot of firepower to mow down that much land in so little time, and Riders are known to having the strongest Noble Phantasms."_

"_Generally yes, but there are always exceptions."_ The Knight pointed out almost tiredly. _"And if he is telling the truth, it might set us up to take Rider out after killing another two Servants. Three kills in a night wouldn't be that bad…"_

"_If they don't cross us first Archer."_ The Master interrupted. _"Follow my instructions…"_

"If you're so concerned about the two Servants and Masters in the temple, why isn't your Master here as well?" Archer asked out loud. "Surely he'd want his Servant to be as powerful as possible when against such odds, that is if he isn't craven or inept of course."

Rider's demeanor darkened slightly. For a time she was silent, obvious weighing whether or not she would say anything before admitting, "My Master is unfit to fight for the moment. Since the war began, he has already participated in several battles. He needs time to recover." Such an admission came out both grudgingly, yet with a hint of pride at the same time. It was difficult to tell with the way she spoke.

Since when the hell did Shinji grow a spine? This was a rare world indeed if that arrogant brat actually took it upon himself to actually do something useful enough that would earn even the mildest praise from a Servant. "Is that so? From what I can tell, none of the Servants have been defeated yet. I guess that means that your Master isn't that capable. Then again perhaps the Servant is at fault."

"And what excuse does your Master have?" Rider countered. She was used to getting insults, but she would not tolerate ones thrown at her Master, replacement or not. He deserved at much at the minimum for what he was doing.

Archer shrugged, ignoring Rin's answer. "Who knows? My Master's a flighty one. Certainly capable, but hard to read sometimes as are her mistakes. Always planning and plotting that one is."

"_You keep talking like that and I'll show you how good I am at plotting you ungrateful spray tanned…!" _Rin growled dangerously in his mind as the conversation continued on the outside.

"Just to make sure though, I noticed that your Master never specified the number of Servants at the temple." Archer continued, ignoring the teen's ranting. "We are talking about just two of them correct?"

Rider's head bowed down slightly as she no doubt was being told before raising it once again. "My master is unsure, however he said that there should be no more than three Servants there, and no less than two."

Archer's eyes narrowed. Three Servants? Did this mean that Saber or another Servant had been taken over by Rule Breaker already, or was there another Master and Servant pair that teamed up with Caster? And what was with the uncertainty? _"I don't know about you, something isn't adding up here."_

"_My thoughts exactly." _Rin agreed. _"If Rider's Master already knew that Assassin, the hardest Servant of all to track, was there, how could he not be sure about the other one or two in the temple, let alone know that they were there? It wouldn't be that hard for most to wrongly guess that the Servant you're sensing is Assassin…"_

"_And yet… unless Rider's Master is a fool he would know that telling us this would be suspicious in the first place."_ Archer noted. _"Even if it was true, telling us this would do him no favors in the end. It would have been better to just say there were two Servants there and use the potential third to kill us when our guard was down…"_

"_Then again, Rider herself could be the third Servant and is simply using us." _Rin suggested in frustration. _"But if she's telling the truth we're at a huge disadvantage by ourselves. We need to know more…"_

"That sounds terribly suspicious if you ask me." Archer mused out loud. "If he wouldn't mind, would your Master be kind enough to tell us who he thinks the other Servants there are?"

This time they had to wait far shorter than before for Rider to speak. "He suspects that there is at least one Caster hiding in the temple."

Both Archer and Rin blinked at that. "At least one Caster? Can you make a little more sense? How can there be more than one Caster?"

"The Masters of both Casters somehow altered the ritual so they could summon separate variants of the same Servant." Rider explained. "We have battled before. While they are weaker somewhat than what is expected, together they are a significant force. However my Master is unsure of what to make of the current situation and the fact that we can only sense one Servant in the temple."

Well wasn't this peachy? Two Witches of Betrayal. As if one didn't give him enough headaches.

"I don't suppose you could give us their identity could you?" The Servant of the Bow asked casually, hoping to worm more information out of Rider's Master. At this point there was no doubt that they were telling the truth. Out of all the things that could have been made up, this one had been too outlandish and bizarre to simply have been made up on the spot.

"Only if you agree to join forces for the night and we encounter Caster." Rider countered without hesitating this time.

"So you do know who Caster is." Archer noted.

"They have different Noble Phantasms and abilities. With that many clues it was not difficult to determine her identity." Rider tilted her head to the side slightly, as if stating the obvious.

"Fair enough." EMIYA admitted. _"Well Rin? Do we bite?"_

"_Just a few more questions." _The Master replied.

"Just to be sure, you want us, both Servants with Masters away from here, to engage potentially three Masters and Servants on their territory that have access to one of the largest leylines in the area." Archer voiced his Master's skepticism. "Even if they are Casters and Assassin, I am not that content with those odds."

"Right now, Master only plans on skirmishing with the enemy to see what they have set up." Rider corrected. "It is likely they cannot move from the area, so we can retreat and return whenever we wish."

"So you basically want to take them out one by one over time." Archer concluded with a nod of understanding. "There is no need to take them out at once…"

"_If you plan to sacrifice the well being of the people being drained by Caster after she begins to panic as her position crumbles around her, sure." _Rin commented sarcastically. _"I thought you were more cautious than this Shirou."_

"… Then again if we do see an opportunity to finish it all at once, I don't see the reason why we can't take it." He continued without a moment's hesitation. Silently he made a note to be slightly more sympathetic to the mass' well being in the future, if only to play the part for as long as needed. "Even if they do have better mana supplies, we are far stronger than they are in single combat."

"We shall see what happens." Rider nodded as she turned to the temple. "As you are Lancer and stronger in direct combat, you will take point."

Archer silently swore as he realized that his bluff was unknowingly being called. _"Rin…"_

"_Just go with it. The worst that can happen is you get called out for not being Lancer, and even then they'd probably assume that your copy won't work due to it being a fake." _The girl answered with a hint of amusement. _"Even then you'd get a pretty big audience when you do use that spear so in the end nothing's changed…"_

"_I'd still prefer it if people didn't know I could copy weapons." _Archer countered somewhat irritably as he began to walk to the edge of the roof.

"_They don't know the full scope of your abilities and they don't know how many weapons you have so it doesn't hurt you that much in the end." _Rin argued. _"For all they know you can only copy your swords and whatever weapon you saw recently as a one time trick. It would explain why you didn't copy Gae Bolg during your fight with Lancer…"_

"_I didn't copy it during the fight because Lancer would have killed me if I did. You know that." _EMIYA frowned as he jumped off the building without a second thought.

"_But they don't."_

"_While I am used to betting my life quite frequently, me being dead non-pending, there are far safer and reliable risks available Rin. If you don't mind, I think I'll be in charge of the overly suicidal decisions after tonight." _The Servant sighed as he landed silently on the ground without any issue at all before leaping forward easily. He didn't need to look to know that Rider was close behind him, quiet as when she first arrived.

"_Fine. You win. Far be it for me to argue with an expert of nearly getting killed all the time." _The teen sarcastically replied.

"_What a trusting Master I have." _Archer chuckled as he disappeared into the darkness. "Now about Caster's identity..."

o. o. o.

"Shirou, is this wise?" Saber asked cautiously as she and Sakura stood in the back yard of the Emiya residence, looking at the redhead sitting lotus style in a large formalcraft circle. "You are still exhausted from your endeavors."

"Saber-san is right Shirou." Sakura worriedly went around the glowing circle for what seemed like the dozenth time to ensure that it was flawless. It was designed to aid Shirou's circuits in transferring prana to his body as smoothly and quickly as possible in addition to sending prana to Rider easier. All in all it was a fairly basic piece of work as far as Thaumaturgy went, but still a single mistake could easily have dire consequences for the user. "Even if you are restricting the amount of prana you are giving to Saber-san to the bare minimum, having Rider fight will put a heavy strain on you. If you push too much…"

"My Apostle blood will react." Shirou concluded with an understanding smile before taking out a small medicine pouch filled with red fluid. "I am fully aware of that. Believe me, I know the risks but I can't sit by and let Caster's position get stronger. We need to keep up the pressure and with another Servant helping the odds of drastically crippling her efforts are too good to pass up tonight."

"But the odds of you losing control are just as high." Saber frowned. "Even if you do have some blood, the lack of concentration and focus will put a great risk on Rider should it happen in a fight."

"Which is why I have this circle set up." The Emiya nodded as conjured his shroud into his left hand and placed it to his side much to the girls' surprise. Wordlessly the teen breathed deeply and began to meditate while basking in the moonlight. The Full Moon had yet to arrive, but without the Shroud of Martin blocking its effects, Shirou could feel his body reacting positively to it for the first time in months.

Sakura gasped as she realized what her savior was doing and turned to look at the moon shining around the edge of one of the few clouds that night. "Shirou! Don't tell me you're…"

"It's ok Sakura. This isn't the first time I've done something like this." Shirou interrupted as he continued his breathing exercises. "My contact has made me do this several times in order for me to get a better grasp on my… urges. What happened last time was simply an extreme case that occurred under extreme conditions. Unless we are attacked here while Rider is in the middle of a battle, the odds of it happening tonight are slim, and even then Saber at the moment can fight all out without an additional supply for a good while."

Saber's eyes narrowed as she looked at the blood pouch in the teen's possession. "And I assume that pouch contains no ordinary blood?"

This time the Master did have the nerve to look sheepish as he shifted slightly at the accusation. "Given what the night entailed, I thought it would only be efficient if I drank Rider's blood to maximize our connection from this distance. I asked her to donate this right before dinner."

Sakura eyed the blood with hints of jealousy, concern, and fear. "And you are sure nothing bad will happen if you drink it? How often have you done… this?"

"I don't do this much and to be honest this is the first time without 'proper supervision'." Shirou admitted as he ripped a small hole from the top of the pouch. "Normally I just get a bit more prana and am a bit more energetic, but I've never drank blood of this quality and potency before."

There was a brief pause.

"And before you ask, no I do not like drinking blood in the slightest. The taste, feeling, and mere action of doing this are simply wrong and I wouldn't do it in the first place if it wasn't for my condition. Even then I've only done it to get used to the sensation so I don't lose control over myself by accident." He added somewhat stubbornly before glaring at the pouch in his hands. "I can barely get half a mouthful down without throwing it back up."

"And the blood you have drunk before?" Saber hesitantly inquired, not sure if it was a question she should be asking.

"Donated blood stolen from a local hospital. I personally made sure of that." Shirou grimaced as he leered at the pouch, clearly indicating that he disliked what he was about to do. "How normal magi manage to stomach drinking this to power their spells, I will never know." A few more seconds of preparation later the teen got over his hesitation and began to drank from the small plastic container with a displeased grunt.

Both Saber and Sakura winced slightly as they saw the teen downing a fraction of the container with effort, the look of displeasure clearly visible on his face as he swallowed the coppery crimson fluid. Despite this, not a single drop had gone anyplace other than his mouth.

He stopped after about a quarter of the way through the medicine pouch and made no effort to hide his distaste for what he had done by resealing the pouch with his magic and putting it to the side. Not even a moment later he had taken out a bottle of water and took slow but moderate sips from it, no doubt to get rid of the taste. Give from how controlled his drinking was, this was far from the first time he had done something like this.

He made no comment that though he loathed the action and scent, the actual taste of Rider's blood was deceptively appealing to his treacherous senses. That was worrying. Before, the taste of blood was disgusting, but now... it was best if he didn't make this a habit. He drank the water to eradicate the taste off his tongue and hope that this was only a result of yesterday's incident that would wear away with enough time.

It was only when he had put the bottle down that Sakura spoke up. "Well? Did it work?"

"I'm never going to get used to this. Thankfully." Shirou spat out the last mouthful of water before he breathed in deeply and resumed his meditation. Though he didn't show it, his body was already flourishing from the deceptively large boost in prana it had just received, causing all his nerves to tingle pleasantly right down to his fingertips. Merem's comments on Divine blood during his lessons apparently held some merit after all. "Mmm. Yeah. I can definitely feel a stronger connection to Rider now, and her blood is full of prana. I'm going to have a much easier time than I thought like this if everything works out."

"And how are things working out for Rider?" Saber questioned, glad to have a change of topic.

"She's just reached the temple stairs with Lancer… or Archer. He uses a spear but he doesn't match the description of what Lancer is supposed to look or act like from my sources." Shirou replied before closing his eyes and further controlling his breathing. "It would be easier to tell if I could actually see him, but Rider's blindfold makes that hard to do."

Saber didn't say anything, but she suspected that if Archer was the Counter Guardian he was simply using a traced copy of Lancer's weapon to fool the other teams. It was a weak disguise that would not last long in the war, but still a potentially useful one for the time being.

It brought a bitter memory to mind, however, as she recalled the actions of Lancelot in the previous Grail War. How her fallen knight had tricked her by taking the guise of Rider, killing Maiya, and kidnapping Irisviel.

Back then, she had figured that Kiritsugu was too cold to give much care for the loss, but now...

"I hope this works Shirou." Sakura worriedly said out loud as she began to watch for any signs of the opposite. Should something indeed go wrong, it would be her job to ensure that Shirou's condition didn't get out of hand and stabilize him while Saber remains on guard duty against any possible external threats. Unlike Rider, Saber could fight for a good long time against even stronger opponents with minimal support from her master.

"Don't worry about me Sakura." The Emiya sighed without breaking the rhythm of his breathing. "Save it for Rider. She has the hardest part."

o. o. o.

Nothing was hidden from them. Their eyes and ears were everywhere. From the darkest shadows, to the tiniest crevices they were there. They beheld everything there was to see, naught could be kept from them. From the sewers to the rooftops they watched and listened.

So small they were, so unimportant they were in the scheme of things that they went unnoticed. The witches felt no magic from them and ignored them. The bleeding unconscious woman and her wounded follower waited with the master of their King, never noticing they were underfoot. The girl who was no child and the black death did not see them, though the two false ones waged war ever upon them for other reasons in the castle. The prideful one and the guardian gazed elsewhere, never focusing on them. The dragon and the shadow knew of their lords, but did not seek them out. The stone worker and rusted sword were holed up in their dwelling with rules that permitted no entrance, however they too were constantly observed once they left their home.

The young king no doubt knew of their existence. He always did even if he pretended not to, but even he was not aware of them all the time and made no comment of them to his fellows.

Only the snake saw them, only the snake kept an eye on them, but she did nothing. Nor would they attempt to draw her ire. She, above all, terrified them... save perhaps the black death.

So small were their bodies, so inconspicuous their existence that none of them were caught in their work. For the King, for the King they go. Nothing would stop them in their task as they watched and reported, whilst war waged between the kingdom of tight crevices and shadows against the rotting worms.

o. o. o.

Both Rider and Archer knew something was wrong before even going up the first step of the temple.

First of all was the classic lack of local wildlife in the area, indicating that something had scared them all off. Any experienced hunter or traveler of the world could recognize this sign in a heartbeat, even in this day and age where humanity's sensitivity to nature was weakened to the point of being crippled.

The saturated air was another clue. Even though they were on virtually the largest leyline in Fuyuki, there was a limit to how much would leak out into the environment. Had this been the norm for the area, the entire city would have probably been taken over by the Church or the Association by now to prevent the local populace from discovering the source. As oblivious as humans were at times, even the normal one would be able to tell that this location was off in some way.

The third was…

"Blood." Rider stated calmly as she looked up the stairs. They had decided to go up together to ensure that they would not get picked off one by one in case of an ambush.

"Mmm." Archer nodded as he recognized the very faint scent through the lingering smoke that hovered in the air. During his years traveling the world while alive checking the area for spilled blood became one of the first things he did in order to determine the safety of an unknown location. "We aren't the first ones to try and get through it seems. Given how faint the trail is I'm guessing that the previous visitors came a while ago. Maybe even yesterday."

Rider didn't bother to say anything as she began to climb up the steps.

The Servant next to her made her uncomfortable. Due to the fact that her Breaker Gorgon sealed off her sight, it was no surprise that her other senses including her prana detection abilities were amplified to the point of keeping up with other servants in direct combat. While this prevented her from performing simple tasks such as reading and describing other Servants adequately, it did enable her to properly gauge other people, discern their secrets, and tell when they were hiding something…

So when she came across this Servant who somehow shared more than a few similarities with her temporary Master in prana, scent, voice tone, and body structure, it was more than enough to put her on guard. Not enough that Shirou or this Servant could tell, but it would take much for this newcomer to catch her by surprise now.

His declaration to be Lancer for example was one thing that she highly doubted. She was very well aware of Shirou's ability to recreate Noble Phantasms, having heard (much to her secret pleasure) of his skewering of Caster with a copy of the spear of the previous war's Lancer. Considering what she knew of the boy from her conversations with Sakura and what other classes were taken, she was willing to bet that the Servant with her was Archer, not Lancer.

Still, summoning a Servant whose legend took place in the future was unexpected. Summoning a Servant who happened to be a Master in the same war in life even more so.

No. Rider was not fooled. In fact this had not been the first world that she in one way or another had come to this conclusion.

In one of the realities that Kiritsugu had viewed where Shirou had focused his attention on Sakura, Rider had indeed come to this conclusion far before the unfortunate Servant had met his end and donated his arm to his counterpart. The semi-frequent interactions between both Master and Servant counterparts had allowed her to learn enough about them to come to the correct conclusion.

The only reason why she said nothing then was because there was no purpose in doing so. Her main objective was to protect Sakura, and Shirou's predicament, while admittedly bizarre, had no relevance to the issue at hand. Later when the boy proved himself to be of use in protecting Sakura, she once more withheld the information simply due to the fact that it would do more harm than good, further destabilizing the young man's deteriorating mind and reducing his value to her plans…

But that was another time in another reality. Unaware of how her alternate selves would have reacted, Rider decided to simply observe and stay on guard near the Servant. Bringing up her observations at this time would hinder the mission. Besides, something about this 'Lancer' was off, and that was not including the fact that he did not seem to have any Apostle blood in the slightest.

His prana was peculiar. It was not tainted but more… altered or twisted for some reason.

At the very least, she would consult this discovery with Saber when she returned. The petite blonde was if nothing else a reliable confident for this sort of information.

A slight disturbance in the woods nearby, impossible to detect by mere human perceptions snapped her out of her thoughts.

They were halfway up the third flight of stairs when a, somewhat, small Servant appeared on top of the fifth without warning. Wrapped in a giant dirty brown cloak that covered his body and facial features save his nose and mouth, the previously undetected Servant looked down at them with unnatural stoicism. There was no killing intent or emotion that could be felt from him, a sign of his unnerving ability to control himself. While Rider was noted to be unnaturally quiet most of the time, even she could not control herself to this degree.

The Servant in front of them was without a doubt Assassin. Anyone in the know would have easily determined that this was certainly NOT Sasaki Kojirou.

"If you try to continue, I will stop you." The man said in little more than a whisper so that it reached the other Servants' ears. Straight, yet not arrogant. On guard, but his possible future movements still hidden. Nothing about him displayed what he was thinking or what he could do. Much like his posture, his voice betrayed no emotion, speaking the words as if reading them disinterestedly from a script.

"That is to say that if we don't you'll leave us be?" Archer raised an eyebrow skeptically, and getting a shallow nod in response. Different Servant, same relationship with Caster it seemed. He looked at Rider briefly. "Quite the talker isn't he?"

The woman turned slightly to Archer to give him a dry look even with her blindfold on before once more focusing on Assassin.

"_You're a regular riot Archer."_ Rin sarcastically drawled in his mind. _"Just kill him already before one of the Caster's come. Whatever his abilities and Noble Phantasm are, I doubt they'll make up for his stats. You could probably take him out by yourself and still be in good shape for the next fight."_

The albino sighed as he readied the spear in his hands. Without looking he could tell that Rider was also preparing as the soft clinking of her dagger and chains met his ears. "Sorry, but my Master's pretty intent on making a clean sweep of this place. No hard feelings."

Assassin merely lowered his head and whispered under his breath. It was only due to Rider's enhanced hearing and Archer's sharp eyes that they were able to tell what he had said.

"… Tools of the Trade."

Just as Archer and Rider launched themselves forward to attack Assassin, the latter party's cloak moved for the first time to reveal a one handed machine gun in response which subsequently fired relentlessly in a wide spray a fraction of second later.

As fast as Archer and Rider were, even they would not be able to reach Assassin fast enough from their positions to stop the counterassault.

"_A gun?!" _Archer, Shirou, and Rin mentally shouted in surprise and confusion as both Servants moved their weapons quickly to deflect the blows, slowing their advance drastically in the process. The bullets were not strong, being D rank at best and easily deflectable by both attackers. Even Rider's nameless dagger and chain was enough to suitably handle them in her deadly fast hands.

However, though weak in power, the attacks made up in quantity as dozens if not hundreds of metal slugs rained down on the two in seconds, forcing them to stop early and land on the space between the third and fourth flight of stairs…

BOOM!

The landing erupted in fire as the explosives hidden under the stone walkway went off without discrimination at the prompting of Assassin's other hand setting off the trigger mechanism. Said device was subsequently thrown away without regard an instant later and replaced with a canister with the ring on its top already ripped off and tossed lazily down where the debris was. All the while the machine gun Noble Phantasm in his other hand had continued to fire relentlessly.

Despite the metal rain that hailed down on the area that had just self destructed, Archer had still managed to erupt from the debris ready for battle. He was not unharmed however as the scratches and cuts that littered his body and armor were clearly visible for all to see. The biggest change had been that he had abandoned the crimson spear he had been wielding earlier for his favored black and white falchions. Each Chinese weapon blurred or melted in the night as they deflected and blocked any and all bullets that came near him, cracking the darkness with sparks every time another slug collided with the blades…

Due to the continued onslaught of bullets, he was helpless to do anything as the flash bang grenade erupted with ferocity right above his head, instantly crippling his sight and hearing for the time being and allowing a good dozen bullets to graze or tear into non lethal parts of his body.

It was only a good dozen bullets however because instead of pressing the assault, Assassin had moved quickly from his position to the woods to his left just as Rider had attempted to sneak an attack on him from his right. Like Archer, Rider had not suffered the bombing unscathed. In fact her wounds were noticeably deeper than her temporary partner's due to the lack of armor. Despite this fact though, she seemed to be uninhibited by her wounds as she moved through the trees with frightening speed and agility, able to strike at any given moment.

However two things had prevented her from pursuing her target as he disappeared into the woods in front of her.

The first was the remaining salvo of bullets that had been turned onto her from the exposed fake Lancer. Its wide spray was not designed for combating opponents, but for suppressive fire to ensure that the target would be forced to defend and not dodge. Unless the target had an unnaturally strong defense or was skilled enough to avoid the random sporadic wide ranged attack, he or she would be forced to focus on blocking in order to avoid taking excessive minor damage.

… But his targets were not normal. They were Heroic spirits, people and creatures of legend that humanity revered in awe and respect. Such a simple common tool would not be enough to kill any of them. Not by itself and not like this. As such its purpose was clear as day. Assassin had never intended to kill either Servant with this weapon, only to slow them down or keep them in place. To control their movements and the flow of battle to what he deemed was suitable.

If that was all he had been relying on to keep Rider away, it would not have sufficed as the moment he reached the woods the weapon had ceased unleashing its load and simply dry fired. Only one single click was made before Assassin simply tossed away the tool that supposedly made up his legend and disappeared into the darkness…

The second thing that prevented her from pressing her advance and made her lose sight of her target were the clattering round objects that smelled of chemicals that the Servant had dropped before retreating…

A second explosion echoed through the area as the fragment grenades erupted with vigor, sending shrapnel indiscriminately in every direction and tearing up the landscape in the process. Rider, having already experienced Assassin's explosives one time too many already, wisely retreated into the woods just in time for the trees to absorb a great deal of the metal shards.

Fragmentation grenades were primarily used against infantry and worked best in enclosed areas like bunkers or bedrooms. As their main method of doing damage was to send out high velocity metal pellets that were the fraction the size of a normal bullet, their ability to do damage to hard objects such as metal and wood was for the most part superficial so long as they weren't set off in a tiny enclosed space such as say a washing machine or a microwave.

Such results were clearly absent in this case.

The closest unblocked trees to the grenade on either side of the stairs were all torn to shreds by the enhanced explosive before they were halted by the plants behind them. The flat stone landing the explosive discharged on had a sizeable metal ridden crater in it, and many of the stairs leading up to the temple had been gouged and chipped.

Archer had been fortunate as he was still on the lower flight of stairs when the bomb went off and used the blind spot made by his position to escape unharmed.

"Tch. What an annoying opponent." EMIYA muttered as his eyes and ears readjusted themselves enough to see Rider virtually fly over the stairway to where Assassin had apparently disappeared. Moments later his ringing ears could just barely make out the sound of single shots being fired in the woods, meaning that either Assassin had switched weapons or he was conserving ammo. "Rin. Care to explain why on earth I felt that flashbang grenade was a Noble Phantasm?"

"_Tools of the Trade. A multipurpose, multifunctional, supplementary Noble Phantasm that ranges from E to C rank." _Rin supplied as she dissected the information she had gained from watching the fight through Archer's eyes. Thankfully since she was speaking into his mind, he didn't have trouble hearing her over his recovering ears. _"It pretty much gives the user a finite amount of disposable modern weapons and tools that include guns and explosives. Versatile and useful, but if he runs out in the middle of a fight he's screwed. The stock and contents reloads at midnight every night, but it can change then depending on what he feels he needs at the time… who the hell has this kind of Noble Phantasm!? Don't tell me that this is that Simo Hayha guy you talked about earlier!"_

"No. The White Death did use a machine gun on occasion for close range combat, but he never used explosives in the stories." Archer frowned. "He has Eye of the Mind doesn't he? His movements are too well coordinated to be simple skill."

"_Eye of the Mind True A, but downgraded to B+ due to his E ranked Mental Pollution. Subversive Activities A. Thaumaturgy C. Presence concealment B+. Independent Action C? Even if we kill his Master, it sounds like this guy would still manage to kill off a third of the participants in this war if he was left to do his own thing!"_

"No kidding. At the very least we can determine that he is a professional trap maker and strategist. If he wanted to he could break all of his weapons and use them without worry since they'll just come back again at midnight." The albino frowned as his vision and hearing began to clear up. A few more seconds and he'd be able to fight suitably again.

Even so this new opponent was not someone he was getting good feelings about. His abilities meshed far too well together to simply write off as just another target. "Something doesn't add up though. When he set off that first bomb it felt more like something of a B rank, and I don't think he broke the thing or upgraded it with some sort of spell. I would have detected it if it were the case."

It was a close call, but the reason why he managed to come out with so little damage was due to his quick prior tracing of Kanchou and Bakuya for the extra enchanted defense to better handle the bullets and his armor handling a good portion of the damage. It was only convenient luck that he brought them out before the bomb exploded.

"_B rank? How can that… hold on there's one more skill he has that might explain it. Opportunist. A+. Never heard of this ability before. Hold on… a…"_ There was a brief pause. _"Archer! Go help out Rider NOW!"_

The red and black night didn't bother questioning his Master's orders as he took off into the woods. "I take it this skill is something to worry about." He stated dryly. His eyes had yet to fully recover, but it would suffice for the time being.

"_Listen to me and listen well. If Rider dies by the time you arrive, get out of there by any means necessary. If she is still alive, back her up as best as you can until the target is killed. Assassin is not a servant you can defeat here by yourself. Structurally grasp everything and I do mean EVERYTHING around you if you can and never for a second let your defenses down. If Rider is alive, have her cover your blind spots. Being caught off guard by this Servant in particular is more dangerous than you think." _The Tohsaka warned seriously.

Archer couldn't help but blink in surprise. "I appreciate the concern, but aren't you underestimating me a bit?"

There was a moment's hesitation. _"I seriously hope so Archer. Because if I'm not then there's a good chance that there will be two Servants killed tonight, and Assassin won't be one of them."_

Whatever Archer was going to say was cut off as a large series of explosions shook the landscape nearby. Wasting no time, the Servant of the Bow rushed through the forest at fast as he could while scanning his surroundings. There were indeed a few random traps and explosives hidden nearby, both in the earth below and in the foliage above, but none in his way and far less in number than he expected, so he ignored them. Apparently the saboteur's stockpile of tricks was more limited than he had originally thought. He sensed that both Rider and Assassin were nearby so obviously the bombs had not killed anyone…

However that did not mean that no one had emerged unscathed as he appeared in one of the parts of the forest that had burned down the previous night. Whatever the fire had left standing had clearly not survived the wrath of the explosives that just went off as Archer could see nothing but burnt tinder and the rare limbless black trunk sticking out of the ground… well the parts of the ground that weren't occupied by craters at least. The smell of smoke in the air was more than distinct enough to tell that the fire was still fresh.

For the briefest of moments, the image of another fire, another hell, another war, flashed before Archer's eyes before they were occupied with the image of his partner who had clearly seen better days.

Accompanying the cuts and burns from her previous explosives encounter were new ones that riddled her body and tore open her clothes. While her appearance was not akin to some of the more adult manga that was out in Japan that revealed virtually every part of the female's body, she was still clearly more exposed than she was before.

Her distinct physical injuries however removed any chance of the sight being appealing to Archer. In fact he was somewhat curious as to whether or not she could even use her left arm...

"You're still alive." EMIYA stated calmly as he landed behind her and scanned the area. Already he could see a good deal of traps in the living forestry surrounding the charred land. Clearly Assassin had not retreated here by choice. "Is he that fast?"

"Faster than he looks." The woman grunted as she held her side. As a Servant she did recover faster than a normal human, and it did take more to kill her than most, but it was still not a wound she wanted to have in the middle of a battle. "Tricky more than anything. He probably has little direct combat ability."

"So my Master's gathered." Archer snorted. "I take it yours' less than helpful since he can't use your eyes." He took her silence as a yes. "Let me just say that having Assassin surprise you gives him more benefits than expected."

"I see…" Rider nodded, already understanding why Archer was at her back while keeping an eye out for Assassin. "Plan?"

Before Archer could reply, another voice was heard. "She will realize we are fighting soon. You should run."

"_Well aren't we the pacifist?" _Rin growled. _"Try to keep him talking."_

"She?" The albino mused loudly. "Don't you mean "they"? There are two Casters in this war you know, and we are quite aware that at least one of them is hiding out in the temple."

There was the briefest of disturbances in the woods to Rider's left. It was impossible for a normal human to detect, but not so for the woman who instantly managed to pinpoint his location. She did nothing however as she was not in a condition to exploit it yet. Either they would have to wait for her to heal more, or Assassin would have to come closer in some way.

"So you didn't know… isn't that interesting." Archer continued after several moments of silence, memorizing where every trap in his range of shooting was. "Considering what I've been told, it's the Witch that's probably staying here, not the Princess."

Rider could tell that Assassin's breathing was slightly deeper now. This information unsettled him for some reason, but he hid it well. Other than that though the Servant was well hidden and too far away to attack herself… but if her partner was indeed a future version of her Master…

With a slight urge on Rider's part, the pair began to rotate slowly and irregularly as if they were attempting to complicate things for the hunter. Knowing the woman had something in mind, Archer went along with it while still keeping his senses up and memorizing all the trap locations.

"I take it you aren't after the Grail then." Archer continued almost mockingly while continuing to rotate. He had not turned much, but it was enough to give him a good idea of where most of the traps in the area were. Also through process of elimination he could most likely figure out the general location of Assassin was. His stealth abilities were good, but not perfect. "To be so considerate of two of your targets in this war is quite abnormal… either that or you must really hate your Master."

Unlike before, Assassin did respond to this accusation. "… My interest in the Grail is the same as yours Archer."

The man in red and black froze momentarily. For some reason Assassin had been talking about him in particular, that there was some underlying meaning to what he had just said. The way such an emotionless individual could so calmly speak as if knowing something about him unsettled the Counter Guardian more than he would like to admit. "What do you mean by…"

"Above!" Rider shouted in alarm as she noticed the three grenades falling towards the before her accomplice did.

Swearing for letting his guard down, Archer reacted as fast as any Servant could and materialized his bow in the time it took for him to look up. The next instant was then occupied with a flurry of metal arrows that hammered and deflected the explosives away into the sky. Moments later the overcharged fragment grenades unleashed their fury in the sky violently, unleashing their payload that leveled a nearby section of the forest with terrifying ease…

However Archer and Rider were not aware of this.

The instant before the pair had turned their focus onto the grenades, Assassin had separated himself from the shadows of the forest from another side of the clearing to once more go on the attack. While Archer deflected the grenades, Rider had attempted to intercept the dangerous individual who had taken out another small single handed machine gun identical to the previous one earlier. Rider had expected that once Archer could turn to Assassin the fight would be made. There was more power behind arrows than bullets. Archer could-

PAIN.

The woman's thoughts were interrupted as the bullets that came from Assassin's new gun flew towards her with sickeningly higher speed and power compared to the previous iteration. Despite logic that stated that this tool was no different than the last, the results proved the complete opposite. If the last weapon was considered roughly D rank, each bullet from this new one was B… no A rank.

How this was possible was beyond Rider's ability to determine as each slug that managed to come in contact with her person tore and exploded through her flesh with ease. Every link of her chain that encountered a bullet was either knocked aside or shattered under the force they were hammered with. It was all she could do to defend her vitals from the onslaught, using her progressively damaged limbs to deflect the small attacks so that she could survive another moment…

What seemed like an eternity to her however merely lasted at most a couple of seconds as Archer turned his attention to the real threat and fired off as many arrows as he could to match Assassin's attack.

What once was the sound of flesh being torn off piece by piece was replaced by the hammering noise of countless pieces of metal surfaces impacting one another so ruthlessly that to most ears it would sound like more bombs going off in rapid succession.

Whether it was the sound of metal striking metal or the sudden vacancy of bullets striking Rider that gave her the notion to move, Archer wasn't sure, but none the less as soon as the opening was made the blindfolded woman made a hasty retreat faster than anyone assumed she could into the forest behind Archer like a wounded animal would and disappeared into the darkness. How she managed to do so without encountering any more traps was anyone's guess.

"Guess I'm doing this one solo." EMIYA grunted to himself as he continued to focus on trying to deflect the hailstorm of bullets flying in his direction.

Having regained most of his eyesight, the Servant could clearly see why Rider had been so caught off guard. While the gun firing the bullets was identical to the previous one used, the bullets themselves had been modified to hell. Not only did each one have a spell on them to increase their speed so much that they actually gained a rank in firepower, but every damn bullet was BROKEN as well, saturated with so much prana that they were virtually unstable mini-bombs in bullet form.

… Combined with Opportunist, a skill that when high enough not only prevents surprise attacks from being detected and defended from the target's skills, but actually enhances their power by yet another damn rank…

Assassin did not have high physical stats… because Assassin had no need for them.

So long as he played his cards right, all his Noble Phantasms and killing blows would be THREE RANKS higher than what they originally were. His D ranked attacks would have enough power to kill Berserker, BERSERKER of all Servants if used right.

A disposable Noble Phantasm that could reset itself allowed him to break his weapons as much as he pleased...

Presence Concealment to ensure that he could get himself into a suitable ambushing position whenever he wished…

Subversive Activities to manage and maneuver large numbers of targets at once without issue...

Thaumaturgy to weave around any of the other Master's defenses and enhance his own core abilities…

Eye of the Mind True to control and maneuver the other parties as he saw fit…

Rin was right to be afraid. The Servant in front of him right now was without a doubt a monster unlike anything the Grail War has seen before. This Assassin's specialty did not focus in combat, stealth, or cunning. He utilized them yes, masterfully so, but they were not his focus.

This Assassin was simply a practitioner of murder in the most efficient way possible. It was as simple as that.

Unlike other legends who achieved great deeds of climbing buildings, saving princesses, killing monsters, escaping traps, deciphering the secrets of the world, mastering fighting styles, wielding mystical weapons, leading cults, fighting wars, defending the poor, leading armies, befriending mystical races, using magic, brewing potions, being royalty, speaking to god, or some other foolish reason… this man achieved significance simply by killing humans with his own two hands. No more. No less.

He knew how people thought. What they expected and when. How to exploit such expectations and the best tools to use given the situation… and he did so with such absurd efficiency that the nameless common tools he used, ones that should never have been even considered mystical weapons by any person on the planet, became such in his hands. Assassin had no need for something like a legendary blade to aide him, his skills alone were more than enough.

This spirit without a doubt excelled in killing humans of all types when he was alive. This war consisted of nothing but human legends and Magi. Most of which probably followed some code of conduct that could and would be exploited in one way or another.

Right now he was alone right in the middle of an area his opponent had spent a good deal of time setting up. And if that wasn't bad enough, Assassin still had a free hand to pull whatever else he had under his cloak...

EMIYA was in trouble and he damn well knew it.

"_Shirou! Get the hell out of there! Caster's probably coming by now! You can't handle both at once like this!"_ Rin shouted worriedly in his head, actually using his name instead of his rank to get the point across.

"I'm working on it. This is harder than it looks." The Servant grunted as he attempted to back away while countering the salvo that attempted to tear him apart. Despite his inhuman archery and aiming skills, he was unable to intercept all the bullets that came at him, which resulted in multiple grazing shots getting through. Thankfully since he was on guard and aware of the situation, the power for each bullet aiming at him was merely bumped to roughly B rank in power, which was why he could deflect them at all. His constant retreating and the wide spray of the bullets also ensured that there were progressively less slugs for him to intercept as time went on.

"_If you're having so much trouble use Rho Aias or spam your swords damn it! Now isn't the time to hold back!" _The girl shouted in frustration.

_What the hell was this version of me doing before the war? _The Servant mentally yelled as he backed up some more. "That takes more focus than I can spare right now." Just a bit more and he'd be close enough to escape into the forest…

Or he would have had Assassin not bolted straight towards him while firing in order to avoid a nail and chain strike down at him from the forest above like a serpent. Apparently Rider had not abandoned the fight like he had initially thought.

Archer clicked his teeth in frustration as he decided to get risky and quickly jumped back more than he would have dared before. To the normal human he was already nothing more than a red blur in the night, but to the slightly faster Assassin he was simply a target that was just slightly out of reach…

That was until the pursuing Servant suddenly and inexplicably doubled in speed in an instant.

Even to a Servant whose eyes were as sharp as Archer's Assassin had almost vanished from view being rendered a blur whose details were all but indistinguishable. The barest glint of silver was all the knight could use as a hint before the mysterious Servant had attempted to stab his neck with a large hunting knife.

_Not broken or enhanced with thaumaturgy, but still upgraded to D rank due to his surprise tactics…_ Archer observed as he had managed to deflect the attack at the last moment with a hastily traced Kanshou in his left hand, Bakuya already in his right in an attempt to kill the target while his guard was down only for the man to jump back and block the tip of the white blade at the last instant to get out of striking range.

"When you hear it, jump."

"What are…" Archer attempted to question his assaulter on this random bit of advice, however he was interrupted the nail and chain struck down from the forest again from above and forced the target to retreat… but not before dropping two more grenades from his cloak to either side of the Knight, preventing him from knocking away both of them in time to escape. "You have got to be-!"

BOOM!

Having jumped back at the last moment and used the flats of his blades to protect his vitals, Archer managed to sustain the brunt of the explosives without taking too much damage, and moving in the same direction of the simultaneous blasts helped somewhat. Despite this however his limbs still sustained a good deal of shredding from the flying pieces of metal that flew at him from either side. By the time he had managed to regain his footing and inspected the clearing however, Assassin had once again disappeared into the darkness that even his hawk like eyes could not pierce. "Damn it!"

"Caster is coming." Rider stated as she appeared behind the Knight, though clearly not in any shape to fight. Her body and limbs was littered with blood, cuts, and chunks of skin torn off her body. Had she been human she would have most likely died of blood loss or shock by this point. In fact Archer was surprised that her Master had not called her back by now… then again if it was Shinji…

"We're having enough trouble with just Assassin." The Faker grunted as he felt Caster's presence approach rapidly from the temple. "I don't suppose you think we can handle them both at once do you?"

Much to his surprise, Rider chuckled bitterly. "You should consider it a miracle I stayed behind for you in my condition in the first place." She silently cursed the fact that she was so badly injured not just for her own sake, but for what this would do to her Master. Even now she could feel him push as much prana into her wounded body as possible from his distant home. It was fortunate that he had somehow managed to strengthen their connection and she had provided plenty of blood beforehand. Both of them would need as much help as possible to recover from this snafu adequately.

Archer snorted as he began to back up towards the city. "If that's the case, I believe we are in consensus then…" A single shot from the darkness interrupted their conversation and forced him to deflect the bullet with Kanchou. "Follow me. I'll take out the traps on the way while you cover my back."

Without waiting or a response, the Knight turned and ran into the forest while simultaneously tracing his bow and shooting at the traps he had memorized the locations of earlier. Not bothering to watch his targets self destruct, the two black Servants bolted through the forest as if they weren't injured and their limbs weren't torn to shreds.

For every trap Archer triggered ahead of them, Rider managed to deflect two shots coming from the hidden Assassin behind, resulting in the black woods echoing a symphony of explosions, gunshots, and metal hitting metal that would put any clearly exaggerated Hollywood action film to shame.

Faster and faster the participants weaved, clashed, and fought through the trees, not even bothering to touch the ground at this point as their speed more than enabled them to travel from trunk to trunk without issue, kicking off each one with enough force that to a normal human's eyes the limbs above appeared to be spontaneously combusting…

And then the forest opened up suddenly to reveal the town of Fuyuki, complete with a completely unaware populace that the participants of the war for the most part had deemed should stay unaware. The instant the two retreating Servants had crossed the first street into the residential area, and had confirmed that Assassin had stopped shooting at them, they had instantly taken cover and gone into spiritual form to ensure their escape.

Standing on the edge of the forest and just out of sight, Assassin quietly watched as the two spirits gained further distance.

"You let them escape." Caster stated in a clearly displeased tone from right behind him. "Had you not revealed yourself in the first place, you could have easily taken care of both of them like you did with Lancer."

The Servant of Murder said nothing as his left hand under his cloak reached for a new tool…

o. o. o.

"Well that certainly could have gone better." Archer snorted bitterly as he and Rider rematerialized on top of the building they had originally met on. Both Servants had clearly seen better days as they bled a great deal from various parts of their bodies with Rider clearly being in worse shape of the two.

"What do you intend to do now?" Medusa questioned softly, her body showing small animalistic signs of preparing to flee at a moment's notice.

EMIYA chuckled. "Well we could fight to the death right now, but I personally find that a poor choice and I suspect my Master does too. Not with those two still holed up."

Rider nodded slowly. "We shall deal with Assassin and Caster first then. A temporary truce… Archer." She no longer had any patience to play ignorant about his class any longer. His identity however...

"Guilty as charged." The identified Servant admitted without hesitation. "Perhaps next time we'll even bother to use our Noble Phantasms. If push comes to shove, I'll just waste the area from up here."

The woman frowned behind her blindfold. "We shall see Ar-"

BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!

o. o. o.

BOOM!

In the near distance the roof of the tallest building in the area erupted in fire and debris that lit up a good portion of the district in a ominous orange glow, giving Caster a spectacular image to behold from the Ryudou Temple entrance.

Assassin on the other hand was already walking away uninterested in the chaos he had sewn, having tossed aside the trigger for the explosives and disappeared into the night. The fact that he had just attacked a residential building with people living on all floors, including the top one seemed to not matter at all to him.

The Witch of Betrayal looked at where her unwilling Servant had vanished and suppressed a shudder running down her spine.

There was no mistake about it. Berserker may be the strongest participant in the war, however Assassin was by far the greatest threat to everyone.

o. o. o.

Servant Stats as seen by Shirou Emiya:

Assassin

ID: Unknown

Alias: Unknown

Master: Caster (Witch of Betrayal)

Alignment: Chaotic Good

Strength: E

Agility: C+

Mana: B

Luck: E

Endurance: D

Noble Phantasm: B

Class Skills:

Presence Concealment: B+

Independent Action: C

Personal Skills:

Opportunist: A+

A skill possessed only by those that truly excel in finding and exploiting weaknesses and openings. At higher ranks this ability can not only prevent the target's abilities from interfering with the Servant's actions, but enhance the power of said actions as well.

The higher the ranking of this skill, the more one's spiritual status as a hero declines.

At this level, all attacks and activities performed by the Servant that are either initially undetected by the target or possess significant effects that said target are unaware of are no longer mere actions, but considered phenomena accepted and enforced by Fate and Gaia. All attacks performed that catch the target unawares in some way are raised by one rank, and all skills that could interfere with it require a luck check in order to function, however the rank adjustment will still remain.

The only surefire way to defend against such attacks would be to have a constant defense up at the time of said event, however due to the nature of the ability and the Servant possessing it, the likelihood of such a brute force method occurring is small.

Subversive Activities: A

The talent to reduce the enemy forces in the preliminary stages before going into battle. An expert of traps.

The higher the ranking of this skill, the more one's spiritual status as a hero declines.

At this rank it is possible to disable nearly 60% of the total military force before the enemy advances.

Mental Pollution: E

Makes it highly possible to shut out any mental interference thaumaturgy due to possessing a distorted mentality. However at the same time it becomes impossible to come to an understanding with individuals that do not possess an equivalent rank of mental pollution.

At this rank, the Servant is provided with a resistance to mental interference thaumaturgy, though the odds of said attacks be rendered completely ineffective is unlikely. Psyche wise, the Servant is mostly functional in human society save for when certain subjects are brought up or when the Servant makes certain decisions. In such events it is difficult if not impossible to change the Servant's mind and actions through normal or peaceful means.

Eye of the Mind (True): B+ (Reduced from A due to Mental Pollution)

Heightened insight that was refined through experience.

At this rank the servant is rarely caught off guard and capable of conjuring an appropriate course of action given his situation for attacking and retreating. So long as there is a .5% chance of victory, this ability improves the chances of winning.

If unimpaired, this skill would have enabled the Servant to efficiently utilize virtually every factor he wished to use to great and long term efficiency that extends past battles. So long as there would be a .01% chance of victory or success, the odds would improve dramatically.

Thaumaturgy: C

Knowledge of modern Thaumaturgy

At this rank, the Servant is capable of using slightly advanced Thaumaturgy.

Noble Phantasms:

Tools of the Trade: E-C Supplementary

Evidence of the Servant's trait of utilizing non remarkable equipment to surmount remarkable situations and targets, this Noble Phantasm represents his ability to achieve miracles with common weapons to the point that the use of these tools has in itself become his Noble Phantasm.

It is a finite cache of modern weaponry that resets its contents, both weapons and ammunition, every midnight. While significantly weaker than most Noble Phantasms, its strength lies not in its power, but in its versatility as the contents of said stock varies depending on the user's needs and desires for the day. As such this Noble Phantasm can satisfy the classification of Anti-Unit and Anti-Army depending on its use. However once the contents are reset, the Servant is stuck with said contents for the rest of the day.

Any and all untriggered traps set up are still considered part of the Servant's stock. While they may still remain during a reset, the total amount of tools in existence will not change. As such the Servant must be careful not to focus too much on traps lest he leave himself without weapons to defend himself with until the following midnight.

This Noble Phantasm is not restricted to weaponry however, and can also be used to produce other tools of disposable nature such as but not restricted to wire, cameras, binoculars, communication devices, and inflatable rafts. These too however, will take up space in the limited cache should they be materialized.

Unless designed for other purposes, the general strength of the weapons can be estimated as such: Explosives, shotguns, and long ranged rifles are C rank. Automatic weapons and other light weight guns are D rank. Knives and miscellaneous tools are E rank.

o. o. o.

(A/N: Due to the Shirou Emiya of this world possessing the beginnings of a possible legend in this world and Rin Tohsaka's proper summoning, some of EMIYA's stats are slightly greater than in cannon.)

Archer:

ID: Unknown

Alias: Unknown

Master: Unknown

Alignment: True Neutral

Strength: D+

Agility: C

Mana: B+

Luck: D

Endurance: C+

Noble Phantasm: ?

Class Skills:

Independent Action: B

Magic Resistance: D

Personal Skills:

Clairvoyance: C

Eye of the Mind (True): B

Magecraft: C

Noble Phantasms:

Unknown

o. o. o.

A/N:

Mwahahahahahahahahahahahaha!

(Cough) Ok. Got that out of my system.

So I hope this satisfied everyone! Lo and behold! Assassin! The Servant that fucks everyone's plan's up!

I've had this guy's outline done for nearly half of the story and it bugged me that it took this long to get it out there. Damn you plot! Anyways, yeah, Assassin. A servant with little direct combat ability, but able to bump his attacks higher than Berserker on Steroids and make anyone walk right into said attacks without them knowing it.

Ok. One more time. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA HA!

So onto other news:

I am officially a home owner now, or as my dad likes to put things: "son, you're now a HOMO, just like your pappy, and grandpappy, and every other responsible member of your family other than that guy your mother's sister married, and I couldn't be more proud of you. Gimme a hug."

And people wonder why my sense of humor is so messed up.

But yeah. I closed the deal on my condo in about a month, which for those who don't know, is fsking fast as hell. Even the brokers were surprised that we managed to get it done so quickly. And I literally just helped moved in my first tenant this morning, who is leasing the condo for a year. The rent will help cover the mortgage and give me a pretty little profit in the mean time.

Oh, and I lost my job, am collecting unemployment, looking for more work, still studying for grad school, and am just doing odd jobs around town.

C'est la vie.

At least I still have a good amount of savings left over to rely on. Meh.

To be honest though, with so much going on lately, it kinda temporarily killed my desire to write while I managed all of this was going down. The amount of paperwork needed to get a mortgage for a condo was fucking insane, and I'm talking bad insane, not my normal, funny, haha, wtf are you doing with that carpet Crypt insane. It took me TWO HOURS to go through the final stack of paperwork with the Lawyer rushing me through the entire thing. And apparently it would have been worse if the place was in New York instead of Connecticut.

But I'm over that hill and am looking for more jobs now. With my 2 years experience in R&D I have a slightly better chance of getting one now than I did before… slightly.

Happy April Fools! Beware the fools, for their minds are the most twisted of all!

Oh yeah. SEASON 3 OF GAME OF THRONES IS OUT OMG WTF YAAAAAAAAAAAA! (And then my head exploded).

So that's it for now folks!

REVIEW! WORSHIP THE LOG! BEWARE THE RED WEDDING! AND REVIEW AGAIN!


	29. Chapter 29

Chapter 29: Resonating Echoes

I do not own Fate/Stay Night and stuffs:

o. o. o.

She dreamed of a girl. Even in her youth, the girl was one marked for great beauty when she grew into her full womanhood. Though there were many young men who would have gladly risked much for a simple chaste kiss from her, none could pass the two greatest obstacles in the way. The first was a group of bodyguards, as expected to be around a beloved princess. The other was her older brother. Though he was a man who enjoyed a good jest and was not above a fling with young girls himself, anyone who attempted to flirt with his sister was a deadman.

Literally.

His intentions were good and honest, but the girl's brother was a bit bloodthirsty when it came to protecting her. Still, he made his point rather clearly after the first few corpses, no one was to try to take his little sister away from him. It also had the unfortunate side effect of no sane man wanting to have the girl for fear of the brother killing them regardless of marriage agreements.

The girl who loved to laugh and play soon found herself without friends or confidants. It was lonely for her. All she had left to comfort herself, besides her brother, were her books and studies that were generously given to her from her wise father. She loved to read every scroll, every tome, every scrap of paper she could get her hands on was read over and over again until she memorized the contents and could list off everything in them word for word, she was a funny child like that. Smart too.

She learned many things from the books. How to grind various potions, how to build a workshop. how to launch a fireball... and accidentally light the curtains on fire... and burn down a portion of the palace.

...Oops.

Her father forgave her, eventually, but she had been punished by forcing to assist the caring for the great animals that her father possessed including his prized fire breathing bulls, and even feeding the guardian dragon in the castle garden. In time it became a new pleasant activity for her. It wasn't human interaction, true, and the animals themselves were rather peculiar compared to what most humans could safely spend time with, but they could be just as affectionate as people if given the chance to bond. She learned much of the care for animals both magical and mundane in that short span of time and would always enjoy the company of them thereafter even when she was allowed to go back to her studies again.

More and more she learned in her studies, always shutting out the thoughts of loneliness as best she could. However she was still human, and like every other human of that era she was prone to quietly casting her wishes to the gods. One day, when she could bear it no more she made a single prayer to the gods, a single wish that she might find a man her brother could not object her to be with.

She had no idea what horrors that one wish would bring upon her.

The gods are cruel existences, frequently granting the wishes of their worshipers in the cruelest and most ironic ways they can conceive. She found a man alright, on a ship unlike anything ever seen before. He came from a distant land with many companions of vast differences to seek the greatest treasure that her country possessed.

Her father, though impressed with the drive the man had and respected the companions he brought with him, would not give up the golden gift given to him so easily. Still he was not foolish enough to outright deny a man who was given a task by the gods themselves and so sent the man to complete several otherwise suicidal challenges in order to prove his worth, and most likely get himself killed in the process. Tasks from the gods were not supposed to be easy after all.

The King had summoned his youngest daughter to lead the man to his first task. How could the King have known that the gods would touch her mind the moment she beheld the leader of the expedition? How could he have foreseen the young woman who spent almost all her time with either books or animals would throw away her pride to tell the man how to pass each trial with ease?

She gave him an ointment to protect him from the bulls' fiery breath that she had long used to care for the bulls. She taught him the trick to defeat the dragon's teeth soldiers that she had read in her books. She had even ground up a special sleeping powder strong enough to knock out even a dragon for a time. All this, because she suddenly found love with a man she had just met.

In the end, she had found a man that her brother could not object to all right, the dead cannot object after all. When she gazed upon her brother's mangled and dismembered corpse and looked at her blood stained hands, the fog that had been on her mind since the man's arrival abated. For the first time since That Man had come to her land, her mind was free, and for the first time she could do what she wished.

She screamed

o. o. o.

Battle after battle. Life after life.

His existence was nothing but one dangerous situation after another, walking into hells in the form of deserts, cities, jungles, and others for the sake of aiding those that could not protect themselves in such worlds.

He never stayed for the celebrations, for the reconstruction, for the people to say "thank you" or offer him what they believed he deserved. No, he just continued onto the next place that he believed needed him.

Whenever he did go to a place that knew of his exploits, he was met not with praise or awe, but skepticism and suspicion. Not that it mattered to him much save for his reputation causing some negotiations to be a bit more difficult than they needed to be.

His friends had left him a while ago. They still talked on occasion, but they simply couldn't keep up with him… or rather they just didn't see the same path he did. They couldn't understand or follow the ways he went like he could, and so they couldn't go that far on it and went on to do their own things.

Onwards he kept on marching. Fighting and traveling, forward ever on to the next conflict, not realizing how twisted things were becoming…The beautiful things were ugly and the ugly things were beautiful. There was nothing disgusting once looked at objectively…

Sophistry. Falsehood. Trickery. Vanity. These were what he saw the most of in his travels, before and, eventually, after death.

But still he did not seem to care. His ideal and oath to protect were far more significant to him. He did not mind what he lost in order to maintain them. Even when he was betrayed, he believed there would be a next time if he did not betray himself. He did not show grief or pain.

He was like a cold blooded machine to others now. A convenient existence to be conveniently used. Casted out and discarded once it had served its purpose. He was nothing more than a cheap, disposable tool in the eyes of others. But the machine had an ideal it wanted to protect, so it accepted its role as a tool without argument. At first he thought it would be a useful way to help other people, by accepting jobs to the worst places on earth for easier access and resources which he could use to do even more good… however…

It wasn't something he could go around proclaiming. He ended up killing more and more people in the pursuit of his dream. His failure to save the ones he had ended personally prevented him from talking about his fantasy like ideal. The dream of saving everyone he could see blinded himself to the isolation that remained. His friends were gone, his presence a hindrance, his family was dead, and he lacked anything to love or care for. He was alone, and even his ideal could not be considered what it once was or be something to proudly declare. Conclusively, the only thing left for him to protect was the image of the ideal itself until his end.

And the result… the ideal Shirou Emiya dreamed so firmly of had never been accomplished. He found out that it was just nonsense dreamed of by a fool who is only a nuisance to others. He learned that what he believed in was not wanted or wished for by the masses. Yet, he still clung to that damned mockery of an ideal believing in it with all his being.

The image of a man impaled by numerous weapons could now be seen. Betrayed by a man who he had once saved, used as a scapegoat to blame the beginnings of an almost war that he had fought tooth and nail to stop…

And yet the most truly terrifying part of the picture to the one watching all this was not the nature of the man's death. It was not his past, nor the alien like nature of his way of life…

It was the honest, gentle, small, content, and worst of all, happy smile on his face during his last moments…

o. o. o.

She saw Tartarus through the eyes of a small boy.

The screams. The begging. The pain. The lost hope. The smell of decay. The unholy fire that yearned for flesh. The atmosphere of death.

Yes, this was without a doubt hell. Even though she had never been there herself, she had heard of it enough from spirits and the other gods to know that this was true. The only thing it seemed to lack was the local demons tasked with ensuring the doomed were tortured, but given the situation of the humans here, their unholy presence did not seem necessary.

The boy that hosted her was an anomaly. She did not know why he was condemned there because he himself did not know why. It was a paradox as condemned spirits were made fully aware of why they were there when they first incarcerated, tortured by their past decisions and current situation. Yet another example of the cruelty of gods…

But he seemed to be free where others were held back and slain. Able to walk on his two burned legs, he saw his parents, people he knew around the neighborhood, friends, and complete strangers succumb to the new world. Some... indescribably quality was present in the boy, pushing him forward when he should have fallen.

This did not mean that the child did not suffer though, as he too was assaulted by the fire that reined supreme all around him. Burns, wounds, and exhaustion quickly took hold as he somehow trudged on forward step after step, ignoring the screams of those who wished to be saved that were beyond saving to search for his own salvation.

Yet the child was still just a child, human at that. Weak. Frail. Unremarkable. It did not take long for him to reach his limits…

However that was when he did something that the watcher did not expect. He threw parts of himself away in order to continue. Feeling. Sympathy. Empathy. Faith. Curiosity. Sadness. Anger. Jealousy. Pity. Humor. One by one, parts of the fractured child's self fell off in order to allow the rest to keep on going much like how a lizard sacrifices their tail to keep their priceless life maintained.

Once again though, he was but a child with limitations. Sooner rather than later, without encountering anyone that could save him the boy had shed "hope" and in the following step fallen to the smoldering ground on his back.

The woman watching through the eyes of the child observed the cloudy sky and like him noted that it would rain soon. She was slightly unnerved by the boy, by what he had become. An empty shell devoid of everything… had even the gods ever reduced a person to such a state in their infinite reckless whims? They had raped, manipulated, scorned, murdered, tricked, tortured, and warped so many including herself… but to turn someone into just a shell… which god could derive satisfaction from this? Even she did not know the answer to such a question.

The boy's hand, which had been reaching out not for aid but merely to try and touch the endless sky, had begun to fall when it was caught by a complete stranger. A man, holding onto his hand with all of his might… and was crying unrestrained tears of joy. It was this that brought the fading child's consciousness and life back, not out of relief that he was saved, but mere curiosity of the man's expression.

And while the boy pondered if he could ever be so happy, the woman seeing the world through his eyes thought something else…

_Such happiness existed?_ _Would someone ever look at me like that?_

o. o. o.

Emiya Residence:

Rider regained consciousness and picked herself off of the floor she had been somewhat laying on. As she was in spiritual form she technically couldn't interact with the physical world, however the formalcraft circle underneath her generated enough magic that it could provide her with a pseudo surface…

Taking in her situation, she noted that her spiritual body was still heavily injured from the previous night's exploits. It had only been through luck and Archer's quick order to jump that prevented her from being the first kill of the war when the rooftop behind her exploded magnificently. Still, she did not emerge unscathed from the ordeal as she was covered from head to toe in various wounds be they bullet, burn, or shrapnel. The instant she had managed to arrive back at the Emiya household, which thankfully was not too far away, both of her masters had set up a place for her to collapse and recover in.

Shirou in particular had been especially apologetic for the ordeal she had gone through and had done everything in his power to speed up her recovery which included ordering her to actually sleep, drinking more of her blood as soon as she returned without hesitation despite his clear distaste for doing so…

… And apparently willingly sleeping in the same room as her during the night to maximize the amount of prana she got from him. True, he was virtually in the farthest corner from her, but given his rather polite and, at times, innocent behavior, she was somewhat surprised he would go this far. Weren't Servants but tools for their Masters? Indispensable tools yes, but she assumed that she would be left alone once it was established that she would recover from her wounds in time.

Checking her body, the Gorgon saw that she still had a ways to go before she fully healed. She was in no danger of succumbing to her wounds anymore, not that they were visible, but it would still take another few days to fully recover. Given that she had expected to take nearly a week to reach, such a result enforced her surprise. It appeared that her step in Master valued her more than she had originally thought…

"Rider?" Sakura spoke up from the other side of the slide door. "Are you awake?"

"Yes." She replied turning to the door. She did not need to materialize herself and waste prana for her original Master to hear her.

"How are you?" The girl asked as the door opened and she walked inside. She spared a brief glance at Shirou before turning to the subject of interest. "We were extremely worried when you got here the way you did."

The Servant flexed her ethereal muscles, testing to see if there had been any unwanted side effects to Assassin's attacks. "Everything seems to be in order, however I still need some time to fully recover." She replied evenly. "My apologies. Had I not been so careless…"

"There's no need for that." Sakura admonished. "Archer and Shirou were caught off guard by Assassin just as much as you were and they too suffered for it. We're just glad you're okay now."

The two women looked at the male in the room, unconscious and unaware of what was happening.

"How is he?" The Servant asked. She did not need to be specific about what she was asking about.

"As far as we can tell he's fine." The other female nodded. "The blood you gave him earlier seemed to help out greatly with the transfer of prana and refilling his reserves to a degree. Even so, he gave pretty much all he had to you last night and stayed in here after you fell asleep to help you out even more. He didn't put himself in any danger, but any potential prana he might have stored up is gone now."

Rider nodded in understanding. Due to her condition and Shirou's nature, their overall situation had only gotten worse that night.

Yet she did not seem to feel as disappointed as she should have been. Odd.

"I'll talk to him about holding back a bit for now." Sakura continued. "I'll set up some more bounded fields to absorb prana from the environment and channel the contents to you to help make things more manageable. Actually I have a few that are ready to be tapped into today that can speed things up. If you're in good enough condition, I could take you with me to them and give you a boost…"

"And Master?" Rider questioned, turning to Shirou once more.

"Saber is more than capable of handling things here." Sakura smiled genuinely. "Even if she is only running on what she has, it's still more than enough to last her for a fight or two. Plus it's daytime. None of the other Masters will risk doing anything for now."

Even as she talked to her Master, Rider found herself mentally frowning. Was it her imagination, or did the scent of the moon folk seem stronger than before?

o. o. o.

With Illya:

She couldn't take it anymore. It was one thing to spend a good deal of time preparing for a battle or a large event, it was another to just laze around the castle and do absolutely nothing.

Getting her coat and other clothes ready earlier that morning, the homunculus set her plan into motion by first giving Sella and Lyserit some large and outlandish tasks. It wasn't the first time she had done such things to them so the two maids merely assumed that their charge was simply still irritable about her encounter with the Apostle and being stuck inside all day, which was technically true.

Still it wasn't as if her orders weren't completely unwarranted. Frankly, there seemed an infestation problem or something, because Illya swore she had seen a rat or two earlier. She'd have to check the bounded fields around the castle to see that they were working soon just in case.

The moment she saw her opening with the distracted maids, the girl had run out the front door of the building and ordered Berserker, who had regained two of his lost lives by this point, to take her to the city. While she wouldn't mind encountering or killing another servant during her visit, she was primarily interested in exploring this day to vent some stress.

She had never really been allowed to go out on her own in Germany, and was curious as to what a normal life entailed for the standard human. The few times she had asked other members of the family had been met with ridicule and scorn. She was in turn asked why she would even need to bother with such useless knowledge as she was a sacrifice.

Well those old farts weren't around now and she had Heracles as a bodyguard on a leash so what was the harm in a little indulgence?

o. o. o.

He checked his remaining equipment as the sun rose.

One fifty bullet clip of automatic ammunition, complete with submachinegun. Half of a twenty four bullet clip of standard handgun ammunition, complete with pistol. One six bullet clip of sniper ammunition, complete with sniper rifle accompanied with telescopic and infrared scopes. Three fragmentation grenades. Five remaining land mines of varying types, already set up in various strategic locations nearby. One chipped combat knife. One smoke grenade.

Other Noble Phantasms still unused and will remain so until otherwise required.

Prana supply largely untouched and ready to be used.

Breaking or enchanting any additional ammunition is counterproductive. The ambient prana would interfere with stealth capabilities and reduce efficiency.

Final assessment. Confrontation with Servants of any sort before weapons are restocked is highly inadvisable. Lack of direct combat weaponry and prepared terrain leaves him in a distinct disadvantage with regards to combat potential. Should contact be made, primary goal is to disengage. Should combat be unavoidable, focus should be on the enemy Master while avoiding the Servant at all costs.

Assassin silently finished his stock check before placing it all in the folds of his cloak where they would remain until they are used again or are replaced.

Had he not intended to let Archer and Rider live, he would have berated himself for such a sloppy encounter. Revealing himself at the beginning. Speaking to the targets pointlessly. Actually engaging the targets in close combat for a brief moment. Exposing many tactics he had to the enemy. He had virtually broken every combat rule he had set up when he had a target.

As a result, he had left himself vastly under armed and gave up valuable tactical information about himself.

Under most circumstances, he would have a great deal of trouble managing even one opponent in a straight fight. In fact it was almost a miracle he had managed as well as he did against the two. Only his combination of guerrilla tactics and constantly controlling the flow of the battle enabled him to overwhelm the other two Servants.

That and the enemy were actually foolish enough to pick the most obvious rooftop to oversee and inspect the temple entrance from. He saw them coming and had instantly made up some quick plans before they had even left the building. Then again, how many Servants actually worked with traps and triggered explosives?

One thing was for certain though, should Archer or Rider come again, he would be extremely hard pressed handling even one of them… no, Saber should be considered as well, as she and Rider were supposedly teamed up and their Masters would no doubt share such important information. Lancer too if he and his master were still alive.

Good.

"Now that I look at it, your weapons leave much to be desired." Caster aridly sighed from behind him. "No finesse. No elegance. No mystery. Just well timed flying pieces of metal and manmade fireballs."

Assassin remained quiet and continued to put away his weaponry. Small talking with the woman behind him would serve no purpose in the end.

"But with such simple tools you managed to cripple a Master and Servant, and pushed away two more Servants at the same time… possibly even killed them if that last trick of yours worked as expected." She continued, not at all bothered by the man's silence. "Well… you are a heroic spirit I suppose. There must have been a reason you were able to be summoned after all."

The massive sniper rifle disappeared into his cloak. He rarely used it in the daytime and more often than not he kept it for the telescopic sight in place of binoculars.

"Still you have some skill with modern thaumaturgy, so it does make me wonder if you have some sort of tool that isn't so… boring." The Witch of Betrayal whimsically mused.

With the last of his equipment put away, Assassin turned to his summoner and looked at her from under his hood with his dull eyes. Anyone with common sense could tell that he was asking what she wanted, in addition to conveying his well hidden annoyance.

"My, you are an expressive one." The woman snorted in sarcastic amusement. "Well then, I guess I'll have to spell it out for you after all. I know that you've used up most of your tools last night Servant. Since you won't be able to serve your purpose staying here anyways, I've decided to put you to work elsewhere. Think of it as a reward for all your hard work."

Assassin turned more towards the woman, giving him a better view of her. She interpreted it correctly as a sign that she had his interest, not that it mattered.

"Since you somehow have Independent Action, we might as well put it to use." Medea continued casually. "During the day I want you to go throughout the city and spy and learn about the other Masters and Servants if possible. Who are they? Where do they live? What are their strengths? Weaknesses? Their Noble Phantasms? How do they interact with one another?" A sickening grin was made on her face. "You know. Anything that _you_ would find valuable for your next job."

The male Servant remained quiet for a few seconds before he finally spoke. "Is that an order?"

A small twitch on the woman's mouth was seen. Whether it was due to his emotionless voice or the blunt nature of his question was unknown. "Yes. It is. And while we're at it, let me just throw in a few more rules to be safe. You are not to interact with any other Masters or Servants or the overseer of the war, save for myself unless I deem otherwise later. You are not to leave any hints or items of any form for them to come across regarding you or me in any way. Should you see an enemy in a prime position to be taken out without issue, you will take it…" There was a brief pause. "And you will not return here until shortly before dusk unless it is urgent to resume your primary duty."

Ah. So the real motive behind this is known. She was afraid of him, saw him as a threat. Keeping him around all the time would only give him the opportunity to learn of what she was doing and come up with something to sabotage it at one point or another. Her additional commands would prevent him from betraying her indirectly while still serving a purpose to support her goals.

Smart woman. It was a foolish decision, but still made for the right reasons from her perspective. He wouldn't trust himself in this situation either… or virtually anyone else for that matter. But then, he wouldn't have sent away a Servant that could act out on its own without supervision and leave so many loopholes in her orders.

Without acknowledging her command in any other way, the Servant of Murder faded into spiritual form and made his way down the stairs to Fuyuki city…

o. o. o.

Tohsaka Residence:

Wrong.

That was the word that Rin best described her Servant that was Shirou Emiya. Not distorted. Not altered, twisted, confused, annoying, interesting, or strong.

Wrong.

The image of him traveling the world alone was wrong. The nature of his selfless ideal was wrong. The way he just helped others and kept on going was wrong. His interaction with other people was wrong…

Most of all though, his death was wrong. Especially that smile…

"Rin? Is something on your mind?" The subject of her confusion and fear asked in spiritual form and hovering inside a formalcraft circle designed to help him recover from his wounds. "Are you irritated that you have to make your tea in the morning again?"

"Shut up wise-ass." The brunette grumbled as she let the wonderful chemical known as caffeine in her system wake up the parts of her mind that had yet to reboot. "You have no right to ask about how other people are doing after last night."

"Such a cruel Master I have. No pity for the wounded." The Servant sighed.

"No pity be damned. How the hell could you forget about Assassin being good enough to hand you and Rider your asses at the same time?" Rin growled, focusing her anger on another legitimate reason before she slipped and started to ask about what she learned from his dreams. She could do that later.

"Embarrassing as it is, I did not remember this." The man stated coolly. "Otherwise, I believe I would have taken steps to prevent such an embarrassing event from happening. Wouldn't you? After all, getting shot and blown up sounds like a wonderful way to fight a war."

The Master faltered before moaning in frustration and palming her forehead. "Ugh. Ok! I get it. You couldn't have helped it this time. Far be it for me to assume that having a Servant from the future would actually know useful things that we could use."

"As opposed to just merely having a servant that has an unlimited number of Noble Phantasms at his disposal." The spirit snorted sarcastically.

"Not like you actually use them." The girl countered. "The only ones you make are those boring black and white ones." She filed away the fact that Archer had not used either Maiya or Natalia, but blades similar in shape to the two. She added that to the list of oddities that needed to be answered.

"They match my fighting style and I'm so used to making them in particular that they're cheaper for me to make." Archer shrugged without shame. "I can simply spam swords if you want, however it would require more prana than you'd think to pull it off. Noble Phantasms aren't cheap to make you know."

"Then just act like an Archer for once." Rin snapped. "Fire them off one at a time with your bow and nuke them with a broken phantasm or something! You've always been better with a bow than with swords anyways for some bizarre reason."

"That's normally my other main strategy, but I actually need range and a clear shot at the target to do that." EMIYA admitted. "It's a shame that standing out in the open is not a strategy that the enemy utilizes often."

The Master grunted, feeling a headache coming. "Do you at least have any idea who this guy is? He's a modern day assassin and saboteur…"

"No." Archer relented. "Most notable saboteurs came from Europe during the early nineteen hundreds when the world wars were going on, but even then I have doubts that any of them managed to get on the throne. Also there's the weapons he was using…"

"What's so special about them other than the fact that they were guns?"

"They were more modern Rin, particularly the submachine gun." The Servant corrected. "I've encountered many guns over the years. I'm far from an expert, but I do know a thing or two about them. While the ones he used were not state of the art, they were clearly designed after the world war era. Far after."

"Great, then we're dealing with ANOTHER Heroic Spirit that has made their legend in the future. Wonderful." The magus threw her hands up in the air in frustration before walking to the exit of her workshop.

"Getting some fresh air?" EMIYA mused as he simply floated there. To be honest, he liked having Rin around. It reminded him of old times and prevented him from dwelling on how messed up his situation was. Plus, teasing her was a lot of fun, as always.

"Going to YOUR place." The girl replied much to his surprise. "Since you're next to useless now I might as well do something productive that could shake up your memories a bit. Maybe find out who your Servant is or see if you've been any fights recently."

"You do realize that this could end very poorly for you, right?" If Saber was the same as before, she would very likely cut apart Rin before she could ask her first question. And if Saber wasn't… well technically anything could happen if that was the case.

The girl laughed and turned around at the spirit. "Shirou you worry too much. You sound as if we don't trust each other."

o. o. o.

With Lancer:

"She should be awake by now." Lancer had repeated himself for what seemed like the hundredth time that morning as he glanced at his still unconscious Master.

"Humans aren't as strong as they used to be." Merem shrugged. "Miss McRemitz is a rather strong individual for this day and age, however my statement still stands."

The spearman spat out in irritation while still sitting in his chair. "Man this blows. I wouldn't feel half as pissed as I am right now if we had been stuck in this situation because of a straight up fight. Instead we got taken out by some coward that didn't even show himself."

"Well that is the nature of an Assassin." The vampire rebutted as if it was obvious. "They kill in the way that poses the least amount of risk and most yield. Had it not been for your Master's habit of using runes on her clothing to further protect herself, neither of you wouldn't even be here to talk about this with me."

"Instead we're stuck here on the sidelines, and even when she does wake…" Lancer bit his tongue in frustration.

"You would be hard pressed to continue on in the war as you have." The Apostle finished the sentence factually. There was no pity in his voice whatsoever, which was good because if there was, the Servant would have attempted to kill him then and there. "A shame too, since she was a rather significant force in the war."

"Don't just write her off so easily." The demigod growled. "I know her well enough to tell that something like this wouldn't stop her, and she does know a good number of tricks."

"But will it be enough to win, let alone survive, in her current state?" Merem rose an eyebrow skeptically.

The room was silent as Lancer reluctantly contemplated the question. Even in their top conditions he had no misgivings that there would be tough fighting in the future. Hell he wanted that in the first place. But then that annoying old man had to go ahead and tell him that the entire war was just a setup that could go south fast. Just once he wanted to be in a great big brawl against someone good with no strings attached.

But as it stood right now, going through things normally didn't sit well with him which in turn caused him to get frustrated. He wasn't a thinker, he was a fighter. True he warped a few commands and orders on people that he didn't like on occasion, but this was beyond small word play. He needed as much firepower and as few liabilities as possible at the moment.

Looking at the vampire warily who was watching him in return in mild interest, Lancer weighed his options carefully.

"You look like a man that's about to make a deal with the devil." Merem observed.

"… You're a vampire that's interfering with a mystical war involving reincarnated legends that's already feeling like its nothing but a hoax and about to turn into something far worse… just for the hell of it."

"Point." The twentieth Apostle Ancestor relented without much effort. "So then. What do you want and what do you have to offer?"

o. o. o.

With Shirou:

"They should have at least woke me up and let me know what they were doing before they left." The Emiya pouted to his first Servant as he served her a quick brunch and sat down.

"You needed your rest." The King of Knights began to eat her meal without hesitation. "Rider's wounds were grievous yes, but so far you've taken on more damage and risked more in general than any of the Servants so far in the war. Sleeping in is the least of your worries."

"How was Rider when she left?" Shirou began to feed himself as well. Hopefully the food would get rid of the unusually tempting aftertaste of Rider's blood in his mouth. "I can't believe that she would be able to move around so easily after what happened."

"Her physical wounds were healed and thanks to your efforts she had recovered more than expected." Saber acknowledged. "It would still take some time for her to regain her full strength, however a minor trip with Sakura to get her more prana will do you both good."

He held his tongue. Personally he felt it would be best if Sakura didn't do anything that could tempt Zouken to make matters worse, however Saber did have a point. He had drunk far more blood the previous night than he would ever consider during most situations, and it had done a number on his stomach and tongue. Despite the Apostle influence on his body, he was still primarily human. Human stomachs were not designed to digest raw blood, let alone in such quantities. There were a few times when he almost threw up while trying to supply Rider with extra prana when things turned sour the night before, but he stubbornly held it back in. In the end he had nearly fallen asleep as fast as Rider did after she had arrived back home.

In a way this breakfast was for him as much as Saber. He needed something to settle his stomach as badly as Saber desired to fill hers.

"What I don't understand is why Assassin is different." The Magus Killer decided to change the subject after a minute or so of silence. "No matter how I approach the situation, I can't make heads or tails out of it. From what we've gathered, Caster still summoned him while she was at the Temple, so how is it that she could get someone else? Let alone someone that fights like that?"

"I do not know." Saber admitted while still eating. "Perhaps this is simply another unfortunate result of your father's interference. Maybe there was someone of significance buried there now that had not been before. Regardless it does not change the overall plan. Caster must fall and Assassin is in the way of that."

Shirou nodded quietly while chewing. "You're right. Caster's been draining the leylines more frequently lately and causing people to pass out. She needs to be stopped first before we can deal with anyone else. Even Kotomine is at least more subtle and controlled of his actions than this."

"Despite our feelings for him and what he has done, should we ask him for aid?" Saber asked with focused eyes. "As overseer, would he not see that what she is doing is possibly exposing the existence of the war?"

"No." Shirou shook his head. "I need him for later and if I ask him for help too much he'll likely find out that we know more than we should. Besides, if he hasn't done anything about Caster yet then he probably believes the situation is still manageable. Trying to push him to do something would not work well in our favor. Remember what it took for the previous overseer to set the other masters against the fourth war's Caster?"

Saber scowled as she vaguely recalled the numbers of missing children and persons prior to the fight against the insane Gil de Rais. "Point made. What do you intend to do then? You must also be prepared for when Illyasviel returns as well as Zouken and Gilgamesh. You have to be conservative if you wish to survive."

"And I can't make any additional solid alliances until at least Zouken is addressed otherwise he'll find out and use Sakura against us and virtually everyone in town." Shirou began to get a headache but he ignored it. "… And dealing with Zouken will, without a doubt, result in Gilgamesh starting to move, if he hasn't by then, because we need Kirei's help dealing with the old bastard. Illya's a wildcard at the moment regardless given the way she reacted to me last time, so figuring out a solid way to deal with her alongside everything else is going to be a nightmare in itself."

"Indeed, we are stuck in quite the quagmire." Saber agreed with her Master's summarization of the situation. Two insidious factions required alliances to fight against each other while an uncontrollable force of destruction lurked off to the side and only needed the slightest of whims to attack. In the mean time several other parties did as they pleased only to further complicate the issues at hand. It was Britain's problems all over again, with Servants and Masters instead of armies. And then there was Archer... "May I give you some advice?"

"By all means. We're partners, not Master and Servant, or King and Sword. You don't need to ask permission to do something of the like." The Master shrugged.

The Servant nodded in thanks with a small appreciative smile on her face. "When I was in dire situations like this, my strategists and I would frequently focus not on the enemy or that which directly influenced the battle, but on everything else. The weather. The land and wildlife. The local populace. Individuals of note. Rumors and the like. More often than not we would encounter overlooked factors that ended up turning the tide of battle to my favor or at least avert a humiliating defeat."

"… On everything else but the immediate threats?" Shirou mused as he looked at his food. "Dad did focus on those a lot in his notes when he went for his kills…"

"As efficient as Kiritsugu was in what he did, I would appreciate it if you didn't try to emulate him too much." Saber's eyes hardened for a moment. She would very much like to not repeat what happened to Darmuid again.

"We all would. Dad included." The son agreed absently while chewing on some food. Quietly he thought about everything else he had glossed over. The other participants in the war. His own standing in the war. Where everyone was. The Clocktower. Merem's presence. His jobs. Fuyuki City. The Greater Grail…

"You have something in mind." The blonde noted casually.

"Mmm." Shirou nodded without turning away from his food. "We're going out for a walk after lunch."

o. o. o.

Assassin crouched over the edge of a building and looked through the lens of his sniper rifle, examining the faces and people that walked by on the busy market road in the morning. It was mostly housewives doing food shopping so far as it was in the morning, but it had been growing more balanced since noon approached and people started to go out for lunch.

He personally didn't like his current setup as it was in the middle of the day and in the dead center of a highly populated area, but then again he'd have to be a novice to actually expect any situation to be ideal.

Caster's orders had made things slightly tricky for him to work around, but there were a few loopholes he could manage. First of all, he only had less than a handful of people in this city that he would actually consider "enemies". Those that weren't in that category were either "allies", "targets", or "inconsequential".

The difference between "targets" and "enemies" was that "targets" were far easier to kill with proper planning and posed less of a threat to him.

It didn't need to be said that such labels were subject to change.

Regardless, so long as he didn't bother to prepare a shot, his presence concealment would ensure that he would be able to escape from anything long before the stalked could take proper action. Despite his gun being a Noble Phantasm, it used up little to no prana by itself making it difficult to detect. That was if he didn't break or enchant the bullets of course.

Enchanting his bullets… now there was something he never really did when alive, not that he could have done it often back then anyways. It was only because this was a battle of Epic Spirits, legendary figures that were neigh impossible for mundane methods to destroy, that he had even bothered to enhance his weaponry. His knowledge of thaumaturgy during his living days was limited to what he thought was useful and what wasn't for his job. Magic was detectable by other Magi, hence it gave away what he was going to do and where he was. Guns, bullets, and explosives by themselves though, weren't.

Magic was an option that was somewhat more available when he was hunting normal humans that pissed off one government organization or another, but not by much. A flaming bullet in the head yielded no different results than a normal bullet in the head.

Actually, he still preferred not to use the enchantments for anything but direct combat purposes, which he avoided when possible. As far as he was concerned, if he had to actually fight, then he did something wrong. Then again, he could only do the enchanting to this efficiency now that he was a Servant but that was beside the point.

Very briefly he once more went through the data that Caster had given him about the other Servants. Rider was Medusa and the Servant of Sakura Matou. Saber was a blonde unknown with an invisible sword and a strong magic resistance that belonged to Shirou Emiya, a supposedly very dangerous magus that seemed to know more about the war than he let on. Berserker was Heracles and belonged to Illyasviel Von Einzbern, suspected sister of Shirou Emiya. There seemed to be a good deal of animosity from the sister to the brother.

Lancer and Archer he had dealt with personally.

A grim smile briefly appeared on his mouth.

How ironic. The biggest threat to his plans at the moment was none other than himself.

A brief itching in the back of his head caught the Assassin's attention and caused him to turn down to the other side of the road. The source was far out of his line of sight at the moment, but he didn't do anything else. Moving or expending any prana would just expose him to any Servant nearby, which was the last thing he needed. Waiting and patience was the key to any job after all. A boring job was a job done right as far as he was concerned. Virtually none of that bullshit that the Americans tended to put in their movies was actually needed to kill a man if the assassin actually knew what he was doing.

Soon enough he spied the purple haired Matou walking down the street with grocery bags seemingly alone and with a content look on her face. Unknown to the people around her though, the girl had a Servant hovering above her defensively, ready to move at the nearest provocation.

Assassin's eyes narrowed as he contemplated the situation. It was rather peculiar for Rider to be active so quickly after the damage he dealt to her the previous night. There should be no way for her to be in top form after what he did to her… meaning that he could easily kill the Master right now if he wanted to with a single shot…

No. It wouldn't benefit him to do so, at least not yet. There were too many witnesses and it might cause the Priest to actually do something if he did things in broad daylight…

It was pointless to focus on the two females now. He would gain nothing from observing them from this range for this short period of time. The best thing to do was just leave them alone and wait for someone else to hopefully pass by. He had a good guess where she was residing and if he was correct… it would only complicate the situation. It was best if he didn't visit that place or encounter its occupants.

Assassin began to make quick vague sweeps of the area below him. Given what he knew about the magi and servants in the war, he doubted that there was anyone else…

Shit.

In the other direction of the same road the Matou girl was walking on stood a man with golden blond hair and blood red eyes, looking right at him with the barest of curiosity despite the vast amount of land between them. There was no doubt in Assassin's mind that he had been seen.

The two men did not do anything but stare at one another. One in pure fear, the other on a bored whim… or so it was initially before the latter man's face slowly adjusted and began to smile as if realizing something that was rather amusing.

This would not end well.

Combat was next to useless in the current situation and would only serve to provoke the enemy. Retreat would take priority the instant he took hostile measures…

Which had yet to happen. So far the golden man simply looked back at Assassin as if having trouble trying to figure out what to do with the new toy in front of him. Not that the analogy wasn't far off the mark considering the power difference between them. The Servant of Murder was no match for the reincarnated King of Heroes. Both were very well aware of this and the fact that the other knew of it as well.

So when stronger of the two simply began to chuckle and continue down the road without doing anything, Assassin was left even more unnerved. His position was compromised and unstable, yet even so he didn't move. Though the golden king did not seem to regard him at all after breaking eye contact, the shrouded Servant knew that if he budged from his spot it would, if not spell his end, then at least make things extremely uncomfortable for him in the near future.

Casually the reincarnated Servant walked down the street, not paying anything or anyone of mind as the normal people seemingly instinctively walked around him. Whether it was due to his aura, the way he carried himself, or the fact that he simply looked like he was worth more than everyone else on the street that day was beyond the observer's ability to determine, not that it mattered.

Soon enough though, he had crossed paths with the Matou. Even worse he had actually stopped and decided to talk to her, bending over and whispering something into her ear with an all too pleased look in his eyes.

And then she turned to look right at Assassin's direction with a pale face. During the same time, Rider had instantly moved in between her Master and the Assassin.

Assassin took that as his cue to leave and moved as fast as possible. As good as the eldest Servant was, even he would not expose himself just yet. His pride wouldn't let him. Likewise Rider would not leave Sakura alone when such a strange man was right next to Sakura.

Increasing his speed and damning stealth, the Servant raced over the rooftops of the residential district erratically for at least a minute. Once he saw that no enemy was at least directly following him, he instantly stopped using his prana, dropped down an alleyway and utilized his presence concealment. Not stopping there, he took a roundabout way back to the general area he originally ran from, though he ensured that he would appear in a location that would not cross paths with the King of Heroes or the girl.

Wonderful. The person he didn't want to encounter the most had just taken an interest in him. Even worse he'd probably be forced to tell Caster about him, which would force the psychotic woman to drain even more prana from the leylines and force Kirei to take focus on her.

Expanding his senses some more in the alleyway, Assassin attempted to regain his bearings with respect to the enemy. One of the convenient things about being Assassin was that his class was usually among the best for keeping tabs on other Servants, and as such he could feel possible enemies from a good ways off. He wasn't as good as Caster, and Archer could easily see him from outside his range if his view was unobstructed, but all in all he was up there.

He nearly swore as another Servant and Master were detected and slowly approached his position. Not taking any chances, he made his way back to the rooftops as quickly as possible without losing any of his stealth, reaching the top within seconds. He had long since adapted to the convenient benefits of his superhuman strength and speed, though rather subpar when compared to any of the other Servants', which were more than absent during life. He didn't worry about being spotted by this new group as Rider and her Master, who did not seem to have been killed yet, moved in the opposite direction and Gilgamesh was not the type to hound a target in broad daylight. If the so called King wanted to kill any one of them, they all would have been dead by now.

Less than a minute later though, he had wished that it had been a wary Rider and Sakura.

Illyasviel and Berserker.

The insane Servant's mere presence in spiritual form was enough to cause virtually every person on the street to give the girl a wide berth as she merrily and innocently looked around the stores to see what they had for sale. How on earth she managed to not encounter the King of Heroes or the Matou was beyond Assassin's guess, but he was thankful for it. Even from this distance he could feel the terrifying presence of the black giant as it hovered over its Master, ready to literally tear apart anyone who attempted to harm her and everything around the said fool.

In the current situation and setup… Assassin was sure that he could kill Heracles three times, at an unlikely best. Maybe four if he was extremely lucky, right before he was torn apart limb to limb like a rag doll.

And yet his primary focus was not on the nearly invisible giant, but on the girl it was with…

"It must be difficult for you watching her like this."

Faster than anything he could have done in life Assassin had turned around and pointed his submachine gun at the man behind him. He appeared to be an aging old priest, but the aura around him was anything but human.

"There's no need for hostilities." The non human smiled genuinely. "I am not a participant in the war, nor an enemy, nor an observer for the Church though I do work for the latter in my spare time. I'm merely someone you can talk to if you wish."

Assassin didn't lower the gun, but he did make a small gesture that indicated that the old man had his attention. It was clear that somehow he had spied on his conversation with Caster, however that did not mean that he was an ally.

"Such professionalism." The priest marveled at the Servant's self control. "The rumors about you certainly did you no justice, both metaphorically and literally. Controlled movements. Minimal conversation. No emotion. Just like a machine. Yes, I can see why so many were afraid of you Kiritsugu Emiya."

"… What do you want?"

He didn't know how, but this thing was interested in him for some reason. Interested enough to properly identify him and risk coming out into the open. Under normal circumstances, the Servant would have just killed the thing in front of him, but two things were preventing that. The first was that it could prove to be of use to get around Caster's orders.

The second was that if he started anything, Berserker would be on top of him in an instant.

"Again there's no need for hostilities." The priest raised his hands in surrender. "I have no desire to become an enemy or target of the sire of my Lord's good friend. I hold Lord Emiya in the highest regards, and as such I respect you just as much."

That got a bigger reaction out of the Servant. The end of his gun twitched slightly. He certainly did not like the fact that the creature had said "Lord Emiya". "Prove it."

The old man's disposition did not change. "Unlimited Blade Works."

Assassin's eyes widened.

"Oh, my Lord and I are very well aware of his disposition, among other traits he has acquired since your passing that you are not aware of. We have even aided him on a few occasions." He continued without pause. "Other than Arturia Pendragon, or Servant Saber as she is publicly known as, we are the only ones on this continent who are aware of what extremes you went through to prepare for this premature ritual. Granted Lord Shirou is not exactly aware that my Master and I know of what you did and why, however we are none the less interested in his activities. Then of course there is Angra Mainyu and your daughter's rather interesting condition…"

The soft but distinct clicking of Kiritsugu's gun silenced the King of Rats. Obviously he had talked too much.

"What do you want?" The Magus Killer asked again, this time with a cold tinge to his voice.

"Personally it would be one of your son's four cheese pizzas. He really is a marvelous chef, but I doubt that's what you mean. " The priest admitted shamelessly before getting back on subject. "To be blunt we simply wish for things to progress in a favorable direction. We have directly interfered with the war too much as it is, however merely subtly influencing events is something that we see no harm in doing. We would prefer to abstain from interfering with the War completely and merely watch these interesting events progress, however the continued existence of that King of Heroes and the tainted Greater Grail are rather concerning. We would like to see them… addressed."

The gun between the pair lowered slowly until it was pointing towards the ground. "You have information."

It was not a question but a fact. The Priest had already proved himself resourceful enough to get plenty of major secrets from his son, and was the first to figure out his identity. Whether or not he was an ally though was still up for debate. It was extremely easy for a seasoned information specialist to claim he was backing one side or another and support the claim, when the opposite was the truth. It was the reason why most realistic ones worked for the highest bidder or were completely dedicated to a single employer.

Freelancers that worked for the greater good were nonexistent as far as Kiritsugu was concerned. Hence, the creature in front of him was playing him and working towards an alternate goal. Unfortunately at the moment, the Servant needed the resources more than he needed to avoid the game. Even if he wasn't that desperate, he needed a solid link to this thing's so called Lord to take him out. He knew too much about Shirou to simply just leave alone.

However it had already made a mistake. It had unknowingly admitted that it did not know of all the precautions Kiritsugu had made before he died.

"And then some." The King of Rats nodded without shame. "I assure you, you will find much of what I know quite interesting."

Tiny brown creatures waited in the shadows. Their King had need of them and they had come. More and more of their number were arriving by the day to bolster the losses constantly occurring in the battle between the kingdom and the worms. Many were lost, but more will come. More will always come.

o. o. o.

With Illya:

"How boring." The girl pouted as the Servant she sensed nearby disappeared. She had been hoping that it would have done something interesting while it spied on her, but apparently it had gotten cold feet. Not that she blamed it considering Berserker was with her. Her Heracles was the strongest Servant after all.

Still, it was quite off putting to see a person hailed in legends getting cold feet like that. Whoever it was must have been a coward in life.

Well whatever. She'd kill him sooner or later.

At that moment however, her murderous train of thought was interrupted by a more pressing matter, coming in the form of her stomach rumbling.

"Auuu. I'm hungry." The albino wept like the child she appeared to be. In her rush to leave the castle, she had forgotten to grab some of the local currency before leaving.

Her Servant twitched slightly above her, responding to her distress.

"No. There's no need to do anything Berserker." The girl sighed, tears of self pity running down her face. She'd just have to hypnotize some random passerby and steal their money to get something to eat. It was an insulting use of her mystic eyes, but her stomach took priority and…

"What is this?!" A woman's loud voice echoed through the street, originating from very close to the partially deafened and surprised homunculus. "A young child alone and crying in the street? Why hasn't someone offered to help this poor girl yet?!"

Illyasviel responded to the question as best as she could. "Huh?"

Standing in front of her was an energetic, albeit pissed looking young woman with short brownish hair in a green summer dress and a black and yellow shirt underneath it. Standing next to the woman was a rather emotionless and boring looking middle aged man in a standard suit and tie with glasses that seemed all but invisible when standing next to the walking foghorn.

"What is Japan coming to when our people just stand around and do nothing when the young are left alone and distraught!?" The woman continued to rant with an impressive ferocity that seemed to cause people to give her as much distance as Illya did with Berserker hovering over her.

"Fujimura-sensei." The man next to her stated evenly, clearly not at all bothered by her behavior. "You are letting your emotions get the better of you again. You won't accomplish anything if you keep on ranting like this. Quite the contrary, you might scare the girl even further if you continue."

"Erk!" The woman froze, clearly having only just realizing that possible fact before turning to the very confused Albino with tears in her eyes. Actually upon a closer look it was clear that she was about to cry more than the suspected lost and helpless girl, but no one wanted to point that out. "I-I'm so soorryy. I didn't mean to scare you!"

"Er. I… that is…"

"She's clearly foreign." The man spoke up. "She might not understand Japanese."

"_I'm very sorry if I scared you. Do you speak English? Are you lost?"_ The woman switched to the western language on the dot. Her accent was a bit thick for Illya's taste, but overall the woman was quite fluent.

"I'm actually German." The albino sheepishly replied in fluent Japanese. "But I can speak the local language, and no I'm not lost."

"Bilingual at such a young age. Impressive." The man acknowledged with a brief nod.

"Are you ok?" The woman switched back to her native language as well with a concerned look in her eyes. "It's not safe for young girls like you to be outside alone when there are so many things happening lately."

"I'm fine." The girl pouted, once again annoyed that her physical appearance didn't match her real age. "I can take care of myself." For some reason, she swore she heard the sound of a muted gunshot originating from the woman's chest, but that was just ridiculous.

"She's so… adorable." The immature woman began to tear up even more while still quite close to the girl. "Like one of those expensive foreign dolls."

"Fujimura-sensei, I believe she's unnerved by the situation enough as it is. Please do not accidentally have her mistaken you for something you are not and make her scream for the police." The emotionless man calmly advised, though the people in hearing distance detected a hint of weariness in his tone.

"Is she really a Sensei?" Illya asked the man more confused than anything at the moment. How could such an immature woman be responsible for the education of youth?

"Yes." The man nodded tersely. Apparently he wasn't one for small talk.

"So… cute. I just want to take her home and dress her up." The woman continued, further losing grip with reality.

"Ah… ahahahah…" The homunculus laughed nervously. She wasn't really used to these kinds of people, primarily because such behavior was not usually tolerated in the Einzbern household. She could play the part of the innocent child or the shrewd politician whenever she wanted, but she was always at her best when she was in control of the flow of conversation. Such control was cruelly ripped from her grasp in the presence of the woman known as Taiga Fujimura. "Thank you, I think."

The rumbling of the girl's stomach was heard by all three humans and Servant.

"I take it you have yet to eat." The man observed.

Illya nodded in shame.

"And you most likely do not have any money on you."

She nodded again.

"And your caretaker has all the money and is most likely looking for you as we speak."

A third nod, this time tears of embarrassment started to come from the albino's eyes. Why did this old geezer have to be so blunt about it?

Taiga sighed. "Honestly. I guess there's no helping it. We'll take you out to lunch and then help you find your family."

Illya had to hold back a bitter snort. She knew exactly where her family was, and they were the last people she wanted to talk to at the moment. Both Emiya and Einzbern.

"Fujimura-sensei. Please remember what we were tasked to do today." The so far nameless man stated calmly. It was only at that point that Illya noticed that his eyes were roaming the area as if looking for something he couldn't see. Most likely it was Berserker, however the girl was impressed. Even though the man apparently had no circuits, he could still tell that her Servant's presence was something more than just a chill down his spine. It spoke a great deal about his situational awareness, not that it would help him if she actually told Berserker to kill him. "We were tasked by the school to speak with the police in person about the recent events to determine if the schools should keep on running."

The woman pouted and turned to her companion. "Oh come on Kuzuki-sensei. How can you see this adorable little thing and not feel anything? It's our job to help and guide the young and that's what we're gonna do! You know that the police rep can wait a while for us to at least feed little… little… uh."

"Illyasviel von Einzbern." The girl introduced herself, somewhat annoyed that it took them this long to ask her for her name.

"… Illya." Taiga instantly shortened the name for her convenience. "Besides we can drop her off at the cop's place as a missing person afterwards."

"Even if the police accept our tardiness, where would we eat?" The man inquired. "I hope you are not thinking of freeloading off of Emiya's generosity again. It is one thing to frequent a student's home for food, even if you are his legal guardian, it's another to ask him to service to complete strangers unannounced."

That had the small Master's attention.

"I'm not that bad!" The immature teacher moaned. "It's not my fault that Shirou's cooking is better than most of the restaurants here and he won't turn people away. Besides I don't like him living in that big house by himself all the time. Kids get lonely you know?" Her demeanor calmed down a bit. "Besides, I don't want to put any extra stress on him right now."

"Stress?" Kuzuki questioned curiously.

"Ah!" Taiga realized her blunder and began frantically to try and grasp at straws. "I mean! You know how he is! With all the people getting hurt and those fires going around lately he's been in a touchy mood! I just didn't want to add to all that!"

"Who are you talking about?" Illya asked with all the innocence of the child she appeared to be.

"He's a student that Fujimura-sensei has been taking care of on the side for the past few years since his father died." Kuzuki replied as evenly as ever.

"Also he's unofficially one of the best chefs in the city, very reliable, and a complete selfless idiot at times." Taiga added with finality... before her stomach began to rumble in tandem with Illya's. "Unfortunately, Chez Emiya is closed for the moment, so we'll have to go somewhere else to fill our stomachs. Any requests?"

"I have no preferences." The token male stated.

"I figured as much." His affiliate muttered.

"How about some hamburgers? Not fast food, but a decent place." Illya suggested to Taiga. The energetic woman was more responsive to her and could be milked for more information about her target. Plus Kuzuki creeped her out. How could a guy with a face like that be a teacher? "They don't cost much here do they?"

After a small debate and a pleasant stop at a nearby diner, Illya hypnotized the two teachers to forget all about her while simultaneously implanting a suggestive subconscious impulse in Taiga for the future.

All in all, it had been an interesting day for the Einzbern.

o. o. o.

Edelfelt Mansion:

"I must admit, I did not expect to have a conversation with you again so soon." Luvia drank her tea with a good deal of poise and elegance, none of which betrayed the uncertainty she was feeling at the moment, sitting in the same room as Shirou.

After all, even with what she had set up, the magus had little doubt that she would not survive if Saber truly wished to end her instead of imitating a statue next to her Master. Likewise Caster was just as still and quiet while sitting next to Luvia. Truthfully the homeowner did not believe Shirou would try to do anything outrageous in the middle of the day, however the same could not be said for his Servant.

"Neither did I until a few hours ago." Shirou admitted, dressed up in his "work" attire sans the holy shroud which he was still wearing under his suit. "I see you've significantly increased the defenses of your workshop. Caster's doing?"

"Of course." Luvia rolled her eyes. "We are at war after all. Why wouldn't I exploit the knowledge of my Servant to increase my home field capabilities? Do you take me for a novice?"

"Depends." Shirou smirked with light humor. To his side, Saber had remained focused on the task at hand, ready to protect her Master in a moment's notice. "Did you study and understand the new additions she gave you?"

"The ones I could make sense of." The blonde admitted without shame. "The ancient language is quite remarkable after all. Speaking to the world itself to provoke an effect. Why it's in a way just short of utilizing a Marble Phantasm."

"Actually there's a bit more of a gap between the two than you think, but they do follow the same base theory." Shirou added knowingly. One couldn't conduct significant research on Reality Marbles without learning a good deal about Marble Phantasms.

"Hmm? Caster said the same thing. I'm a bit surprised that you were aware of it as well." Luvia was honest. People knew of the general theory about this subject, but those who had deeper knowledge on them were rather small. "I take it this was something you picked up while hunting Apostles. Don't tell me you have the bright idea of hunting the White Princess."

Shirou shivered, ignoring the brief look that Saber gave him. "Please don't joke like that. I'd be wrecked in a heartbeat against her."

"White Princess?" Caster asked confused.

"The last of the True Ancestors. The Moon Folk." Shirou supplied. "She's currently one of the most powerful beings on the planet."

"When was the last time you were here?" The blonde changed the subject on a whim, seemingly not getting to the topic at hand just yet.

"I believe it was your over the top Christmas party." The male supplied, going with the flow for now. "You set it up after Rin told us she was hosting one of her own and you decided to one up her."

He didn't say however that Rin had done that just to call Luvia's bluff so the girl would host the massive and expensive party in the first place and get free expensive high class food… that Shirou didn't make.

"Ah right. That little get together. Not one of my better gatherings I admit, however given the company at the time it was adequate." Luvia had attempted to get her sister and some other acquaintances to come over for the party, but her sibling and the others had flat out rejected her offering simply due to the fact that she was in Japan. Of course she had anticipated that, but the invitations were merely sent to uphold her generous image more than anything.

Shirou didn't mention that he was still getting asked by various classmates what exactly happened in the party, which due to its exclusivity and Luvia's home had been unintentionally elevated to legendary status among the student body.

"Do you want anything to drink or eat?" The host asked. "I am rather unprepared for guests, however I do believe that Sebastian can scrounge up something for you none the less."

Shirou shook his head. "No. Under the current circumstances it would be unwise to accept such an offer." _Especially after I have told you so many of my father's tactics. _He left unsaid but clearly heard. Hell, he had inspected everything in the room as he walked in just to make sure that the table and chairs weren't rigged with some sort of spell or explosive just to be sure.

"Mmm. A shame. Sebastian really was quite eager on seeing how well his skills had improved according to you." Luvia made eye contact with Shirou, ignoring the Servants in the room. "Why are you here?"

The room was silent for several seconds as neither side blinked.

"Where's Marjatta Luvia?"

"I didn't know you went for younger girls Shirou." Luvia smirked with tea in hand, however the sudden stillness in her body was not missed by anyone.

"Where's Marjatta?"

"She's out and I will ensure that it stays that way if you have unsettling thoughts about my sister." There was more steel in her voice this time.

"If she's doing anything that I find objectionable, you know I will act." Shirou narrowed his gaze. "People are falling unconscious all over the place in greater numbers. Caster is the only Servant that can do such a thing and I cannot see you responsible for such a tactic."

"If you have any other false accusations without proof for me, I'm afraid that your stay will be shorter than either of us had anticipated." Luvia's polite demeanor was gone, replaced with ice and pre-battle tension. "As much as I do value you as a friend Emiya, I do not tolerate such slander."

On either side of the table, both Servants made subtle movements to prepare for battle. The switch in addressing Shirou was not lost on anyone. While under most circumstances Saber would dominate the battle from the get go, the group was within Caster's territory. There was no guessing what she could have done to shift things in her favor here.

"… You don't know do you?" All the attention in the room focused on Shirou once more. "I know you Luvia. You're a good person. Not a saint, but you aren't bad. You'd risk a lot for this war. Your pride. Your life. Your future. While I don't like it, you'd even risk an occasional civilian if they were at the wrong place at the wrong time without worry or care. Given the nature of this war, such a thing obviously cannot be helped… but I know for a fact that you would never actively go out and actively risk the lives of innocents on purpose, nor would you condone such an action. You consider such actions deprave and desperate, things that you would never associate with yourself if you could help it."

"So given that you surmise that my sister has been acting on her own without me." Luvia laughed bitterly. She was pegged and she knew it, however she knew that this was not the end of things. If Shirou knew something about her sister she didn't, she would get it out of him War be damned. "And? What proof do you have that my sister is responsible for all of this? Acting without credible reason is not like you Emiya."

Shirou didn't talk or move at all before reaching into his coat and took out a small file of papers. "I encountered the Witch of Betrayal and the recently summoned Assassin, working together and set up at Fuyuki Temple, which you know lies on one of the major leylines in town. I don't know about what the others saw, but personally she seemed have set up to camp there for a while. Bounded fields. A workshop. The works."

"The temple?" Luvia swallowed heavily as she recalled everything she could about the local landmark while absently taking the papers. "She teamed up with Assassin's Master? Who is he?"

"I don't know." Shirou admitted with a half truth. After all, he didn't actually see any proof to support his speculation that Caster had indeed summoned a slave. "For all I know, Caster might have found a loophole and summoned him herself. Regardless, Assassin alone proved dangerous enough to repel two Servants at once with his unique abilities. He fights completely differently compared to the other Servants in the war. What I gave you is everything I compiled on his stats, abilities, and tactics."

"And Marjatta?" The sister asked, not looking at the papers yet. "What happened to my sister?"

"You tell me." Shirou frowned. "Last time I saw her, I forced her to use a command seal to make Caster warp her back here."

"I don't know." Luvia's temper was reaching a breaking point, but she remained as calm as she could. "She should have been here when I returned that night but I never saw her and her things were gone. No blood. No signs of struggle, and no fighting else my home would be in shambles by now. The best I know is that she's still alive due to our connection with Ore Scales."

"So she left on her own, or it appears to be that at least." The Emiya surmised, making note of Luvia's slip in her sorcery trait's ability. "In either case, it's safe to say that at least the Witch of Betrayal is your enemy now."

"So help me sister…" The Edelfelt was grinding her teeth in frustration. "If she actually betrayed me I swear I'll…"

"I suggest actually figuring out a way to get to her first." Shirou interrupted. "Assassin is more dangerous than anticipated. Actually I believe that your Caster has the best chance to clear a safe path through his traps than any of the other Servants."

"So that's why you bothered to tell me this." Luvia snorted darkly. "I didn't think you were the type to use others Emiya."

"I was hoping to take care of the situation myself without bothering you." The young man admitted with reluctance. "I wasn't going to harm Marjatta if I could help it. I'm trying to end this war with as few casualties as possible. This includes the Masters."

"Well you're doing a fine job of that right now." Her biting sarcasm was not lost on anyone despite the proper demeanor she attempted to maintain. "Do tell me, how are you going to do that with your dear sister out for your blood with Heracles as an attack dog?"

Shirou's eyes widened momentarily before he regained composure and sighed. "So you saw that after all. I had a feeling that someone had been watching but I had nothing to go on."

"So it's true then. The Einzbern representative is Kiritsugu Emiya's true child."

_Among other things._ Shirou mentally added with bitterness, remembering the real reason why is sister was here.

Luvia laughed bitterly at her guest's expression and shook her head. "The things we do for family."

"Forgive me for interrupting, but I believe now would be an appropriate time to ask the Master of Saber about your questions on the grail." Caster spoke up. "I too would like to hear what he has to say on the subject as he seems to know more about it than anyone else involved in the war."

Neither Saber nor Shirou liked the sound of that.

"Care to elaborate?" The male in the room asked warily.

Luvia's posture grew more confident again as the subject was turned away from her sister. "As you surmised, we witnessed the entirety of your encounter with Einzbern and heard every word. So as expected you piqued my curiosity and prompted me to visit the memorial park. And guess who I happened to meet by chance there?"

Shirou and Saber both paled, knowing exactly who Luvia was referring to.

Luvia played with her hair. "So imagine my surprise when Caster inspected that interesting sword you gave your sister and came up with the fact that not only did the weapon's curse match the park's, but that it got the curse BEFORE the park did…" She made eye contact with Shirou. "Or should I say, Kiritsugu Emiya was cursed before the park."

The Edelfelt did not stop there. "Your father effectively won the war, yet turned down the grail, somehow destroying it in the process. As a result, the entire area that would be the park was immolated in a dark curse and fire that killed everyone but you. However at some point shortly before he did this, he had somehow been tainted with what altered the land here. Given the absurd area that had been affected, none of the remaining Servants could have been responsible for the curse itself, which leaves me to only one outlandish, yet logical conclusion…"

"The Holy Grail we are fighting for is cursed, isn't it Shirou Emiya?"

Shirou remained quiet for several seconds before letting out a dry laugh. "Damn. And here I was waiting to tell everyone at once in a controlled setting after getting more things done first."

"… How?" Caster frowned. "The grail itself if a magnificently powerful artifact. How could it have been corrupted without anyone knowing?"

"It will take too long to go into the details now, but it happened during the third war when one of the competitors tried to tweak the rules to their favor, resulting in an abnormal Heroic Spirit being summoned who ironically enough in life was tasked to be a living wish." Shirou supplied evenly. "The end result though is that the Grail is now essentially a monkey's paw and virtually no one knows about it. Only instead of merely tweaking the results of the wish, it attempts to kill as many humans as possible in the process to achieve it. The results would still be what you desired, the grail's wish granting function is still there, but the method would be as destructive as possible. And if someone desired something large, such as world peace or access to the Akashic Records…"

Luvia's and Caster's faces were white as they realized the repercussions of such a thing. Luvia had little doubt that the results would be nothing short of catastrophic. Many magi would still go through such a reckless ritual simply because it yielded results, even if it risked exposing thaumaturgy to the rest of the world and potential genocide. "Why? Why didn't you tell anyone this? This is completely unlike you! You'd be the FIRST person to try and stop the war from happening at all if this was known earlier."

"There's something else afoot isn't there?" Caster frowned. "You would not remain silent if it were not the case."

"Several." The Emiya stated in a dead tone. "Most of which are just as concerning as the Grail itself. Should the war be canceled, I risk letting these factors go unaddressed or in a worst case scenario unleash them without proper resources available to address them without dire consequences…"

"The Servants." Luvia surmised. It was not difficult to guess that. After all, only a heroic spirit could truly fight on par with another one, with the possible exceptions of beings like Dead Apostles Ancestors or the White Princess. With the right preparation, it would not be difficult to prepare an adequate force or counter to almost any situation. Plus if he knew about the war long before anyone else it wouldn't be beyond her to assume that he could influence… what the other Masters… did…

She froze. Shirou was far too knowledgeable about the situation for this to be something recent. No, if he was prepared for all of this and was using the war to his advantage, he would most likely have had weeks if not months to prepare for everything, utilizing every resource he had to ensure his results…

EVERY resource…

"Shirou." She swallowed. "How long did you know of these threats?"

Saber was as stoic as ever, but she could tell that things were about to take a turn for the worse.

Shirou seemed to know as well, however Luvia had already learned of this much already. To stop now would only damn him more. Besides, he sucked at lying and he didn't have his shroud over his face. "Years." He stated bluntly.

"Years…" She laughed, her throat tightening and shook her head. "You knew this war was coming earlier than everyone else and was preparing behind everyone's backs. How stupid we all were to miss this. It's all fitting into place now. It makes sense with McGinty and Lord El Melloi the Second training you before anyone knew who you were. Supporting you...every step...of the way…"

"Lord El…" Caster's eyes narrowed before she realized what her Master was insinuating and her stomach dropped like a rock. "No. No. You couldn't mean…"

"My summoning of Caster was not a decision made out of logic due to my sister and I having Ore Scales, was it?" Luvia stated in a soft dead tone.

The room was dead silent for what seemed like an eternity before Shirou closed his eyes, held out his hand, traced Rule Breaker, and placed it gently on the table.

The silence in the room was damning.

"I see. We were being used from the beginning and we didn't even know it." The blonde nodded faintly, understanding exactly what Shirou's gesture meant. "Even if the Grail was genuine, we never had a chance at winning in the first place, did we?"

"You." Caster growled as prana began to grow visible around her. Her anger and malice was nearly palpable to the others there. "YOU! How DARE you boy! To use me like some tool just to throw away?! You are no better than the rest of the trash and servants that follow the whims of the gods!" The power around her increased in intensity as did her murderous intent. It just went to show that even the weakest of the classes in the war, even further debilitated by a split summoning, were far beyond what humans of this era were capable of. "I will not be controlled again! My life and will are my own!"

In an instant the table between the two sides shattered completely with the traced dagger, forcing Saber to grab her Master and drag him back a small distance before pushing him behind her. No one missed the oppressive feeling the woman was giving off, nor that the mansion itself responding to her ire.

No, not the Mansion. There was something in the building reacting to her. Something tremendous and unnatural…

… And unnervingly familiar to the King of Knights.

"Shirou…" Saber warned as she donned her armor and materialized her invisible sword.

"I know." The master grunted. He still was not in a good position to fight. He could stall for time against Luvia, but inside Caster's Workshop the odds were against them regardless. Things would have been better if he had more Prana, but that was not the case. "She's completely entitled to be angry with me, even kill me if she wants."

"One chance Emiya." Luvia stepped forward and placed a hand on her Servant, as if the action was the only thing stopping the Princess from unleashing whatever she had set up in the building. The dead calm expression was not missed by everyone. "I have known you long enough to know that you would never consider doing something like this without a suitable reason. Tell me one reason why I shouldn't kill you and warn everyone about the grail right now. Tell me why I shouldn't murder you for slighting the Edelfelt name and potentially killing off our legacy."

Shirou remained quiet as he weighed his options. Telling her about Gilgamesh would without a doubt catch her attention, but it did not explain at all of his need for Rule Breaker. Likewise telling her about Sakura's situation would be pointless as Luvia, as a magus would simply take the practical route and just kill the girl and be done with it. Even if Rule Breaker was a remarkably useful Noble Phantasm to have, Luvia would not justify that to be enough to have been manipulated for.

"I guess this is what I get for trying to plan out something like the war in the long term." He sighed and shook his head before walking forward past his surprised Servant. "Everything falls apart before I can get something significant done. No wonder dad never bothered with long elaborate schemes before this."

"Before this?" Luvia blinked. "Your father knew that this war would happen? But that would mean…"

"I said I knew this was coming for years didn't I?" Shirou frowned. "And don't think that you were some pawn in everything. Dad put me on the path to save Illya but I swore to myself that I would save everyone regardless of what his intentions were."

"Save her?" Luvia snorted. "From what? She has Heracles as a Servant! She's an Einzbern and probably has a better life style than any of us! She's…"

"The grail." Shirou interrupted, surprising Luvia and Caster with his outbreak.

"Make sense boy." The Princess growled. "The homunculus is a Master of the War. Why on earth would she be-"

"A living sacrifice, just like her mother who had served the exact same role in the fourth war." Shirou once again spoke up in a dead even tone that would yield for no one. It was the same one he used when playing his role as the Magus Killer, killing undead and Apostles alike without restriction. "And believe it or not she's not the only one in this farce of a war. Which is why I needed Rule Breaker, in case their conditions got out of hand before I could address them in the preferred way. So if you don't mind, can we please calm down and let me talk before someone does something foolish. I have a great deal to get done to ensure that the world does not end, or at least that Counter Guardians are not summoned and wipe Fuyuki off of the face of the planet."

"You seem to know much about the mechanics of the grail and these threats boy." Caster's prana had calmed down somewhat, her curiosity about what the boy knew tempering her anger slightly. However her dead cold expression still told everyone that she would like nothing more than to kill him now. "Even if you could not stop this war, why did you not inform the moderator of this to manipulate things to your benefit?"

Shirou's eyes narrowed dangerously. "Kotomine is one of the threats I mean to address by the end of the events here. At the least, he is nothing short of a catalyst for every possible calamity that can happen in this war, manipulating events to ensure that others suffer at their most for his pointless reasons. At the worst, he can easily cause things to spin out of control and pit us against one another. The man thrives on the misery of others regardless of what form it takes, while excelling at keeping his hands clean in the process. He was also responsible for the fourth war becoming so unstable during its second half. Unfortunately killing him now would cause far more problems than it would solve."

"And why is that?" Luvia asked skeptically. As far as she knew, Shirou never expressed a desire to kill humans. As such his loathing for the priest was a bit surprising… however his reluctance to act on the impulse caught her attention even more.

The Magus Killer laughed bitterly and shook his head. "Well first off, he's the only one that's holding back the ninth servant in this war from going nuts on everyone in this war prematurely."

"Ninth Servant?" Luvia and Caster echoed in confusion. The more the boy spoke, the more they realized that he might have not been stretching the truth and there were indeed several unknown parties at work.

"Technically he's the ninth Servant." Shirou admitted. "In reality he just never left after accidentally being reincarnated at the end of the previous war. The Servant Killer that wields all the treasures in the world and a genuine Anti-World Noble Phantasm. Gilgamesh."

The room was as quiet as a grave.

"Keep talking Emiya. You are only just starting to sound convincing. Anymore and I might debate on not to kill you later."

The Magus Killer snorted. "Hold your decisions till after I tell you how the game you're playing in is currently set up."

o. o. o.

Emiya Residence:

Rin sat quietly and drank some tea, peacefully ignoring the world around her…

… Which included her sister and the servant that were across the table.

"Leave it to Shirou to stock the stuff he knows other people likes." The Tohsaka sighed as she put down the cup in front of her.

"I'm pretty fond of that brand myself, although it's not my favorite." The underclassman admitted with a faint smile. "It's a good thing there was still some left over."

"Mmm." Rin nodded before leaning back a bit. "Gotta admit, I'm kinda surprised that this is where you're staying Sakura. I totally thought you were Shirou when I felt a Master opening the door."

"Likewise." Sakura shuffled uncomfortably. "I can't thank him enough for opening his home for me after mine burned down."

"Who was it that did it anyways?" The elder probed almost bored. "I was on the other side of town when I noticed the fires, but I got held up on getting back."

Obviously it was another Servant that did it. "Fishing for information on the war already?"

"Hey it's not about you. I don't see what the big deal is." The brunette yawned, clearly not denying the accusation.

"Then do tell me about the Servant that held you up sister." Sakura smiled innocently. "After all, as far as I know, none of the Servants have been killed yet, so whatever heroic spirit you came across must be something to not die against your amazing Servant. I would obviously want to be prepared against such an opponent after all."

Rider wisely remained quiet as she observed the two siblings smile innocently at one another. Mentally, she debated whether or not to just kill the intruder now, daylight truce or not, but deliberately held off. She could smell the similarity between the two of them. Not only that, but she could tell that there was much regret and grief held by the two siblings. Something that the original Gorgon knew all too well. There are some things that should never be trampled upon lightly, this is one of them.

"Fine then." The elder shrugged as if was not an issue. "I fought against Lancer, or Cu Chulainn. The Hound of Ireland. A tall lanky man with blue hair, red eyes, and blue armor." She paused before snorting. "Actually his armor looked like a giant spandex suit. Didn't leave much room for imagination if you ask me."

"The wielder of Gae Bolg…" Sakura muttered as she reviewed what she knew about the legend. "Did he use it? What were its abilities?"

"No, and my guess is that it probably has something to do with a spear thrust." Rin waved her hand lazily. "You know, the thousand barbs piercing the target from the inside out thing. Really it was his absurd speed that was the most dangerous thing about him."

"And his Master?" Sakura pressed.

"A Magus from the Association." Rin's answer was slightly more ambiguous, but there was no hesitation in it. "She was very strong too. She's definitely an Enforcer or at the very least a Magus with a combat and application focus. She used mostly runes and enchanted her clothes to fight up close."

"I see. It certainly does not sound like someone most magi could take on without preparation." Sakura nodded in understanding. "I guess the best way to fight her is when she doesn't have any clothes on, but that would just be silly."

"Strike when she's in the shower like in that old corny American horror film." Rin laughed at the idea of trying to do that. She also held back a wince at the follow up image of Bazett beating the living tar out of her while wrapped in a towel because she was dumb enough to try and get in close again. "So? Who burned your home down?"

Sakura sighed before drinking some of her tea. "The Edelfelts did with their Casters. They somehow managed to split their spirit into two variants, one for each of them."

"Two Casters?" Rin blinked curiously, as if this was new to her. "Hold on, I think I remember hearing about them doing something like that in the third war, but they did it with Saber then."

"Mmm." Sakura confirmed. "They were both Medea of Colchis but their powers and Noble Phantasms were completely different. One focused on her magic while the other utilized summoning as her main form of combat, bringing out a heard of fire breathing oxen. It made them extremely versatile and difficult to deal with alone, even if individually they are weaker than the standard Servant."

Rin knew very well not to underestimate seemingly weaker Servants after dealing with Assassin, however this bit of information was still a bit interesting. From what Sakura had just said, both Casters had a solid combo going for themselves. If that was the case, why risk splitting up just so one can reside at the temple with Assassin and the other acts by itself? Neither one is strong enough to pose a threat to the other Servants by themselves, so the situation itself poses a giant threat to the Caster that isn't at the Temple.

Perhaps she should give Luvia a little house visit as soon as Archer recovers…

"You're scheming something again." Sakura pegged the nature of Rin's thought process without hesitation.

"We've known each other for how long?" Rin asked skeptically.

"Shirou would at least appreciate it if you didn't do that in his home while he wasn't here. It makes him uncomfortable enough when you do that when he is around."

"Hey I supplied his holy land as a gift so I'm allowed some leg room in when and where I produce my dastardly plans." Rin crossed her arms in mock authority while looking smugly in the direction of the kitchen... right before a pained expression crossed her face for a moment.

Sakura sighed tiredly. "Can you just hold on doing that this time? I've had a tiring morning."

"Hm? What happened? Did Shirou get too touchy or something?" Rin's sarcastic comment was not out of the ordinary. She occasionally made snipes at the boy's lack of a sex drive and assertiveness.

Sakura couldn't argue against them. Most of the time she had to deliberately set the mood whenever they did have sex.

Once he finally got going, though, was another story all together. She could say for certain that the Emiya's fingers definitely knew how to tweak and play whatever they landed on. She had a new respect for mechanics, that much was for sure.

Unfortunately what was bugging her was of a more serious topic.

"I went out shopping earlier, and this strange man warned me that I was being watched from the roofs." She told her story. "I only saw a flicker, but R-my Servant told me that it was definitely a Servant up there. I think it was Assassin since he disappeared almost instantly…"

Rin schooled her features, however on the inside she was panicking. This was not good news. The war was fought during the night for a reason. The fighting was mystery based, and no one wanted to expose it. To fight it during the day was to expose the war and thaumaturgy… under normal circumstances.

Assassin, on the other hand, used modern weaponry. Guns. Bombs. Things that would not draw any abnormal attention. He was in reality the ONLY Servant that could operate in public during the day and not raise suspicions outside of the idea that some homicidal nut is going around killing people.

If Assassin was working during the day the number of safe activities any Master could do just got drastically reduced.

In fact, her decision to visit Shirou's place during the day without Archer now seemed quite suicidal in hindsight.

Of course, Rin was certain that Sakura didn't know that she knew what Assassin could do, so she had to play it dumb. "Seriously? What the hell is Assassin's Master thinking? Are they trying to expose the war to everyone in the city?"

"I think he was out spying on everyone." The younger sister admitted. "I'm more scared of the guy that warned me. He wasn't a Servant or a Master, and something about him just felt wrong to me. My Servant didn't like him either." She repressed a shiver at the memory of that man. Something was wrong with him, unnaturally wrong.

Rin rose an eyebrow. "Not a Master or a Servant, but he still detected Assassin while he was hiding?" Her sister nodded. "… Well that can't be good."

Not good was putting it lightly. The War itself was not an unknown thing in the Magus community. It was widely acknowledged that unless you were part of the overseeing group or one of the participants, it would be akin to suicidal to be in Fuyuki if you were magically capable since you'd be seen as a potential enemy or a loose end by the participants.

"He just disappeared after warning me so I didn't even get a good look at him too." Sakura fidgeted. "He was very good looking though with blond hair and red eyes."

"Red eyes? You think he might be one of the cross breeds here?" Rin blinked in confusion. Japan did have a notoriously large number of human demon hybrids. "Then again red hair is more common for them… actually I don't think I've ever heard of a blond hybrid before."

"He might be an American hybrid." Sakura offered. "I've heard that they are more tolerant of geniality there."

"Haven't heard of one that can speak decent Japanese though." There was a joke when it came to languages and Americans. If you know two or three languages, you're normal. If you know four or more, you're special. One? You're American. "Do you seriously think this guy is a threat?"

"I don't know." Sakura was conflicted. "He definitely gave me a bad vibe and my Servant didn't like him, but he didn't do anything either save for pointing out Assassin to me."

"The fact that he's here and not a part of the war is enough to make him suspicious." The elder frowned, realizing that for the moment there was little point in worrying about the mystery man. "Unfortunately since we don't have much else to go by, there's nothing we can do about it. The best we can do is just keep an eye out for him and make sure he doesn't mess with the war."

"That's what I was afraid of." Sakura relented.

"Best to focus on the war at hand." Rin shrugged as she drank some more tea. "Still, I'm a bit jealous that you already teamed up with Shirou. It would be really hard to beat you two up front and come out unscathed regardless of what Servant he summons." She paused. "Unless he summoned Berserker, but I don't think he was unlucky enough for that to happen."

"He summoned Saber." It was pointless to hide the fact now. Rin probably wasn't going to go back home until she had Shirou escort her back, and by then Saber's existence would be well known since she couldn't go into spiritual form.

Rin's eyebrow twitched. "I shouldn't be surprised. He probably was his own damn catalyst given his condition." Actually, if she didn't summon Archer first, she wondered if Shirou would have ended up summoning himself by accident. "Wait, didn't you mention earlier that Saber was a girl?"

Sakura nodded. "You'll probably see her when Shirou comes back. She's surprisingly young looking but carries herself with lots of authority and talks as if she's older than she is. I don't know who she was in life though."

"And her sword?" The Tohsaka asked curiously. "I have to be wary of Shirou's latest addition to his stock after all."

"I don't know." The girl answered honestly, not at all being pressed for information about Shirou's Servant. "She has a Noble Phantasm that makes it invisible, so I can't tell you what it looks like in the slightest."

A groan escaped from the elder's mouth. "Seriously? A Noble Phantasm to hide her Noble Phantasm? That's so convoluted it's no wonder Shirou summoned her."

Sakura laughed lightly. "Well there must have been a reason why he caught our attention in the first place after all. It wouldn't do for him to be boring."

Rin momentarily stiffened as she remembered all the "interesting" things she knew about her crush. It was not missed by the other two people in the room.

"Is something wrong?" The youngest one there blinked in confusion.

There was a slight hesitation. "Sakura… remember what the requirements were for having a Reality Marble were? That you had to have a strong alternate view of the world that went against Gaia's standards?"

"Yes? I thought that we came to terms with that after the Louvre incident years ago."

Rin licked her lips hesitantly. "I think… I think we might have underestimated what exactly that means for Shirou."

The temperature in the room dropped. "What exactly do you mean by that sister?"

"I don't know." Rin answered honestly as she tried to gather her thoughts and figure out a way to explain this without exposing too much. "My Servant… he knows more about Reality Marbles than most do, than most would ever know. What I saw, what I FELT, it made me realize that there's more to Shirou's condition than we thought, and it scares me."

"Are you saying that Shirou is dangerous? That we should keep our distance from him?" There was a distinct edge to Sakura's voice now.

Rin laughed bitterly. "Dangerous? Of course he is. He's the Magus Killer. He has a Reality Marble that makes any sword he wants after all… but… you know as well as I do that the most dangerous one he is to is himself."

It took a few seconds for Sakura to understand what her sibling was saying. "You think he's going to end up killing himself to help people."

"Alone, possibly framed for something he didn't do by someone he helped, with a bloody satisfied smile on his face." Bile threatened to go up the Tohsaka's throat as she recalled the image from last night.

"We won't let that happen. We swore that we wouldn't when we learned about what he was." The Matou argued, but was a bit more gentle this time. Whatever Rin had seen had without a doubt gotten to her.

"But what did we actually know Sakura? We knew how he thought yes, but we just assumed that if we stuck by him he'd either get better or be convinced to follow our advice." Rin grunted. "Tell me honestly, if Shirou got an idea in his head, no matter how stupid or suicidal we thought it was, do you think that we would be able to stop him if he was dead set on it? No, do you think he would even tell us about it if he thought that it didn't concern us?"

It only took a few seconds for Sakura to realize that she couldn't answer that question in good conscience. How could she? Entering the war for her. Becoming Rider's Master on top of being Saber's Master. Making a deal with Zouken. All while being an unstable Apostle at that…

And she had not once argued against his decisions, because he had done virtually all of it for her.

Rin misinterpreted Sakura slowly crossing her arms and pinching one of them to be her way of reluctantly realizing her point. "Looks like you're getting the same conclusion I got." She shook her head as if hearing a bad joke. "Honestly, here we are worried about him when we were supposed to have resolved ourselves to the fact that we're fighting to the death…"

"Shirou wouldn't kill us." Sakura mumbled, more to herself than to her sister. "He'd do anything to make sure we didn't die…"

"Unfortunately his definition of "anything" encompasses more reckless actions than ours does." She let out a sigh. "Not that I'm ungrateful for it mind you, but doing it wouldn't even qualify as a decision for him. It would be the default setting. At least for us." She made a wry grin. "Somehow we've become a part of the system that is Shirou Emiya. Remember?"

Sakura laughed nervously. "The sheaths for the sword. Yeah. But still how do we –"

Before the conversation could continue however, the front door opened and a pair of loud and fast footsteps were heard. Moments later Saber and Shirou had appeared, both geared for battle. Obviously Shirou had felt Rin's presence and assumed the worst.

"You were right." The Tohsaka mused as she inspected the still battle ready Servant. "She does look young…" She paused for a moment as she saw Saber's profile. "But with those stats she could look like anything for all I care. How the hell did you manage to get a Servant this strong Shirou?"

"Mostly luck." The Emiya sighed as he relaxed slightly. "Why are you here and without your Servant Rin? Don't tell me it got killed off already."

The brunette snorted and lifted up her hand to reveal the command seals on it. "I'll be damned before I become the first casualty in the war Shirou. My partner's just guarding home while I visit since I can only tolerate so much of his sarcasm. I had _thought _that it would be fine since it was still daytime but…"

"I saw Assassin briefly while walking in town." Sakura finished.

"What?" Saber frowned. "But if he did anything it would expose the war!"

"Not with his Noble Phantasm. He could act in plain sight if he wanted and merely attract an arrest warrant." Shirou clicked his teeth, realizing his distinct disadvantage before looking at Rin. "I'll have Saber escort you back home before night comes so there aren't any problems."

"Shirou!" The blonde blinked in surprise.

"Oh darn, and I had the whole request and list of reasons why you should have done that planned out too." The Tohsaka mock pouted.

"Rin won't try anything on you for this since we're doing her a favor." Shirou calmly defended his decision to Saber before sitting down at the table. "Sakura's Servant is here to protect us in case anything happens while you're gone, and even then it should still be day by the time you get back."

Saber remained quiet for a few seconds before relenting to her Master's decision and dispelled her armor, once again dressed in a white button up and blue jeans.

"Not that the look isn't bad on you, but why don't you just go into… oh right, he said before that you can't." Rin caught her mistake before inspecting the young woman. She was very beautiful looking for her age and clearly a foreigner, but the Tohsaka didn't believe that she was a "threat" as a woman.

"They were going to find out sooner or later." Shirou laughed nervously as his Servant glared at him.

It was then that both human girls noticed the Emiya's condition, including bags under his eyes and being dressed in his work clothes. "Are you ok?" Sakura asked first. "You don't look so good. Where did you go anyways?"

"Oh here and there. I wanted to give Saber a brief tour of the area just in case. Good places to fight and choke points and the like." The owner of the house's explanation obviously wasn't everything, but he didn't seem to be lying either. "Do I really look that bad?"

"You do appear to be rather haggard Shirou. While our activities today were not all that eventful, they have seemed to have impaired your condition than aided it." Saber noted. "Perhaps it would do for you to rest more. It would do no one a favor if my Master was in such a feeble condition should the fighting continue again."

Shirou looked like he wanted to argue, but one look from the King of Knights was all it took to get the message across. The message being: "go to bed yourself or I will make you go to bed". "Fine. Fine. You win. I'll take a nap when Rin goes home. I might be tired, but I won't ignore a guest… even if she was uninvited."

"You make it sound like this is the first time this has happened." The accused smiled innocently.

"And bad things have frequently happened whenever you have." The male countered just as easily with little humor in his voice.

"I accidentally change your skin color one time and you just won't let it go will you?"

"It wouldn't have been so bad if Fuji-nee accidentally saw me and accidentally tripped over some equipment we stupidly left outside and getting hurt. We ended up "kidnapping" her for a week. Remember?" The Emiya deadpanned. "Old Man Fujimura nearly tore apart the city looking for her before we snuck her into her room."

"Wait that was because of you two?" Sakura blinked in confusion as she remembered a period of time several years ago when the Fujimura Yakuza group was notably more active in the city.

"That woman seems to get into a lot of trouble doesn't she?" Saber mused curiously.

"Why can't you believe I just came over to say hi?" Rin grumbled irritably.

"Because we're technically at war and you tend to always have alternative motives?" Shirou asked as if it was the most obvious thing.

"Aside from the obvious?" The Tohsaka brushed away his reasoning as if it didn't count. "Honestly if I were taking the war seriously do you think I'd come here running on that basic path of logic? Without my Servant no less?"

"If you were trying to let our guard down you would." Sakura pointed out.

"No, it would be a dumb thing to do that without a Servant as insurance, even if Rin was on an off day." Shirou countered.

"What are these off days of which you speak of?" The Tohsaka asked politely, not fooling anyone. Unless she was pressed into a corner she would never admit to making mistakes, a fact that was well known by the rest of the age group.

"The ones where you accidentally change people's skin colors and are forced to kidnap injured people."

"Don't worry. We'll completely brush away the fact that you could have been picked off by Assassin on the way here and needs help to get back home safely." Sakura smiled in a very similar manner.

Realizing that the situation wasn't going to escalate further than what it normally did in his home, Shirou sat down at the table with a heavy sigh and relaxed. "Saber, nothing's going to happen here. You can do what you want for the time being. You can brush up on the area, look at my plans in the workshop, or take the bike out for another ride."

Rider took the opportunity to move a bit to the exit of the room, all but telling Saber that she had something on her mind. "Then by your leave I'll be outside for a bit. I will however still be on the premises should you need my aid."

"She's an obedient one isn't she?" Rin chuckled as the blonde walked to the back yard. "I didn't know you were into that sort of…"

"There is something that is bothering you." Saber stated as she closed the door behind her and walked into the yard.

"You were the best I could think of to speak to about this." Rider admitted as she materialized a few feet away. "Given the nature of the subject, I was not sure how Master or Sakura would react."

The King of Knights frowned, not liking what her comrade was hinting at. "Something that our Masters would not take well? So much so that you would speak to me about it instead?"

Rider nodded shallowly. "I have reason to believe that Archer from last night is a future form of our Master."

"… You were right to come to me about this first."

o. o. o.

A/N:

Thanks again Maxi for betaing and for supplying one of the dream scenes.

An ok chapter. Nothing much happening. Sorry for the wait, but I'm studying for finals and stuff.

Yes. Assassin is Kiritsugu. The reason why it seemed kinda obvious in the last chapter was because I MEANT it to be like that. The Only reason why I didn't flat out say it in the story before was because I thought everyone would get it and because I wanted the characters to not know it yet. As for people complaining that he's too OP, too bad. His strength comes from his pregame and ability to plan. He has far less direct combat experience than virtually every other Servant in the war and he can only fight head on for a certain amount of time before he runs out of everything. If virtually any of the other servants bothered to use their NP right off the bat, he'd be wrecked. End story.

So as it stands, Luvia, Rin and Sakura each know something secret about Shirou that the others don't. Luvia now knows about Shirou's overall preparation for the war, but not all of it. Sakura knows about Shirou's apostle heritage, and Rin knows just how fucked up in the head Shirou is and what his future could be left unchecked.

Not only that, but Gil knows that Kiritsugu is Assassin (and trolled him), Bazett is still out of it, and Illya now has an interest in Taiga.

… I'm rather happy about the last one. Honestly, with all the taiga dojos and everything, why hasn't anyone made a fic where Illya hangs out with Taiga during the war on the side before she teams up with anyone or settles her issues with Shirou? It's like a fic in itself!

Anyways. Chapter's done. I'm tired. More stuff on the way.

Review! Worship the Log! Gilgamesh has inherited the trolling gene from Kotomine! AND REVIEW AGAIN!


	30. Chapter 30

Chapter 30: The best laid plans.

I do not own Fate/Stay Night and stuffs:

o. o. o.

"Mmm." Rin let out an amused sound as she walked down the road alongside Saber in the late afternoon. It wasn't dark yet, but that would soon be corrected within the hour, so for the moment the two were still enjoying their mutually agreed cease fire status. "Honestly I wonder if this has ever been done before, a Master being escorted by another's Servant?"

"I have heard of stranger events occurring in the previous wars." Saber calmly admitted, her night out drinking with Rider and Archer primarily came to mind. "Regardless, I have sworn to escort you back to your home, and as a knight I will see that through. So long as you do not betray that trust of course."

"I am honored for having such a veteran as a guard then. Don't worry, considering the fact that you can kill me faster than I can use my command seals, I doubt you have anything to worry about." The Tohsaka smiled pleasantly. "Besides, I'd rather deal with you later in the war, after the more uncertain parties are dealt with."

"Better the enemies you know." Saber agreed, not at all disturbed by the topic of conversation. She had had many of the like during her time as King. "You are surprisingly accepting of the current situation."

"I would be dead if I wasn't." Rin brushed her hair to the side casually. "I'm already involved in a secret magical war for the Holy Grail involving legends of old. Most humans today would think that alone as bizarre enough. That I now know more about my enemies merely dictates how I should try to progress in order to ensure my survival, if not victory. It is quite frustrating, obviously, but letting it get the better of me would be counterproductive, wouldn't it?"

"Adaptability is one of the key essentials for victory in war." Saber nodded sagely. She didn't miss that the girl said that she was planning to deal with _her_ in particular, meaning that she did not consider killing her Master as part of her plan. It made her slightly relieved that Shirou would have additional reliable comrades should she fail in her task.

"It's also essential whenever you work with Shirou." Rin added with bitter amusement. Ever since the Louvre incident, he hadn't the time for a vacation. Instead, he was often away hunting Dead Apostles for Barthomelloi. The stories he'd come back with… well, they weren't comforting. "Whenever he gets involved with anything big, you can kiss subtlety and well laid plans goodbye."

Saber didn't reply to the comment. She couldn't in good conscience argue against it considering the fact that Shirou was most likely the most active Master in the war so far. Nor, the fact that her own plans for the Grail had subtly been shattered by both Shirou and his father in mere minutes after her summoning.

"Wow. You've been summoned for less than a week and you already agree with me on that." The Master of Archer grimaced, correctly guessing part of the reasons why the Servant was silent. "Do I even want to know what he's gotten himself into this time?"

"… I will not divulge the activities of my Master to an enemy Master." Arturia evenly stated to the human, however her impassive expression did not do anything to hide slightly frustrated aura around her.

"I figured as much." Rin's exasperation revealed itself momentarily. "Well, at the very least he has you and Sakura around to keep him from getting in over his head. After all you're probably the strongest Servant in this war. It's almost unfair to pair you up with Shirou of all people."

"You sound as if the war is already decided." Saber knew that it would be best if the war was not decided at all, however that did not mean in the slightest that there would be no fighting to reach that endpoint. Quite the opposite really. Still she had to put up the guise that she was still a willing participant in this farce.

"It's kind of hard not to see how badly the odds are stacked against everyone when the Magus Killer himself has such a strong card to play." Rin rolled her eyes sarcastically at Shirou's nickname, completely unaware of how ironic her statement was given what happened the previous war.

"Shirou may be humble to a horrific fault when it comes to his abilities, but practically everyone in the magic community these days is wary of him to some degree. Sure, his thaumaturgy is overspecialized to the point that I doubt that he'd be able to do even a quarter of the basic things most normal magi are able to do, but in terms of combat he's one of the best."

"Is that so?" The Servant arced an eyebrow. "He has asked me to spar with him on occasion and while he shows some promise I did not see anything particularly outstanding save for his somewhat impressive reaction time."

Rin shook her head. "I mean in a fight of mysteries. He's far from the most powerful out there, but… well, you should know what he can do with his swords by now. Some of the ones he has in stock and what they can do…" She shivered. Even if she knew Shirou would never use it against her, the mere thought of seeing Kiritsugu in action and knowing what it did terrified her.

She still considered Bazett stronger than Shirou by a healthy margin, but the male was still the one to be most wary of. "It's just unfair. The strongest Servant paired with the most dangerous Magus."

"I'll take your word for it." Saber nodded, quietly feeling slightly better that her Master's abilities were recognized to the point that he was respected. She had seen some of his mysteries already, but so far none of them were particularly outstanding as far as she was concerned. "I take it this means that he is well respected in the magical community."

Rin's reaction however proved the contrary. "Not really. He's more feared and avoided than anything."

"Odd. I thought you stated that he was recognized for his combat prowess."

"I did, however… how do I put this?" The Tohsaka crossed her arms in thought. "You said you're a knight. You're familiar with politics? To make it to the Throne of Heroes you must have been exposed to it at least a bit. I don't think I've ever heard of a legendary knight that's never dabbled in the work of nobles before."

Saber's training in self control enabled her to hold back the small twitch of the lips that threatened to reveal her amusement. "I've been exposed to the court of nobility on occasion and the world they live in. Yes."

The human continued. "Well, you know how on occasion sometimes someone gets elevated to lordship or a high social status, and the ones that already have that status don't tend to take it too well?"

"Ah. I see." The Servant held back a grimace. She was more than familiar with the phenomena as well as the events that resulted from them. She had lost a good two to three dozen worthy knights, all of whom had earned their titles in battle, to plots of jealous lords and politics during her long reign.

Try as she could to curb this cancer in her land, she found it difficult to find balance between protecting her loyal knights and maintaining the ill deserved trust of the lords and ladies that managed and maintained her land outside of war and battle. "Then it seems as if my Master's battles will not end simply with this war…"

"Maybe." Rin admitted with some uncertainty. "To be honest though, other than from some whispers and gossiping, no one has bothered to make a move against him yet which is a bit odd in hindsight. After I learned that Shirou had been elevated to working just under the Queen of the Clocktower, I had prepared for the fallout here. People know that he lives in Fuyuki even if they don't know what he looks like. It wouldn't take a magus much to find him here if they really wanted to, but so far there's been nothing till now…"

Actually it was even easier to find Shirou than Rin had thought. All anyone had to do was look in the town directory for all the places under the name Emiya, which in itself was not a common name, and then visit them one by one till they found the place.

Of course most magi wouldn't allow them to use such a convenient resource such as public directories. Their usually enlarged prides wouldn't let them, let alone any piece of modern technology. Even Rin, who considered herself a moderate in the subject, preferred to write out all of her book reports and essays whenever she was given the chance.

Saber's eyes narrowed as she too agreed with the girl's suspicions. If the nobility of the magi in this era were anything like those in her time, then Shirou would have at least had a few events regarding dissatisfied individuals by now. "You make a fair point. However for better or for worse, now is not the time or the place to worry about such minor threats."

The human blinked before chuckling to herself ashamed. "Of course. You are right Saber. I should be more concerned with how to kill you, or more realistically not get killed by you."

"Do not sell your Servant short. Underestimating an ally is just as lethal to you as underestimating an opponent." Saber admonished in an almost light tone. "Each one summoned has still made it to the Throne of Heroes and is renowned for their abilities. I for one will not underestimate any opponent that comes my way. If you do not trust your partner, you have already lost the war."

"Easy for you to say." Rin grunted under her breath evasively, all but confirming her Servant's identity to Saber. "Have you ever been teamed up with someone who claimed who they said they were, but you felt as if they were different in some important way and they wouldn't tell you?"

"A few." Lancelot, Guinevere, and Mordred were the three names that instantly popped up in Arturia's mind, however in hind sight the King knew that it was more a result of her lack of actually knowing the ones closest to her. However they at the moment were not the topics of conversation. "Is your Servant loyal to you?"

"Of course he is." She spoke instantly. It was not a reflex. Even if Servants were supposed to be loyal to their Masters, her Servant was someone that knew and cared for her in life and they both acknowledged it. Their relationship went far beyond that of simple Master and Servant.

He was a bit of an asshole at times, but that was beside the point.

The elder woman nodded, seeing the conviction in the girl's eyes. "I see, then would that not be enough for now? So long as you do not betray his trust, there should be no reason for him to betray you… that is unless you believe otherwise."

"He won't hurt me." Rin had trouble at even comprehending such a thought. Shirou had said it himself that she was one of the few people he could entrust himself to. It was impossible for him to agree to any plan that could possibly lead to her harm. "I thought better of you Saber, however it seems I was mistaken. Trying to put doubts of him into my mind." She snorted. "Well, at least someone has to do it. I doubt that Shirou would ever rely on such dirty tactics."

It was Saber's turn to frown. "I was merely bringing up a possibility from what little I know Rin. Please do not question my honor. I have relied on many unsavory tactics before and have worked with those who have used the most underhanded tricks ever conceived in order to kill their targets, however such low and petty approaches that you are accusing me of are beneath one of my status."

Memories of her time as a squire fighting to survive, using her dagger of invisibility to assassinate corrupt lords, and using her political savvy to destroy opponents came to mind initially. However, they were all soon overwhelmed by the cruel and heartless methods that her previous Master used to employ.

Saber must have been slightly more offended by the girl's comment than she had thought as the human stumbled momentarily in surprise and being exposed to the King's ire. She had quickly recovered though, crossing her arms and looking away in the process. "What do you expect me to think? You're the one that's questioning my relationship with him."

"And you are the one that brought his eccentricities to light and question." Saber corrected without missing a beat. "You would not have been the first Master that would have had trouble with their Servant."

"Well thanks for the head's up." Rin's sarcasm was not missed. "I'll be sure to remind him of that, though I doubt anything short of a command seal would get him to behave."

"I see." Saber mused. "So you summoned Archer then."

"Wh-what?!" The Tohsaka stammered. "How the hell did you get to that conclusion?!"

"You stated that your Servant was difficult to control, so either he possessed some sort of skill that interfered with his mental state, or he has a high level of Independent Action." The King casually deduced. "Since I am already aware of Berserker and his master, and you clearly are not Assassin's Master, Archer was the next logical choice."

Rin's groan was all Saber needed to confirm that what Kiritsugu had seen come to pass when combined with what she had learned from Shirou and Rider. "Really? It was that easy?"

Saber shrugged nonchalantly. "Well there was that and Shirou has already encountered most of the Servants. There were only a couple of Servants you could have summoned that we had no information on."

"And to think I complain about him not being proactive when we're studying." The magus clenched her fists in frustration, knowing full well that Shirou was pretty much in her ideal position at the moment. He has Saber. He's in a solid alliance. He has information on pretty much everyone. Good god why the hell hasn't he managed to take out anyone yet? It was almost like he was deliberately holding back or something.

…If he's holding back on her, he'll just have to die...or at least suffer for this later. "Let's… let's just get back home now."

"Indeed. It is getting dark soon. It would not end well if we arrived late." Saber pretended not to notice the girl's very amusing frustration.

Actually Rin wanted to get back home quickly so she wouldn't be tempted to have Archer shoot the blonde Servant down while she was walking back home. "Of course. We don't want to give people the wrong impression…"

o. o. o.

Emiya Residence:

The desire to just crawl up into a ball and go back to sleep had been coming more frequently to Shirou's mind in the past few weeks every time he woke up. This time was no exception. It just went to say how tired he was given the fact that he had always thought a person should at least try to be productive once they stop sleeping. So long as they weren't sick or woke at some ungodly time of course.

Waking up from his forced nap yielded no different results as the prematurely graying teen sluggishly pushed himself into the upright position and glanced at the electronic clock next to his futon.

"Four hours huh?"

He had dreamed of what he could only guess was Rider's past during his nap seeing that it had been swamped with more Greek names, history, details, and Mythology than he could ever imagine without aid.

All in all… the Gods he saw met up to what magi summed them up to be: overpowered, underwhelming, and completely heartless. All of it supported the current general agreement that the planet was better off without them.

Rider's sisters were not ideal siblings as far as he was concerned, but he could tell that she loved them dearly and they did her. The way they interacted reminded him of how he and Taiga talked to one another, only there was something more to it. He wondered if that was what growing up with a genuine brother or sister was like… what growing up with Illya would have been like. Not perfect, but still contributing to the experience known as living. It was… nice. Perhaps he should ask Rider about it the next time he was alone with her.

On a side note though, he had to admit… Rider looked pretty good when she smiled and was happy…

He shook his foggy head and ran a hand through his hair. Now was not the time to think about pointless things like that. There was a war to focus on.

Briefly reaching out with his senses, he felt that Saber was a good distance away while Rider was still inside his home. The difference between their ranges to him might have been the reason why he dreamed of Rider's past instead of Saber's. Tapping into one of the bounded fields around the house, he felt that only Sakura and Rider were within its boundaries, so using logic he deduced that Saber was escorting Rin back home. It was nothing that he didn't expect already.

A knocking at the door snapped him out of his thoughts. "Shirou? Are you up? Rider felt that you might be."

Sakura's voice pulled his mind further towards the land of the conscious. "Yeah. I'm fine. Just waking actually. Did anything happen while I was sleeping?"

The door opened revealing his underclassman. "No. Rin stayed for a bit and we talked before leaving with Saber for home. Saber should be back soon." She walked inside the room. "Are you feeling better?"

"A bit." Shirou slowly stood up. "You know how much naps mess with my sleeping patterns. They didn't help much on my Apostle hunts either."

He paused as his words reached his ears and he remembered that Sakura was now aware of his peculiar condition.

"I take it you being more of a night person is due to your change?" She asked as casually as she could.

"Yeah." He relented, knowing that hiding it was pointless. "It's manageable to adjust my sleeping habits at home, but when I have to change time zones for my hunts it nearly destroys my sense of time. From being nocturnal but being active for the day to shifting over eleven hours and living a straight up night life for a week, then going back to the former. It's not a pleasant thing to experience."

That was a bit of an understatement. More than half the time he came back from the hunts, the overwhelming exhaustion that everyone at home saw was not a result of fighting with his life on the line for days on end, but from the constant shifting of his sleep cycles. It took him nearly a month to get used to his daily life again after spending a week or two sleeping in a, while hectic, more comfortable sleeping pattern.

Sakura mock pouted and put her hands on her hips. "Honestly. If you knew your body was behaving like this, the least you could have done was tell Rin and I that you were more of a night person. It took us forever to figure it out and adjust our schedules so that we could be with you when you were awake. Don't think we didn't notice you nodding off whenever we went home with you right after school. You should have seen how frustrated Rin was changing her plans around so that you wouldn't be asleep when she was around."

Shirou flinched at Sakura's revelation and made a mental note to find some way to apologize to his very close friend…

… Right after he figured out a way to break it to her that he's been a "Living Apostle" for several years, and live to tell the tale. No doubt the latter task would be the more dire and dangerous to undertake, especially since Rin would more than likely experiment on him in some way or another just like when he told her about his Reality Marble. He had no doubt that she only wanted to help him out and would use the results to do so, but her experiments themselves tended to… okay, they hurt like hell.

"I'll keep that in mind the next time my body is warped in some way." He reluctantly grumbled to the side, avoiding eye contact with the girl.

"Oh don't worry. I'm sure that you'll realize when you finally hit puberty." Sakura humored him with an innocent smile.

"O-oi!" Shirou blushed while chiding the underclassman. "That was uncalled for. I'm taller than most of the guys at school!"

Sakura's innocent demeanor didn't change as she walked up to him and poked him lightly on the chest. "Yeah, but sometimes everyone wonders if you even know what the difference is between guys and girls." She sighed pityingly. "I mean, you're surrounded by so many beautiful ladies and you act like you don't even notice what we are at times. There are rumors that you might be gay going around the student body. And combined with those rumors about Issei…"

"I'm not gay, and Issei's definitely not gay." Shirou instantly corrected the girl, knowing exactly what she was talking about. "Trust me. He's not. That was just a rumor spread around by some of Rin's admirers when they found out that he's absolutely not interested in her in the slightest and thought it was suspicious."

He didn't mention that Rin may or may not have offhandedly said a thing or two to spur on those rumors a bit just because she thought they were amusing, but she took care to ensure that they didn't go out of control. She enjoyed the monk in training's suffering to a degree, but she wasn't cruel to those that didn't deserve it.

...Most of the time at least.

He also didn't mention that Issei's taste in women was a bit… different than what most normal growing Japanese males preferred, which was why he didn't seem to show interest in any of the females at school. Shirou had sworn a man's oath to never divulge that info and it was going to stay unknown.

Sakura's grin grew a bit. "Well then it's a good thing I know better then, otherwise I'd be concerned that a few girls and I would have been terribly disappointed over time due to your seeming lack of interest."

Shirou grunted in frustration with a small blush on his face. "You know it's not like that Sakura. I've just been too busy with my work and my studies to be selfish like that…"

The Matou paused for a moment before backing up just a few steps. Had Shirou bothered to pay attention he would have noticed that her expression was a bit more forced than it had been. "Of course you have." She shook her head pityingly as if talking to herself more than him. Odds are that she would have been more distraught with what he said if she didn't know him better. Instead she was simply highly disappointed. "Do… are you hungry? You've been asleep for a while."

Shirou paid the change in conversation no mind. If Sakura didn't feel comfortable with the topic, then he would respect her wishes. With things as tense as they were, pushing a subject would only make things worse. Simple as that. "Mmm. I'm thirstier than anything, but I'm in no rush at the moment. I did eat before napping after all."

"I'll get something for you then." She turned to walk out the room. "By the way Shirou. Rider, Saber and I all agreed that you're not going outside tonight."

That caused a reaction out of the teen. "What? Why? The war-"

"Can wait. You've exhausted yourself repeatedly over the past few days and if you keep on doing so you'll lose by self destruction, or force yourself to have another episode with your Apostle blood." Sakura rounded upon her host with a gaze that would not take no for an answer. Her interruption was thought out, well founded, and expressed in a tone that left no arguments.

"I've been restoring Rider's prana supplies using some of the bounded fields I set up around town today. Like you, all she needs now is some time to recover before fighting again. Saber, on the other hand, could fight who knows how many major battles before the risk of running out of prana becomes valid. From what I can tell even I would have no problem taking you down in your current state, so please, do not make me test that out…"

Shirou shivered momentarily as he noted that the shadow underneath Sakura took on an unnaturally black hue. The girl wasn't kidding about making him rest if she was forced to. All things considered, he would prefer to avoid going against her brand of thaumaturgy given the chance, even if he was in perfect health. He knew what it was inside and out, but that didn't stop it from giving him bad vibes whenever it was used. Quite the opposite really.

Raising his hands up in the air, he smiled sheepishly admitting his defeat. "N-noted."

The air around the girl returned to normal as did her silhouette. "Good. Now then, I was thinking about something light and simple for tonight. Rice. Eggs. Steamed vegetables. Some fried pork…"

As the girl continued her loud musings, Rider silently listened into the conversation from the hallway. She had recovered enough power that she should be ready to fight at full power in the next day or so, and as such deemed she was fit enough to do as she pleased around the property. In this case, it was to eavesdrop on her two Masters.

She knew full well what the relationship between the two was. What Sakura's condition was and how Shirou was involved. Of how Sakura felt about Shirou and their seemingly lopsided closeness…

It only served to confuse her more however. Her current Master clearly cared about Sakura more than just as a friend, maybe even as a potential love, though Rider had no real experience on the subject to tell that much for certain. However, he did not seem to recognize Sakura's own rather obvious feelings for him… no, that wasn't entirely accurate. It would be more accurate to say that he seemed to try to overlook them on purpose.

It was almost cute if it weren't so frustrating to everyone, herself included.

The Servant shook her head. Both at the situation and at her pointless interest in it. So long as the awkward situation between her two Masters did not hinder their ability to win the grail, then it mattered little to her. All that mattered was winning the Grail and ensuring that Sakura would not become like her…

In the back of her mind however, Rider also hoped for Shirou's situation to be rectified by the end of the incident as well. It was the least she could do for what he was doing for them after all…

o. o. o.

"I find this hard to believe." Caster frowned at Assassin's report. "You actually believe that this golden haired man, who is not a Servant, is a credible threat?"

"I could not determine exactly from that encounter." Kiritsugu admitted honestly, using word play to allow half truths. "However he was skilled enough to detect me and point me out to Rider's Master."

"Who you did not kill." The Witch pointed out with more than a little irritation.

"The timing was not right. Another Master was in the area, and the man is an unknown but clearly unafraid to get involved in this war alone." Assassin elaborated evenly, though it would be hard to miss the fact that he was all but saying how incredibly stupid it would have been to act in that situation. Granted if he didn't care about the outcome of the war or know what was really going on, then he probably would have dropped the girl when he first saw her.

The clicking of his Master's teeth was all he needed to tell that he had made his point known. "And the other Master and Servant you mentioned?"

He didn't budge or hesitate. "A small girl with red eyes and white hair. Berserker's Master."

It took all of the woman's self control to not do anything to her Servant at that point. "And you did not kill her WHY?"

It was a credible question. After all, given how horrifically dangerous Berserker was, Caster would not have minded sacrificing Assassin if it meant getting rid of the world's most infamous demigod, although she would have preferred it if more of the Servants had been defeated by that point.

A brief glance of annoyance flickered on the man's face. "Berserker was right on top of her. Too small a chance of success."

Had it not been for the fact that Heracles really was just THAT horrifically dangerous and skilled, even when insane, and that Assassin had been right in judging the odds of success, she would have ended the killer right then and there on the belief that he was simply too scared to carry out the job.

The Master took in several deep breaths and pinched the bridge of her nose in an attempt to calm herself down. Not even one day of sending out Assassin out on recon duty and he had already lost the element of surprise to half of her potential enemies. She tempted to believe that he was doing it on purpose if she didn't know for a fact that he was telling the truth about this mysterious blonde man.

"If he's a problem, kill this so called dangerous person. Otherwise don't bother. We have more important things to deal with." She concluded. "Did you at least learn of anything else interesting other than how much of a coward you are during the day?"

"Nothing that I had not suspected or was informed of already." He droned, letting the insult pass right over his head. The Witch may consider herself intelligent, but she was far from professional. _Interesting _was such a subjective term, one that he would not use to describe the multitudes of data that the inhuman priest had given him earlier.

"Rider and her Master are supposedly staying at Saber's Master's residence, though I did not follow due to their higher alerts due to the man. Berserker's Master did nothing of notice save for examining the local market. Saber and her Master went to an unknown destination for a short amount of time. They were too far for me to track accurately. Bounded fields were likely interfering as well."

Caster grunted irritably. While she was a master of her craft, even she would have trouble finding the workshops of this era if she did not know where they were in the first place. She was well aware of where Emiya, Einzbern, and Tohsaka were staying, and her former residence needed no explanation. Knowing where the Matou residence was pointless now. The information was well documented by her Master and her sister beforehand, however any other unknown location would be difficult and tedious to locate from scratch.

There was a chance that the boy had been looking for more partners for the war, but with Rider, who apparently WASN'T killed in Assassin's counterattack, in poor condition, the odds of anyone attacking that night were slim. Archer was either in just as poor condition as Rider or dead, Lancer would be foolish to leave his Master in her current state if she did survive what happened to her, and Caster's other self was not likely to make allies with the boy after their assault on the Matou property.

Berserker… no. She saw hatred in that girl's eyes for the Emiya that rivaled her own for the gods. An alliance between Saber and Berserker was impossible.

Thinking on it now, Caster realized that she was in a very good position to do some damage. If she wished it, she could easily take Assassin with her to kill Archer or her other self that very night with little issue. Lancer was also possible if she planned properly and went after his Master. They did after all have numbers and power on their side….

She shook her head. No. Those three were of no threat to her. Not compared to who else she was dealing with. Saber. Berserker. Rider. Those three were her main concerns at the moment. The more potential targets and distractions they had, the better. She was still uncovering the secrets of the Grail's system under the temple. Once she managed to uncover those, the War would be as good as hers.

Then she could finally have her own body and take revenge at the world that abandoned her to the God's whims. That Emiya boy would be a fine start…

With thoughts of how to torture the teen that impaled her filling her mind pleasantly, Caster addressed her Servant with a more controlled demeanor. "Humph. Well at least you aren't completely useless at what you do. Continue this and you might live to be my last target."

As the woman turned to leave, Assassin surprisingly spoke up. "If an enemy attacks before I can restock and prepare, I will be at a disadvantage."

The way he said it sounded as if was not out of concern, but out of practicality. Assassin was a horrifically dangerous Servant in an area he had set up, much like a Caster would be in its workshop, so much so that the Witch could claim that the two were near identical.

However Assassin's territory advantage was far more finite than hers. Given from what she had seen, her Servant's frequently used Noble Phantasm, Tools of the Trade, was more of a counterbalance to his poor fighting capabilities. She had her mysteries that transcended anything that could be done in this era. The other Servants had their legendary skills, strength, speed, and single powerful weapons.

Compared to his opponents Assassin was a sitting duck, a free target that anyone could destroy with sickening ease in a straight up fight. In fact at first glance Tools of the Trade was at best a mediocre, if not flexible Noble Phantasm.

It was clearly easy to see that despite how skilled her Servant was when he had the proper resources, his Noble Phantasm was obviously his major lifeline in this war when it came to basic combat.

… Which made it apparent why he had brought up the possibility of being attacked before he could restock. If they were attacked before Assassin could, or heaven forbid Berserker came, the defending Servant would no doubt be unable to do his job correctly. She wouldn't have minded it so much if it weren't for the fact that her existence unfortunately depended on his at the moment.

Snorting in dissatisfaction, Caster humored her Servant and threw some bones onto the ground around the stairs they were speaking on. Within moments, a small army of skeleton warriors manifested, standing menacingly with their crude swords in hand but not making move. "There. You have your help. They will follow your orders so long as they are basic ones. Perhaps that will give you practice speaking to others again, not that it will do you much good."

As expected, Assassin didn't bother to respond to the jab as he took her words as permission to leave. Within moments he had disappeared into the forestry without any issue in the slightest. "Hide yourselves in the woods. Twenty meters from the stairway. Eighty from the street. Once in location, remain silent and await further orders."

Caster didn't bother to watch her slaves in motion as she walked back into the temple. She had more important things to do, such as inspect the peculiar irregularity she had discovered in the Grail's system and enhance the amount of prana she could pass through Marjatta.

A few more days and she would have learned enough and gathered enough energy to finally go on the offensive without that much worry. She would let up on absorbing prana for now to reduce the attention drawn to her, but not by much.

She had to hand it to the girl though. Her Master was quite the catalyst when it came to energy conversion processes... and some of the tools that came out of the experiments with her were far more interesting than she had originally expected…

o. o. o.

Tohsaka Residence:

"So?" Rin asked as she watched Saber walk away from her home from the second story.

Archer listlessly watched the blonde woman disappear around the corner and closed his eyes. He could tell that Rin's mood had not improved that much since she left earlier, and given the fact that Assassin was now working the day shift to everyone's surprise, he couldn't blame her. "Yeah… that's Saber all right."

Granted he was slightly surprised that she was wearing jeans this time around. It was another change that differed this reality from his, but he didn't see a problem with it. Everything else about her from what little he saw seemed to be the same. The hair, the eyes, the bearing. All of it was as he remembered.

"Good." Rin smiled happily at finally getting some progress. "So? Who is she?"

The red Servant pondered for a moment on what he should say before finalizing on one. "Someone I can't beat in a direct fight."

He was completely honest with that statement. Given that this version of Shirou Emiya was an accomplished magus, Saber would, without a doubt, not be held back by a lack of prana. Right now the King of Knight's ability and power in close range combat was far too high for him to weave around with his style. He'd have to attack from a far distance, and even then he'd have to do so without the risk of her using Excalibur on him.

Rin's smile fell instantly for good reason. "I mean a name smart one."

Archer's shrug merely added to her stress. "I can't remember everything, but I do recall that she's very famous and her skill far surpasses mine. As for her Noble Phantasm..." He unwisely paused as he mentally brought up the image of Excalibur from his inner world. Even if he could never replicate a work of art on that level, just looking at the weapon gave him feelings that he admittedly had forgotten during his hellish existence across time.

Unfortunately for him though, Rin had correctly assumed that his silence meant he had seen Saber's sword in its full glory.

The girl's demeanor went as cold as her name. "You're avoiding answering me Servant. You've seen her sword before, so it's in Unlimited Blade Works. You know what its name is, thus what her name is. So. Tell. Me. Now."

The counter guardian was truly despising this world now. He was used to changes yes, but the fact that Rin knew so much about his powers already was making things harder for him than it needed to be. So long as she believed he had memory issues, she wouldn't find out that he was from an alternate timeline, and thus she would still trust him greatly and give him more breathing room to work behind the scenes and do what he wanted.

Then again, it seems as if that trust was wearing thin at the moment if the glowing on her hand was any indication.

"What a troubling Master I have." He shook his head wearily, appearing to be not at all bothered by the girl's supposed threat before his eyes hardened. "Just be careful not to let others know that you know her identity, or you might as well scream out who I am in the end."

"Don't needlessly lecture me on subtlety Archer. I was raised to be a proper magus unlike you, remember?" The glowing on her hand dimmed only a small amount, but was still very visible.

Flashes of the girl at school echoed in the man's mind. Oh he remembered that much at least. Even when he died, only the closest of her friends knew that she was a textbook tsundere.

"… Arturia Pendragon." He sighed in defeat, knowing it was pointless to stall anymore. "Known to the world more commonly as Sir Arthur Pendragon. Leader of the Knights of the Round Table. The Once and Future King. The King of Knights. Wielder of the holy sword Excalibur, which on a side note I am unable to copy completely, and a handful of other titles. In short, she's possibly the strongest potential Saber that could be summoned in this war."

The room was silent for a good ten seconds before Rin voiced her thoughts.

"… Shit."

"Indeed. Now if you don't mind, can you please put away your hand?"

o. o. o.

With Saber:

The nighttime air and chirping of insects nearby provided a soothing environment for the former King as she walked back to her Master's home. Her time with Rin had been interesting to say the least. The girl was certainly a sharp one, far more so than most of the nobles in her era had…

She wasn't exactly sure if that was a good or bad thing. Probably both if events progressed as they normally did.

Unfortunately Archer had not been seen when she had left Rin, but Saber could easily tell that he was looking down at her from the residence.

She was somewhat curious as to what the Counter Guardian was thinking now. Obviously he must have suspected or concluded that this world was not the one that he originated from. The differences were too great by this point. The Shirou of this era was not some helpless boy with a haphazard magical education, but an experienced young warrior with apparently a few notches under his belt. And that wasn't even going into the whole "living apostle" thing.

More interestingly though was on how well informed Rin was on the situation. If she was even half as close as she was to Shirou as Saber suspected, then the girl must already know that Archer is a potential future version of Shirou Emiya. However… however she also probably thought that the Servant in front of her was a standard Heroic Spirit, and not a damned Counter Guardian…

Yes. Saber was now having concerns about her deal with the world to save her home. They weren't doubts, not yet at least, but ever since reading the truth about what being a Counter Guardian entailed and what the Grail of this war really was from Kiritsugu, she had spent a good portion of what time she had to herself reevaluating everything. It was only the logical thing to do given what she had just learned after all.

Her end goal had not changed. She was determined to save her country from its horrific fate and was more than willing to damn herself in order to do so, however this was the first time that she had been exposed to what the path to her desires truly entailed. The Grail was to her horror a twisted object that granted its wishes through destruction. The fate she was on the brink of accepting was in many ways a hell that would force her to commit atrocities without end. Had she truly become the victor in the previous war, had Kiritsugu not forced her to destroy the Grail when he did…

And now here she was. In a war that, at face value, was all that she wanted but in reality yielded nothing that she could use in the end. Her dreams. Her goals. Her position. Her home. Her people.

She was completely isolated from her purpose in fighting now. All of it was seemingly irrelevant here. Nothing she did in this war would contribute to her ultimate goal, and yet… her honor screamed at her to fight for nothing more than her Master's noble cause and to protect what he truly valued. It was a new sensation and she didn't know exactly how she felt about it.

A brief and bitter twinge of amusement echoed in Saber's mind. She was so close and yet impossibly far away from her goal at the same time. Was this what the Counter Guardian known as EMIYA experienced now? If it was not this, then it certainly was something similar... now she regretted not coming into contact with the future echo of her Master even more when she had the chance…

A small pressure in the back of her skull instantly erased the rambling thoughts. "Now?" She whispered and turned to her right and prepared herself for battle, donning her armor and weapon in an instant. "A Servant?"

Five seconds later, a man in deep blue armor and hair with blood red eyes and a matching spear landed on a house nearby. From the description Shirou had given her, he was obviously not only Lancer, but Cu Chulainn as well.

"Ahh." Lancer sighed casually, squatting on top of the building with his legendary spear propped on one of his shoulders. His hungry gaze and lithe body reminded Saber of a panther in many ways. Oddly enough, the rather wild looking man had a look of disappointment on his face. "… For a moment there I was really hoping that bastard's info was wrong for once. Takes the fun out of things when the surprise of meeting and fighting complete strangers is gone. Ya know?"

Saber remained on guard. From what she was informed Lancer should at least have a good idea of what was going on in the War so technically he would be considered an ally…

However she had never had an ally look at her with such wild intensity before.

"Lancer I assume." The Servant of the Sword frowned, not letting her guard down in the slightest. "I hazard a guess that you did not come here for pleasantries."

"Do I look like the kinda guy that goes out of the way to do stuff like that?" The blue Knight cocked an eyebrow and donned a shit eating grin. Despite his appearance however, the killing aura he emitted was certainly telling another tale.

Clicking her teeth in frustration, Saber's stance deepened. "It seems that you are set on doing this now then." _Why are you doing this?_

Lancer chuckled and stood up, lazily twirling his weapon in his hands for a few moments before getting into his own stance. "I find fighting strong people to be quite relaxing, and to be honest I'm in need a bit of a stress relieving at the moment. Also might be a bit of blood loss messing with my thoughts, but it wouldn't be the first time that's happened. Seeing what the big deal is about the so called strongest class is just a bonus. Ya know, to see for myself what all the hype is all about." He smiled like a child. "Just you and me under the stars Saber. No Masters. No interruptions. Kinda corny huh?" _I've been jumping through hoops for weeks and I've lost my patience. I need a damn good reason why I should keep it up. You're going to give me one now._

"… Yes. Very much so." Saber answered darkly as neither Servant broke eye contact. She knew exactly what the man wanted. He wanted to know how strong she was, that she was serious about stopping the Grail War. Otherwise… well there was no telling what he'd do.

She had possessed several knights in her employment like this before, ones that doubted her in one way or another. It wasn't that unusual. Any leader that wasn't in charge of a mindless population had to deal with this at one point or another. Most of the time a few well chosen words was all it took to quell the discontent in the ranks… but sometimes what was truly needed was a hard hand and a heavy stick.

Conveniently though, she had in her metal encased hands one of the biggest "sticks" in recorded history.

The two Servants stared at one another for a few moments before they blurred towards one another at once, clashing in the middle of their previous locations with their weapons grinding against one another and emitting otherworldly sparks before they disengaged and flew in opposite directions.

As Lancer had jumped from a building, he had managed to land on the elevated property wall that bordered the street a half a second before Saber did on the ground. This seemingly miniscule amount of time was more than enough for the most agile Servant in the war to exploit, as it enabled him to recover first and cover the distance to his opponent before she could land. Unlike their initial clash where he had swung his crimson spear in mid air to deal with the invisible weapon, this time he had thrusted it at her chest knowing that his target could not dodge it in mid air.

Saber had been on guard however and managed to parry the blindingly fast blow with her invisible weapon, barely pushing it out of the way enough to not scratch her or her armor. Once more mana fueled sparks illuminated the street as the two legendary weapons clashed, revealing to the world Lancer's hungry Saber's stern faces.

While Saber had managed to parry Lancer's initial attack while in mid air, it had unfortunately knocked her off balance just as she landed and destabilized her footing. Lancer, despite his personality, was no novice and pressed on his savage and fast attacks to ensure that his opponent would at least stay that way for as long as possible.

The King of Knights was slowly pushed back due to this as she frantically parried the dozens of near invisible jabs that Lancer executed specifically to keep Saber from getting proper footing and possibly maim her if they got through rather than kill her. In fact, the first dozen or so strikes he had indeed managed to score a few light scratches before Saber could defend herself in time…

However it was apparent that there was a small problem with the man's strategy as Saber parried more and more thrusts. Every time the blades came into contact with one another, Saber's Prana Burst ability came into play and knocked the spear more off course than its owner expected, causing the following thrust to take a fraction of a second longer to perform than it would have normally. Little by little the Hound of Ireland's temporary advantage disappeared as his opponent regained more and more stability in her stances, and thus deflected his attacks by greater margins to enable her to recover more until…

"Ugh!" Lancer grimaced as he felt the shock of Saber's counter attack against the shaft of his spear. The amount of prana in it had been enough to actually cause Gae Bolg to glow momentarily in his hands and cause a solid jolt up his arms. It was bad enough for his opponent to be wielding an invisible weapon that he couldn't get an accurate range on, but for her swings to pack this much of a punch was just not right. It had been manageable when she couldn't get into a proper stance, but now it was a whole new fight.

His assumptions were correct as the brief moment of surprise had given Saber enough time to completely regain her footing and instigate a counterattack. Now on the defensive, Lancer put his all into blocking and avoiding the weapon that he could not see in the slightest, going only by his opponent's posture and stance to judge where the next attack would come from next.

At the very least, he could tell that the tool being used against him was some sort of straight weapon with no protruding gimmicks like a scythe or a hook at the end of the blade. Otherwise he would have been killed or at least cut up or injured in some way by now.

Each blocked blow sent massive jolts up the blue Servant's arms, the power received revealing the true danger of the seemingly harmless girl's attacks. He had been wondering what Saber was going to do with the horrific amounts of Mana that he had felt from her, and now he unfortunately knew. Raw prana bursts were a bit crude compared to what he was taught by the old bat but damn it if it didn't work in her favor right now.

But then again it wasn't as if he had some tricks of his own.

Putting as much strength as he could into one of his blocks, Lancer managed to barely halt Saber's nearly endless assault of crushing blows long enough to jump away fast enough to appear as if he had teleported a short distance. Saber may be more powerful than him and better suited for this fight, but he was still far faster than she was.

"Tch." He grumbled, slightly annoyed by the sight in front of him and ignoring the numbness in his arms. All of the superficial wounds that he had given Saber at the start of the battle were already gone. "And a healing factor to boot. Now that's just not fair."

Saber stood on guard looking exactly the same as she did when the fight started, her face focused yet impassive at the same time. "Do you yield?"

"Oi oi. Don't give me that. Who do you think you're talking to Saber?" The Irishman shook his head shamefully. "Do you honestly think that that brief spar would be enough?"

"I have the advantage." Arturia frowned. Shirou had long since become aware of the situation, however she had somehow managed to prevent him from doing anything reckless this time around. She had been fighting on nothing but her admittedly massive Mana reserves, and Lancer, despite picking the fight with her in the first place, seemed to be aware of the situation regarding the war. That being the case, she was sure that he would at least not use his Noble Phantasm given its borderline absolute nature. It was not something to risk the future on. "Neither of us are willing to go all out at the moment given our circumstances. There is no point in this battle."

"No point she says, as if the fight is already decided. I never did like fighting women, but I think I'll make an exception this time." Lancer snorted before muttering a few foreign words…

And instantly lights began to glow on specific points on his body. His forehead, chest, forearms and thighs were all marked each by one to three runes that thrummed softly with ancient power.

"Runes?!" Saber gasped in surprise, recognizing the symbols on her opponent from the lessons Merlin gave to her as a child.

"You aren't the only one that knows a thing or two about magic Saber!"

The fight renewed with savage vigor, but the display now was completely different than the previous two clashes. Lancer's already insane speed had transcended itself, and each of his attempted strikes held far more power than they had at any point before. If Lancer still had issues with judging the size and shape of Saber's weapon and the explosive impacts it possessed with each blow, it was now matched with Saber's near inability to keep up with the blue man's borderline invisible speed.

She was by no means a slow Servant, however that only exemplified the sickening velocity that her opponent was functioning at now.

Gouges and craters appeared almost spontaneously around the pair as they exchanged blows with such frequency that the noise generated by the pair was near constant. By the time the debris knocked into the air had returned to the earth, at least half a dozen more clusters of material had been sent airborne.

The point of Lancer's spear was nothing more than flashes of crimson light now, extending, retracting, and arcing at such insane speeds that to the normal human's eyes it appeared as if fast red rain and visible crimson wind were cutting sideways towards the smaller blonde servant. Combined with the magical sparks that erupted from their constant clashes like ever erupting fireworks and the debris that was sent flying whenever a weapon somehow contacted the earth, the fight manufactured an image that was no doubt a beautiful albeit terrifying spectacle for anyone that happened across it.

Left. Right. Right. Parry. Counter. Left. Parry. Right. Counter. Down. Counter. There was no time to think in such an onslaught. Indeed before she had even finished one maneuver, she had to utilize her Prana Burst skill to force her body and limbs into another to deal with the closest of Lancer's next moves. The rapid and jarring change in inertia in her body and limbs was inconsequential compared to what would happen should her opponent land a solid strike.

Already she had resorted to utilizing her Instinct ability to its max in order to manage the otherwise impossible to follow strikes and respond properly. The advantage and control that Saber had enjoyed earlier had been reduced to nothing now. Her Prana Burst augmented blows no longer jarred Lancer's arms with each blow and seemed to only prevent him from truly utilizing his horrifying speed to its greatest potential.

Her attacks were still far stronger than Lancer's, but they no longer enabled her to control the flow of battle. It had also been all but required for enhancing her strikes and movements, literally forcing her body and blade to change directions and move in time to defend or avoid the lethal spear.

It was almost a mystery in itself that she was capable of executing counterblows and go on the offensive in the crimson rain that she was now experiencing. By her rough guessing, for every genuine attack she gave now, Lancer delivered three to five. It probably would have been far more if he was able to see her weapon.

The ever growing number of glancing blows they landed on one another was ignored by both parties. Saber's rapid healing thanks to Avalon and Lancer's high level of Battle Continuation made such minor scores near pointless. Only a severed tendon, limb, or blow to the head or heart would make a significant difference in a fight as savage and fast paced as this one.

For minutes that seemed like hours, the two heroes danced around death at an insane pace. The sound of their weapons meeting one another occurred with such frequency that it was akin to that of a machine gun.

Retreating or advancing was impossible for Saber to even consider in her current position. It was taking all of her focus to match Lancer's assault. Lancer on the other hand, seemed to take it as a personal challenge to try and get in a solid strike on Saber in his current upgraded state. Indeed it seemed almost ludicrous that this small girl was able to keep up if not match with his current god like speed.

… And yet without warning, Lancer had backed up a small distance so fast that the images of his lance striking at Saber and the sparks from her sword had yet to leave. The air between them fluxuated madly for a brief moment as if it still thought that the source of its chaos was still there before abating in every direction, leaving the surprised and slightly winded Saber standing in place breathing harder than before.

Already the dozens of scratches on her body and armor were disappearing visibly. In a minute or so she would appear as good as new.

"Well then. Color me impressed." The wielder of Gae Bolg smirked, the runes on his body still glowing strongly, indicating that it was not likely that they would go away anytime soon. "Didn't think I'd ever come across someone that could keep up with these on in a straight up fight."

Saber breathed out slowly to regain her composure, but did not lower her guard in the slightest. "Never have I encountered a warrior that possess' the terrifying speed and ferocity that you do Lancer. I can see why you have earned your place on the throne."

"Yeah well, it's not like I get to abuse it that much anymore, can I?" Lancer's cocky grin was infectious as Saber slowly felt a small one grow on her face. "Gotta use it when I can or I might get rusty, and that would just be embarrassing if that happened."

"Overindulgence and overconfidence is the enemy." The King of Knights nodded. "I must admit though, I have certainly gained a new respect for runecraft over the past few days."

"Oh? No kidding." Lancer's change of tone clearly expressed his curiosity, although the savagery was still the dominant factor. "Someone else in this war I should know about? Maybe swap some notes when we have the time over a few drinks?"

"Perhaps. Depends on how things end up." Saber couldn't help but smile a bit more due to Shirou making more than a few comments about why introducing him to Lancer at the moment was a bad idea… and that he was still a minor and couldn't drink legally.

Honestly it was such a silly notion. Putting such a high age limit on spirits and liquor was preposterous. In her time, it was rare to see a child past the age of seven that had yet to be familiar with the taste of alcohol in one form or another.

"Yeah. You got a point th-" Lancer's good natured retort was cut short as something caught his attention. "Well it's about damn time you wok-, oi don't yell at me after I saved your ass woman." He muttered to himself. "Of course I know what he did. I'm the one that set it up and paid for the damn things. You're welcome by the way. …You think I was just going to leave you there to recover without… yes that's Saber- Why not?"

As the conversation between Lancer and apparently his Master progressed, the tenseness in the situation progressively depleted. It wasn't long until Saber could not help but feel embarrassed for her opponent. The mood for the fight had just been ruined, albeit it was probably for the best.

"What are you, my mother? Tch. Fine. I get it. Stop freaking out already." Lancer sighed reluctantly as the runes on his body vanished. "Looks like you got your wish Saber. Dear old Master wants to have a face to face talk with me and won't wait. Such a buzz kill." Saber had no way of knowing the sheer number and variety of curses Lancer was suddenly bombarded with at that comment.

Saber nodded while still holding her stance. "I understand. We will continue this later. It was a rather interesting experience."

"Same here. Well it was fun while it lasted. Until next time then, later Saber." Lancer's reluctant farewell was accompanied by a respectful nod before he leaped up into the air and disappeared into spiritual form.

There was no question that Lancer was still on her side. Despite the abrupt end to their fight, it was clear that he was satisfied enough with what he saw to stick to the very vague position he had been given by Sirius…

She was however rather unnerved by the level at which Lancer had fought. Nothing that Kiritsugu had written down had indicated that the Irishman could enhance his abilities to the level that she had encountered. She knew of his runecraft yes, but it had been rarely used in the Magus Killer's visions, and never to that level of devastating effectiveness.

Saber and Shirou had long been aware of the possibility that there had been things that Kiritsugu had missed or that there were facts that he had not been aware of, but this had been the first time that things had gone against them not due to a change in the timeline or the war, but simply because they lacked information.

In hindsight, it was almost a comforting thing that Lancer, who was sort of on their side, was the one that exposed them to this branch of risks instead of heaven forbid…

Clap. Clap. Clap.

A slow yet elegant clap echoed through the air, causing a shiver to run through Saber's spine. "A well played scene. Somewhat short, however the content more than made up for a satisfactory interlude."

Gilgamesh.

Walking casually with all the natural authority and poise that she remembered, the King of Heroes approached her with a light smile on his face and an all knowing gaze in his red eyes. His blonde hair was spiked up and he was dressed in expensive modern clothing consisting of a white coat over a black shirt and long dark pants.

"Long time no see, King of Knights. It's been ten years… no. It must have been only yesterday for you. How cruel it is for a woman to make their man wait. No matter. My decision about you has not changed since the last we met. You no doubt remember it."

"You." Saber growled as she retook her stance. Fighting Gilgamesh here and now was certainly not in her best interest. True she still had a copy of Avalon inside of her, however it was nearing the end of its life and she was uncertain if she could utilize its defensive ability properly.

"It appears that the retainer was not misled after all. How wonderful." The former Servant smiled pleasantly. "Today certainly has been rather interesting. Even if the majority involved consisted of nothing but mongrels and rabble, it was rather entertaining. So many meetings and unexpected reunions..."

"_Don't fight him now!" _Shirou frantically yelled in her head. Despite the fact that he wasn't even there, the Servant could practically feel her Master shiver in fear from looking at Gilgamesh through her eyes. She couldn't blame him. The King of Heroes had always had that aura that seemed to dwarf that of any other Servant. _"You're in a populated area and you're too far away for me to give you enough prana. If all else fails I can use the-"_

"It is rude to speak when the King is talking." Gilgamesh's comment seemed to go straight through Saber and right into her Master's ears despite him not being there in person. His piercing red eyes seemed to do the same through Saber's and into Shirou's. "You forget yourself. This is a conversation between me and the one I have chosen to be my wife. Worms like you have no place in this."

"There is no conversation between just us Archer." Saber grimaced. "What are you doing here?"

"Ah Saber. Even after all this time your appeal has not diminished in my eyes. Is it not obvious? I have come for you." Archer smug smile and arrogant tone were only matched by the calm in his voice, as if he was in no danger in the slightest. "Or at least just to see you for now. I am generous enough to allow you to deal with more of the squabble first before I truly make you mine."

"I am not and will never be yours. The fact that you are still even in this world is a mistake that needs to be rectified."

He took Saber's declaration in stride. "Ah such a strong, beautiful, and noble, but misguided will. It has only exemplified your value. Be honored that I put you at such a high quality." He shook his head as if pitying a child. "As for this world, I must admit even I am in agreement with you. I am not meant for it, this dull, boring and weak land and the matching people. It is unworthy of my grandeur… though in many other ways I can see some appeal. The basic idea is the same as before, yet the decorations and commodities that have been created as of late are of some interest. To rule or to destroy and start anew. Both are reasonable options at this point. The grail will simply make things run a bit smoother. It has been rather skewed, however it still has its uses."

He gave her a knowing look. "Of course you are already aware of this."

"You…" Saber growled as her grip on her invisible weapon tightened. She had always felt uncomfortable whenever he looked at her with those red eyes of his, even before he had unfortunately gained his attention. They seemed to have the ability to pierce right through her and see everything with ease. "Even knowing what the Grail is, you would still willingly use such a cursed thing?"

"Why shouldn't I? It and the world are both mine to do as I please, as you will soon be as well." The oldest king stated as if it were obvious. "How I use my possessions is only the concern of me. Everyone else should merely accept it as their King's decision. Is it not similar to how your kingdom progressed? Regardless of what your people felt, they still abided by your commands regardless of what they were."

"I was nothing like you." Saber's anger was spiking dangerously. "The King strives to protect its people and land. It exists for them. We have had this conversation before Archer."

"Ah yes. Indeed we have. Such an interesting little meeting it was." Gilgamesh admitted, for a fraction of a second his features softened slightly and his eyes glanced around for something that obviously was not there. It only lasted for a moment though before he returned to normal. "Back when the war consisted of more than just the petty squabbles of women and children. However you are overlooking something rather obvious with regards to the topic."

"And what would that be?" She didn't really care for much of what he had to say, however to cut him off would possibly instigate an unnecessary and potentially devastating battle that she did not want at the moment.

Gilgamesh's chuckle did nothing to soothe her nerves. "It is quite simple. Regardless of whom works for whom, or what the results may be, is it not the King that ultimately issues the commands? That condemns the guilty? That makes the laws? That declares the war that its armies, lands and people must fight? Die? Bleed for not only for those things, but the King as well? Surely you must be aware of the answer to such a simple question."

Shirou could practically feel Saber grinding her teeth through the link they shared. "The King. As such, it is his duty to ensure that all under his domain prospers from his decisions. I did it all for my country's safety and prosperity."

"But they still bled. They still starved. They still fought and died on the King's orders without question while they ensure that he remains fed, clothed, and protected. As it should and always be. It is not a matter of whether or not your commands were correct or not, or who would benefit from them. They will always be followed regardless as they should. Therefore should it not be simple for the people to realize and accept that they are mere worms beneath the King?" The oldest King lectured as if talking about how the weather worked.

"I was not a tyrant!" The King of Knights snapped. "I did not rule over my people! I ruled FOR my people! For their peace and prosperity! For the kingdom!"

"And yet it fared no better than mine or the King of Conquers in the end. Time is a foe that surpasses even my control. While the world is still my garden, I am not foolish to believe that my kingdom still exists." Gilgamesh's response maintained the same obnoxiously calm tone as it always did. "What plagues you is simply that your domain fell apart while you were still alive, that you witnessed with your own eyes everything that you claimed and valued burning in ash stemming from your superfluous goals."

He smiled genuinely. "Ah. But that is what I truly admire about you Saber. Even when you have witnessed such things first hand, your blind belief in the restoration of your land and your kingdom has no equal. To persist across time and futility yet persistently resist and change fate itself. And here you are. So far away from home and so close to your selfish goal. For a land and kingdom that now only regards you in the tales its people tells its children. What you are doing is something glorious to behold. Truly you are a woman fit to be my queen."

Saber could not come up with a reply to that. She could not tell whether the anger that caused her body to tremble stemmed from her inability to response, the mocking manner in which Gilgamesh has said such things…

… Or the deep sickening feeling in her core that silently agreed with his analysis of her self-imposed goal. She could not deny that every time she was asked for a reason why she continued with her goal, the image of the Battle of Camlann came to mind. On that red hill fertilized with the blood and fresh bodies of her knights by their own hands. She was driven by her grief and the knowledge of her inability to turn her homeland into the Avalon she dreamed of.

Be they traitors or those that had remained loyal to her, she had fought by the side of all of them though multiple battles. They had laughed, drank, eaten, and shed blood with one another. Her land, which had been assaulted and defended time and again, fared no better. To see both in such a state at the end tormented her to no end. They did not deserve such an ending. It had been her fault that they received it… therefore it was her duty to fix it and place it into the hands of one more deserving than her.

"_Saber. Calm down." _Shirou's voice echoed in her head with a soft but firm tone. _"You can't afford to attack him or lose focus now. I'm sorry but regardless of what he just said, as much as it must have bothered you, it has nothing to do with what we are doing now. We can talk about it later if you want, but please focus."_

"Shirou…" Saber shook her head briefly before regaining her composure, meeting Gilgamesh's almost lazy stare with her a defiant one of her own. Her Master was correct. Her troubles had no place in this war that she had dedicated herself to. It would be a shame to her honor if she decided to be selfish at such a critical time. "If that is all you have to say King of Heroes, then I bid you farewell. I have already given you my answer, and regardless of what you promise or claim it will remain the same."

"Oh?" Gilgamesh looked at her curiously. He was amused if anything rather than disappointed. "So you are willing to put aside your pride and your goal for that Faker? Is he that pitiful that you must aid his task as though he were a pet, or does his meager efforts amuse you to the point of humoring him out of generosity?" He shook his head and turned to walk away. "No. Regardless, I would not allow you to keep him in the end. I will not tolerate such a pointless thing in my presence for any given amount of time."

The Oldest King continued with his back to Saber, not at all concerned about the possibility that she might attempt to strike at him from behind. "This shall be my gift to you Saber. Enjoy your remaining time with the Faker that you seem to be fond of. When I come for you again, his mistaken existence will be corrected."

His body slowly faded away as he went into his spiritual form, breaking away into tiny glowing sparks of pure gold that seemed to match his being. "In the mean time, I shall try to enjoy observing this mockery of a war. The cast may at first glance be lacking, however there are a surprising number of reoccurring actors that I believe have the potential to be of some entertainment."

o. o. o.

Emiya Household:

"What do you suggest we do?" Saber worriedly asked Shirou in his workshop, away from Rider and Sakura as they discussed what happened.

Because Sakura had been with Shirou at the time she had been well aware that something had happened while Saber was away. Shirou always did have trouble masking his emotions after all. However he had managed to convince her somewhat that the source of all his emotions and troubles had been Lancer's fault in one way or another.

She did not have the slightest clue that there was a ninth Servant in the war, and he intended to keep it that way for a while longer. If she did know about Gilgamesh's existence it would only lead to questions being asked that could possibly disrupt his plans more than they already were. Anonymity was a tool that was only useful so long as no one else knew about it after all, and one he needed maintained with regards to his goals and plans for as long as possible, as much as he disliked hiding anything from his closest people.

Shirou had his arms crossed and was tapping one of his arms thoughtfully. "Things would be so much more manageable if we could get into contact with Zouken, or at least knew where he was hiding." The worm user was their biggest roadblock with regards to what they could and couldn't do. With his ability to turn Sakura into an unstable prana draining monster, or kill her, at the drop of a hat, the bastard pretty much had them dancing to his tune at the moment. "It's still hard to believe that Gilgamesh would reveal himself so early though. It's unlike him to do so."

His appearance was actually a minor blessing in disguise. If the worm user ever did appear, Shirou could use the golden Servant's existence to force him to make a move into the open and be more active.

"I agree. I cannot help but think he had some other motive for doing so." Saber grimaced. "But for the life of me I cannot figure out what."

"He knows that we're up to something. He all but said it when he pointed out that you knew what the Grail was." Shirou noted. "It might be his way of trying to get us to hurry up and take out one of the other Servants."

"No." Saber shook her head. "As disturbing as he is, that man is patient. If anything he simply wishes for us to make a mistake to make things interesting. He is curious."

"Regardless of what he wants, the only move available to us now is to go after Caster and Assassin." Shirou relented. "And we still have to wait for Rider to recover before we can do that. That's another day or two of waiting on our hands right there."

Assassin's existence alone troubled Shirou and Saber more than anything. The Servant's mere way of fighting changed the entire way the game was played because he was that different compared to all of the other competitors. He had something that made him far more dangerous than virtually any other Assassin summoned: a very wide versatility of armaments and the knowledge of how to use them to terrifying efficiency. Even Gilgamesh couldn't make that claim with regards to his Gate of Babylon.

"That is good though." Saber noted. "It allows you to go through with your plans with Luvia and Caster without any distractions."

A frown made its way onto Shirou's face. He detested the idea of using Luvia more than he already did, but it was unavoidable at this point. True they were working to a similar goal, but in the end he was still benefiting from her actions and fixing a problem that he was a good deal responsible for. As it stood he doubted that his blonde friend would ever trust him again once the war was over, not that he could blame her. He could only hope that by the end of it that Marjatta would be alive, out of this farce of a War and in Luvia's protection again.

"No one can know of that though. If Zouken finds out that I've been working with another Master he might have doubts about what my loyalties are." It was obvious that Shirou didn't trust Zouken and was only abiding to the deal because Sakura's life was on the line. That being the case, it would not be a stretch of the truth for anyone to consider Shirou to act out against the worm user and not consider it a "betrayal" in the first place. After all it wasn't as if anyone expected Zouken to renege on his part of the deal as well.

Granted Shirou's current scheme did have the potential to end two servants in a single go and position himself perfectly to end a third, but many would merely consider that a good cover for his real goals… which was correct.

"Keep your friends close and your enemies closer it seems." Saber sighed in reluctance. She was not fond of the tactic in the slightest but she could not argue against its results.

Shirou snorted and shook his head mockingly. "Now if only we could get Zouken would appear." There was no point in going on with that particular subject. The best he could do is keep his cool and appear that he didn't need the worm until something truly notable happened and then make a big stink about it in public so that it would eventually reach the old bastard's ears. All in all Shirou hoped he'd never have to say something along those lines ever again. Regardless, it was the best they could do at this point.

Speaking of sensitive topics though…

"Saber. About what Gilgamesh said."

Saber looked away in disappointment. "My apologies. I should not have let that monster's words get to me. It was foolish of me to do so. Given what the previous war was like, I should have resolved my insecurities about my decision. Even worse was that it distracted me from my surroundings, making it easy for a potential attacker to catch me unawares. It must have been disappointing for you to see me to falter over such a trivial subject. Please rest assured, I will not lose composure over the subject again."

The Emiya closed his eyes and let out a slow breath, knowing that what he was going to say would not settle well with his partner, but regardless it had to be said. "Saber, you know that I am aware of what you wish to use the Grail for. I've learned enough from dad's notes and dreaming of your past to piece everything together." His eyes opened to stare at his Servant with a small glint to them. "And I have to agree with them. You should not be doing this."

The King of Knights' eyes widened disbelief as her Master said those words before she reigned in her emotions to once again appear impassive if not a bit irritated. "… Why would you say that? After everything you've done, for the people you care about, you of all people should know how I feel about this better than most. Just as you are dedicated to safely concluding this war, I am committed to ensuring my homeland's survival."

Shirou shook his head. "Saber, my friends are still alive. Their future is uncertain and undetermined. I am still capable of helping them. All that I have done was to ensure that they could live through this. That the mistake that is the Grail war would end so that what happened to me would not repeat with anyone else. So that dad's sacrifice was not ultimately in vain. You… I'm sorry, but when you died it was already over. Your story, your adventures… no, all of the knights of the round table's adventures had already ended then. It's been over for over a thousand years now."

"Which is why I must correct it." Saber argued with an edge to her voice, finally allowing some of her temper to show before regaining composure. "Camelot. Britain. My knights. They all deserved better than what became of them, and I was supposed to ensure them that future. I made a vow to them all to sacrifice everything I was to do that and I failed. It is only right that as King that I rectify this."

"And who said that you were the only one that regretted this failure? That lamented what had become of your proud home to their very souls?" Shirou's eyes narrowed but otherwise his temperament had not change. He had long since known of Saber's goals, her reasons behind them, and her logic, so he couldn't say that he was surprised about what she said. Still, seeing her believe in something so self destructive made him sick on the inside.

"I do not see why that makes a difference." Arturia frowned. "In the end, I was the one responsible for everyone. Hence I should be held ultimately accountable for what happened and be the only one that should correct what occurred. I gave up my humanity and who I was in order to fulfill my role."

In a brief moment of frustration the magus' prana flared causing his eyes to slit and turn silver. At that moment, every physical aspect of the King of Knights became as clear as day to the Magus Killer. Her strengths, weaknesses, and makeup were all there for him to see. Save for the fact that she was a spirit, the only non-human aspect about her was her dragonic blood. "If you are not human because of the path you took then I sure as hell am not either, but you won't see me trying to change that if things go bad!"

The display of his curse caught the Servant off guard and made her unconsciously step back. She had completely forgotten that her Master was also in ways tainted as a result of his vows and decisions, though in his case he did not have the luxury of knowing exactly what he was in for when he accepted his role. "Shirou… I…"

The Emiya regained his temper with a deep and tired sigh while his eyes turned back to normal. "Your knights were dedicated to both you and your country. Do you think that they did not also suffer as you did in the end or believe that it was also in some way their fault? That shame that they could not uphold their duties to their home, Lord, and Kinsmen? The despair in their hearts that they had when they spilled one another's blood for one reason or another? You are not the only Knight of the Round Table that made it to the Throne Saber. Far from it, and yet despite the fact that many of them were famous, dedicated, powerful, and committed to your kingdom just as much if not more than you, not ONE of them has done what you are currently doing. Should they be summoned in this war, I doubt that not a single one would attempt to change the past despite how much they were committed to their land and you. Do you not care for them at all?"

The question had been answered by Saber slapping his face. "Forgive me for my actions, however I must request that you never question my loyalties again Shirou. Not of my land. Not of my kingdom. Not of my men. I will not tolerate such a slight." The King of Knights stated coldly in a dead tone. Her entire body was shaking in rage. "All I do, I do for them and my home. I thought you of all people would realize that."

Shirou remained impassive despite his face slowly reacted to being hit. "Then you do realize that what you would have done would have not only negated your achievements, but theirs as well?"

Given the way Saber's eyes had dilated and her body stiffened, it was quite apparent that Shirou's words had had an effect.

The Magus Killer continued darkly. "If you go through with this, you would not have only killed "King Arthur" through your actions, but "Lancelot of the Lake", "Sir Gawain", "Ser Percival", "Sir Kay", "Sir Bedivere"… every knight linked to your legend would have their entire history remade and their names likely drowned with the countless numbers made in history. In order for them to regain their legends under another king said king would have to do what YOU did, which is exactly what you don't want your supposed replacement to do. All of their hard earned achievements, all of their efforts would have not only been for nothing, but they would not even have been remembered or done in the first place. You will effectively be spitting on everything they have done and achieved in life."

A single stagger back away from Shirou was all it took for him to know that she not considered this fact and was not taking it well.

"Saber. I'm not telling you what to do when this is over." The Servant's Master continued softly. His eyes looked at her in genuine concern. "In the end it is ultimately your choice whether you continue your quest after you help me out here. Had you desired to repeat your time as King Arthur, or change a decision during your reign, I would have understood and kept silent… however to deny everything that you have worked on simply because it failed in the end… I can't understand that. And worse still is that even if you wanted to do that now you would still be damning yourself. Should you ever get the grail and attempt to redo your rule, you would still be condemning your very soul to being a Counter Guardian once you died again. You don't deserve that."

The Servant couldn't muster up a response. She had convinced herself for so long that what she was doing was the right thing to do. That it was her duty to put England into the hands of someone more capable than her. To ensure that it became the Avalon that she knew that it could become… that she had completely forgotten the efforts and feelings of the men that she had fought alongside for so long.

She had thought that they would have agreed with her decision in order to avoid such a calamity, that it was all for the good of the realm… but in retrospect she knew that they would not go with it. They were too loyal to her to comply with such a plan.

Every time she failed to get the grail, she had returned to that red hill surrounded by the corpses of her countrymen and herself on the verge of becoming like them. Over and over again she had believed that if she had not drawn the sword from the stone, they could have avoided this fate, but not once did she consider the fact that their entire existences would be changed.

"Lancelot" would not have been "Lancelot", "Gawain" no longer "Gawain". How many of her men were born not from noble houses, but from the streets? How many would ever gain such another opportunity like what they had with her, with another King, even if the replacement was better suited for the task? Could she ever knowingly condemn them to such a fate when it had been hard enough to see them die in front of her in such a chaotic world?

She had made the round table with the premise that all who sat there were equal, that no one voice had more weight than the others. True she was the King and in the end had a final say in everything, but at her core she had tried to abide by the rules she had made at that table and believed it was a bridge to a better kingdom. Her goal and very actions right now went against everything the round table stood for.

She was snapped out of her thoughts as Shirou gently put a hand on her shoulder. "Your men all accepted their deaths even if they did not wish for what has happened with all their heart. They have all passed on. You though…you who have not even lived or enjoyed a single day for yourself would be condemned to an eternal existence of murder and destruction, just to perform an act that will make the world forget you existed. We've only known one another for a few days Saber, but I can already tell that you of all people don't deserve that, no matter what you believe. You are too kind. Too just. Too selfless to suffer such a fate."

"Shirou… I…" She was at a loss for words.

Shirou let his arm drop before he made for the exit of his workshop. "I will not fail what dad tasked me. However, even if on the off chance don't succeed, I will not dedicate my life to change history so that he rescues someone else from that fire in the hopes that they accomplish what I didn't."

"Just like your people put their faith in Arturia Pendragon, Kiritsugu Emiya put his hopes into Shirou Emiya. We both accepted their wishes, so we both should see to our paths to the end. I will not disrespect that or throw my father's efforts away, and neither should you. They did not care that there might have been something better. They cared because we were what they got and they saw reason to put their complete trust into us."

By this point Shirou had finally made it to the door of the shed and looked up to the sky. The moon was closer to being full tonight, and so it wasn't a surprise that his gaze rested upon it with a distracted sense of comfort. "I don't know why my future will entail, and I highly doubt that dad intended for me to become what I am now, but I have still accepted it. As for you…despite what you think, you should remember that King Arthur is one of the most famous legends in human history. You must have done something right for that to happen."

Shirou had made it to his house door when he heard the Hayabusa's engine roar to life before taking its rider out of the property and into Fuyuki.

o. o. o.

With Lancer:

"Oi. Don't give me that look. It makes me feel like I did something wrong." Lancer frowned as he stood in front of his master, who was glaring at him from her bed and under her covers. The room was empty save for the two, as Merem and the King of Rats, who had been asked to take care of her while the Servant was away, were asked to leave.

Bazett managed to bite her tongue long enough to reign in her temper, but otherwise appeared to be completely impassive. Dangerously so. "Lancer. Please do not make this hard on both of us or force me to use a command seal on you without reason. You should be able to tell that I am not exactly in the most patient or forgiving of moods at the moment. The last thing I remember is us going up the stairs to the temple. I do not recall anything else after that or why I… am in my current condition. Tell me what happened."

The blue man shrugged before grabbing a chair and sitting on it. "Not much to say. Assassin got the drop on us. He had set up a couple of hidden bombs so that the first one blasted us into another. I managed to get out of that in workable shape. You on the other hand…"

"Did you even see our opponent?" Bazett grimaced as she sat herself up slowly and put a hand over her face. To be defeated so quickly was not something she felt good about, even if the one who did the deed specialized in that particular field.

"Not in the fucking slightest." Lancer admitted without shame. "Pissed me off too, but then again I was a bit busy keeping you alive to work on it. By the time you stabilized it was already mid morning."

"Wonderful." The Master sighed, rubbing the bridge of her nose in frustration. "So long story short I nearly got killed and got nothing out of it in the process."

"Pretty much." Lancer nodded with the wry grin. "Well other than getting maimed and learning that Assassin is a sneaky bastard."

"Be serious Servant!" The Fraga snarled as she grabbed her sheets and flipped them off…

… Revealing that one of her legs had been severed above the knee and the other below it. Both limbs were wrapped heavily in bandages, though there was no blood staining them by this point.

"I am NOT in the mood for your half assed jokes right now!"

Cu Chulainn looked down at his Master's wounds with a disinterested gaze as if they were nothing new to him. Technically they weren't. "I know you're a pretty big stick in the mud, but I'm fairly certain that I set up something that would take care of that."

"Oh don't even get me started on what you and Merem did to me while I was still unconscious without my permission." Bazett was clearly not appeased by what he had apparently did. "Do you have ANY idea of how much red tape I'm going to have to go through when I come back to the Clocktower with… with…"

"They don't have names, but I'm pretty sure you can still call them your legs." Lancer interjected casually. "Granted the blood sucker said that you're not supposed to give them names or else they can't help you out, but they seem like nice kids none the less. From what I've seen there's no need to worry about them turning against you. Quite the opposite really. They seemed pretty eager to help you out. I've never really brushed up on their species before, but if I remember correctly they're supposed to be precognitive… actually if the rumors about where their powers came from are true they might actually be distant cousins of mine through old man Odin…"

"It doesn't matter what they think of me or what they can do!" The human snapped. "That's not the problem here! Even if by some miracle the Clocktower allows me to keep them, how am I supposed to get used to this!? I'm not like other Magi! I'm not instantly comfortable with sharing my body with other existences to enhance my magic or abilities, let alone with creatures that I would have been prepared for!"

Lancer lost some of the good humor in his demeanor as patience began to wear thin. "Oh? So you would have preferred if you were just stuck this way for the rest of the war, or had gotten some half assed magus from this era to reattach or make you limbs that you have not been able to get used to in time to fight to your previous level? If I remember correctly we're in the middle of a war Master. Something tells me that the enemy won't wait for you to recover and get used to your situation if you ask politely. But just in case, how about we go to Assassin or Caster first to see what they think."

Bazett flinched at Lancer's rather crude jab at the flaws in her argument. He had a good point. Save for Shirou, Bazett rather doubted that any of the other Masters would be kind enough to let her recover from her wounds via normal magus means before she was battle ready again. Ones that she had suffered could take weeks to get back from given the damage she received and the fact that her legs had not been recovered during their escape… if they still remained that was.

A brief creaking of wood from outside the door caught both adult's attention, followed by a pair of light gasps and some light footsteps indicating that the owners were trying to back away.

"Don't tell me…" Bazett groaned, only for Lancer to snort in amusement.

"They're not human, but they're still kids Master. It's in their nature to listen in on things they shouldn't out of curiosity. Who knows how many times I did it as a brat." The Spirit grinned in amusement. "Gotta say though, I'm kinda worried how they'd end up with a stick in the mud like you raising them."

"I'm twenty three years old!" The Master shouted with an embarrassed blush on her face as opposed to the red of anger she had moments before. "How am I supposed to spontaneously develop the skills needed to raise two children that I've just met when my occupation involves me hunting down magi and dead apostles?!"

"No clue. You know I'm not exactly phenomenal parental material myself, but I'm pretty sure that the first step involves actually learning about the kids in the first place. Better you than me though, after all you're supposed to be the mature one." Lancer sarcastically mocked his Master as he got up before he walked to the door to the bathroom, and opened it to reveal two small girls.

At first glance they seemed very much human, albeit most people would note that they fell into the category of exceptionally cute and adorably innocent looking.

The elder one, appearing no older than the age of twelve, had long red hair with the color of dried leaves but with a hint of dark purple that was the hair color of someone else in the room, olive skin, and deep blue eyes.

The younger, roughly eight years old, had straw yellow hair that went to her shoulders, pale skin, and grass green eyes, with a small birthmark under her eye that also much like a certain Fraga.

Both were dressed in light white dresses despite the cold weather outside, and pointed ears much like a stereotypical elf.

What made them stand out from normal humans the most though were the feelings they gave off when they were close. Anyone even remotely in tune with the supernatural world could tell on instinct that the two children were not human with the earthly sensation they gave off. It was not an oppressive one, on the contrary it was almost soothing to the point of affecting the senses, however it was clearly distinct and notable to anyone that could identify its existence.

It was also a feeling that Lancer personally knew all too well.

However what the Servant was concerned about most though was the fact that each one had tears in their eyes.

"Mommy doesn't want us, does she Uncle?" The elder sniffed in acceptance as she gently stroked her sister's head.

"She wasn't prepared for you two, that much was certain." The Servant snorted. "I'm not sure if she doesn't want you though. Grownups can be pretty stupid like that sometimes." He smirked as if remembering a bad joke. "I thought you two were supposed to be playing with the bloo… I mean Merem."

As disturbed as Bazett was with the situation, she couldn't help but snort at the way Lancer had to force himself to refer to the vampire without insulting him to the girls who were obviously fond of their creator. Even if they were working together at the moment, Lancer still clearly was not that fond of the vampire.

"We wanted to see what mommy wanted to talk to you about. Lord Merem said it was okay if we did." The younger one answered in a high pitched but soft tone. It was understandable that she referred to the vampire as Lord, he did create them from almost nothing after all. "Are you mad?"

Lancer's eyebrow twitched. He didn't mesh well with cute things, especially kids even if they weren't human. "A bit annoyed yeah, but not mad. I'm not gonna lie, you didn't do yourself any favors by doin' this."

"We thought that if we knew why she was mad we could do something about it." The elder one elaborated. "That way she wouldn't get rid of us…"

"Hear that Master?" Lancer turned back to Bazett with a smug look. "They've only known you for less than an hour and they already think that you're the type to throw kids out on the street without a second thought. Really. What the heck did you do before I got back?"

She screamed and had a minor panic attack, in that order when she woke up. At least if what Merem said was believed.

"Don't even go there Lancer." The Fraga coldly glared at her temporary partner. "I doubt even you thought that because Merem used my blood to create them they'd think of me as their mother."

"Least they didn't think of him as "daddy"." Lancer snickered. "Yeah, now that's a messed up match. Still, I wouldn't write these two off. The short one did say that despite how young they looked, the girls had ended up surprisingly stronger than he expected due to your Fraga lineage. Something about how your blood worked. They could be more useful than you think."

"We won't get in the way. We promise mommy." The younger one pleaded with innocent eyes.

"Just give the kids a shot." The blue man groaned as he walked out of the bathroom and to his bed. "It's not like you have to put them through school or feed them anything. You just have to make sure that they do anything stupid. Primarily while they're acting as your legs since any mistake they make then would be blamed on you." He paused. "Actually, it would kinda suck if they messed something up while away from you too, cuz then you'd have to chase them, and you can't do that without them being your legs in the first place… huh."

"That's it. You just lost your sleeping privileges." The Master growled dangerously from her own resting area. "You're stuck on guard duty for the night. No one goes in or out without my permission unless it's an emergency. No exceptions."

The blue man clicked his tongue in irritation. "Seriously? After all I just did for you? I had to give that gnome over half a gallon of blood for him to make those two. Do you know what it feels like to give that much blood even if you're a heroic spirit and can regenerate it? I mean yeah there are heroes that spill their own by the gallons for damsels in distress and the like, but I doubt it was ever like that."

"You also left me alone afterwards, leaving me to deal and mentally cope with my current situation with a thousand year old Vampire that talks to rats more than he does with humanoid beings, two children who were literally made from my blood calling me "mommy", my legs missing, and you fighting almost all out against Saber, who I might add you said we were supposed to be helping out in secret in the first place." The Master stated as calmly as she could. "So yeah. I'm just a _little _bit pissed off at you at the moment."

Lancer narrowed his eyes for a moment at the woman before letting out a long sigh in defeat. "Yeah… I guess you might have a point there." He looked to his side. "And the kids?"

The Enforcer reluctantly looked at the girls that matched her gaze with hope and fear. For a moment the image of a younger Shirou echoed through her mind. Small. Stubborn. And completely helpless. She shook her head and lay back down on her bed. "They take your bed for the night. I'll figure out what to do with them in the morning when I'm not freaking out anymore. I'm too tired to do anything else right now."

"But you just woke up after being out of it for two days." Lancer rose an eyebrow skeptically, ignoring the girls that quickly scampered past him and crawled into the bed before resting so that they faced their mother figure.

"And now I'm going to sleep off basically the biggest shock I've ever had in my life while figuring out what the hell I'm supposed to do next." The Master pulled her covers back over herself and turned away from everyone. "Then I'm going to wake up. Take a hot bath to clean the grime off of me, stew in it for about an hour, and THEN figure out what is going to happen. So help me if any of you even try to talk about it before then…"

"We'll be good." The girls said softly in tandem while huddled next to one another.

"I got it I got it." The Servant sighed as he began to dematerialize into spiritual form.

Lancer's head was just about to disappear before it donned a sarcastic grin. "So… you gonna take the girls with ya to the bathroom, because I think it'd be a bit rough otherwise…"

"OUT!"

Pulling the covers over her head, the Enforcer couldn't help but lament over her current situation and what she was going to have to decide on tomorrow, and as such knew she wasn't going to get any sleep easily that night. She didn't have anything against the girls in particular, but that wasn't the point.

Honestly. How the hell was she going to explain to the guys back home that she now had a pair of preadolescent Banshees acting as her legs?

o. o. o.

Emiya Residence:

"Shirou, is everything all right?" Sakura asked with concern as the owner of the home finished cleaning the late dinner. "You tend to take longer cleaning up when your troubled with something. Did you get into a fight with Saber?"

The only male there flinched slightly just as he finished drying the last of his dishes. Once more he cursed the supposed fact that he was horrendously easy to read to those that even remotely knew him well. "Something like that. I may have said some things that she didn't really like but needed to hear anyway. As a result… well she needs some time to think. Saber's still nearby so if we are attacked it wouldn't take her long to get back. Worst comes to worst I can just use a command seal if we're strapped for time."

"It's not like you to actively say something that someone wouldn't like." The Matou frowned in concern. "Was it really necessary for you to do that now?"

"Probably not, but given what had happened it was better to get it over with." Shirou admitted with a deep sigh. "It wasn't something I was looking forward to, but it had to be done."

"I see… does she still trust you?"

He let out a brief chuckle. "I hope so. She has my bike."

Sakura responded by lightly smacking him upside the head. "Shirou Emiya. Since when did you become so cold that you care more about your possessions than others?"

"Since I met people that were about a million times more durable and likely to come back in one piece than said magically enhanced possessions." The accused male smiled lightly. "Saber's smart enough to choose her battles and basically the strongest Servant in the war. Of course I'm worried about her safety, but she is the most capable out of all of us in a fight and right now being alone is what she needs the most. Believe me when I say that I can trust her to take care of herself for the time being."

There was a brief pause before he flinched and apologetically turned to Rider, who was still sitting politely and quietly at his dinner table. Without her leaking out any intent like she did whenever she was ready for battle, it was really easy to forget her presence at times seeing that she was normally extremely quiet and tended to avoid conversation. Despite her seemingly impassive demeanor, the Emiya could not but help but think that he had just irritated her in some way. "Er. That's not to say that you're not capable Rider, but given your current condition…"

"There is no need for alarm Master. Saber is indeed a superior Servant. Even if I had been at my best, it would be extremely difficult for me to best her." Rider's crisp but short response only seemed to cement the sinking feeling in her Master's stomach. There was no doubt about it. She was definitely irritated at him for forgetting about her. "Regardless of what activity Saber is doing to preoccupy her time or my condition, I shall serve my purpose and guard your home as I should."

"Rider. Please be nice." Sakura scolded her. "You know that Shirou means well. He would never think of you as just a tool."

"Sakura's right Rider. You're not just a Servant. Even if we've only known each other for a few days, you've more than proven to be as much of a person as the rest of us." Shirou crossed his arms. "The reason why I'm not concerned about being attacked is because the odds of it happening tonight are unlikely, so I was thinking we could rest for the night. Yourself included. You deserve it as much as anyone else."

"What reason do you have that tonight will be uneventful after Saber just encountered Lancer?" Rider asked skeptically, albeit with a tad bit less ice in her tone than before. "It seems illogical that you would assume that no one else would possibly attack simply because you have already engaged in a battle."

Shirou went through a brief check on the data he gathered that day. Assassin and Caster would not move away from the Temple until they were good and ready. The other Caster and Archer were playing the defensive game for different reasons, and Lancer had been called back by Bazett during his encounter with Saber earlier. Gilgamesh had pretty much declared that he wouldn't do anything until more Servants were killed so…

That meant that the only possible enemy that could attack him that night was Illya and Berserker, who to Shirou's knowledge still did not know exactly where he lived just yet. In addition to that, he had long since set up a good number of bounded fields around local area that were triggered by a combination of malicious intent and high levels of prana similar to the one Kiritsugu set up at his home when he first got it.

Considering the fact that Berserker was metaphorically a massive walking nuclear reactor for both, Shirou was all but certain that he would be aware of a potential if unwanted assault by his sister long before she arrived.

"Well our encounter with Lancer was part of the reason, but I have other resources as well. Call it a hunch if you want." The Emiya admitted without shame.

"A hunch huh?" Sakura skeptically played along, knowing that her secret lover never left something as important as her security up to chance. "Well far be it for me to question a hunch by the infamous Magus Killer."

"Oi. You know how much I don't like being called that." The Emiya frowned as he dried his hands.

"Sakura, are you sure that it is wise?" Rider skeptically asked.

"Don't worry Rider. Shirou is more resourceful than you think." The Matou sighed as she closed even more distance between herself and Shirou much to the latter's surprise. "I wouldn't put it past him to have a few tricks and sources in town that even I don't know of yet."

"I will neither confirm nor deny it." The Emiya looked at the girl in concern. "Sakura, are you all right? You've been a bit… forward since I got back up. Did you give Rider too much of your Mana?"

It was an understandable question. Whenever Sakura was low on Mana, the worms implanted into her would go hungry, causing them to become more active, and as a result cause their host to become "active". Initially when Shirou had begun to supply her with extra Mana, the girl had been rather embarrassed and discrete about the whole situation, especially whenever she got the "itch"… however as both of them became more comfortable with their situation her embarrassment turned into what could be best described as an "eager hunger".

She also tended to act far more outgoing in this state and say things that she would never exit her mouth under normal circumstances.

Actually, unknown to Shirou, if anything she was a bit full since she had gone out of her way to store more energy for herself while helping out Rider that day. She originally meant to just keep herself nice and set for the rest of the war, but now…

"Mmm. Well I guess you could say its Mana related." She smiled in a coy way that hinted that all but screamed that they were going to have sex within the next few minutes so long as nothing interrupted them. "Of course, if you're too tired I'm sure that we could have Rider join in and we could figure something out. She is rather good looking after all…"

Rider remained silent throughout the conversation and pretended to remain impassive about it, but even while blindfolded she could easily feel the heat radiating from his face. On the other hand, she could tell that her original Master was not as calm as she appeared to be at the moment, which slightly concerned her.

"N-No. Th-that's all right. There's no need to force Rider into this. She probably wouldn't want to deal with something of this nature anyways." Shirou stammered as Sakura began to drag him away by the hand. He was normally more composed and used to being dragged off by Sakura whenever she got like this, but normally she didn't try to drag in a third person into their escapades, much less when said third person was right there in front of them.

Shirou could have sworn he saw a small twitch in Rider's lips. "I am your Servant Master. I will do whatever you wish so long as it is within our best interests and no harm will come to Sakura."

"See? Rider doesn't mind." Sakura playfully tugged at his arm some more. "Come now. I'm sure you've done this enough times to figure out a good way for all of us to benefit from an experimental three way ritual. Besides it's not as if she's inexperienced. I'm actually curious what they used to do back in the age of gods."

"I am not sure if that is wise Sakura." Rider continued in her usual impassive tone. "Humans in this era are not as sturdy as they once were. I am unsure of which techniques are within your limits."

At this point it should be noted that Shirou's face was as red as his hair used to be out of sheer embarrassment. It had taken him long enough to get used to speaking about the topic with just Sakura. Having a three way conversation on it would take lord knows how long. "Whatever it was that I did to offend either of you, I'm sorry. I'll do whatever you want, just stop please."

Another almost twitch was seen on Rider's face. "I will keep that in mind. Regardless it would be best to conclude your business with Master soon Sakura. I believe if we go any further he may be unable to perform for the night."

"You two are making yourselves to be my biggest threat in the war. I hope you're proud of yourselves." The outnumbered male grumbled.

"Oh stop being such a child." Sakura admonished mockingly as she finally managed to drag him to the bedroom. "Most men would kill to be with two beautiful females like us at the same time. Saber isn't that bad looking either…"

"Most men could also easily be killed by any of you as well, and Saber would probably end me if I even suggested at such a thing." Shirou muttered under his breath, but still loud enough for both women to hear.

Going back into spiritual form, Rider allowed herself to smile a bit from the recent interaction. The casual environment was growing increasingly pleasant to her, even if it was misplaced for wartime. It was almost as if she was back with her sist-

The warm feelings instantly vanished as did the smile on her spiritual face. The memories of what she had become, done, and discarded washed away any pleasant sensation she had had just moments before. She did not deserve what she was receiving now. She would accept it reluctantly, as her Masters would likely not leave her alone until she did, but she knew better than to take it for granted. It would not change the original who was still renown as the Gorgon Queen, the monster that could petrify with but a gaze. The best she could do to redeem herself in her cursed eyes was to prevent more unfortunates from ending up like her.

Both of her Masters were at the top of that current list.

She would only willingly accept generosity offered directly to her. Shirou's cooking was admittedly top of that list, although the clothes that Sakura had gotten her earlier that day were not unwanted either, but ultimately it was pointless. She would serve her purpose to save the girl and then disappear like she had intended when she had first materialized into the world. No matter how much any other possibility seemed to entice her, this was what would happen.

o. o. o.

As hard as it was to maintain rational thought while having sex with Sakura, Shirou couldn't help but feel something was off from the get go.

As they let their carnal pleasures take control over their movements, the Emiya almost instantly noticed that his partner was a bit more energetic than normal. The kissing was heavier. The overall movement was more radical. They had broken out into a sweat faster than any of their previous sessions. There just seemed to be more… energy this time.

Not that he minded of course. Despite his rather blank personality at times he was still a hot blooded male, but it did catch his notice.

Then again, he didn't really see what was really going on until when they both climaxed at the same time. It was something they had practiced so often that even with the changes they could read one another's signs like a book and with a little bit of focus match their releases with surprising precision, which of course was needed for a successful tantric ritual and universally acknowledged as the hardest part…

… Well hardest next to the fact that the ones doing the ritual also had to focus on and transfer their prana into their partner WHILE climaxing at the same time.

And younger Magi wonder why the rituals weren't employed more frequently by their seniors.

However the reason why this ritual was different was made clear during this instant. Instead of what normally happened where Shirou would pour his energy into the girl into his arms, the reverse happened.

Shirou's lungs went up his throat at the unfamiliar feeling of a small flood of Mana somehow flowing up his privates and spread out through his body and restoring his reserves, which had been near perpetually low since the war started, to well over halfway full. It was completely unexpected on his end and despite the fact that he was still in a very pleasant situation, it was not something he wanted to experience by surprise again anytime soon. "Urg… S-Sakura…?"

"Honestly. You really are too kind for your own good sometimes Shirou." The Matou smiled gently, not letting go or making any movements that indicated that she was trying to harm him. "Even when you were in your condition you still didn't hesitate to try and give me your prana at the slightest request… or were you actually doing it because it feels that good?"

Regaining control over his body from the sudden shock, Shirou realized what exactly had just happened. "Sakura! It's too dangerous for you to do that! If you run too low-"

He was silenced by a fast kiss that occupied his mouth.

"Have a little more faith in me Shirou. I know my body better than you do." Sakura's gentle retort escaped her lips while in between breaths. "Rider wasn't the only one that got some extra energy today. I just shared some of it with you. My body can hold more than yours, remember? I still have more than enough for you to end some of the competition before we need to really do this. Besides, if you fall because you don't have enough energy then it doesn't really matter how much I have does it? You're the one fighting everyone, not me."

Shirou tried to be at least a bit irritated at the girl, but it was kinda hard while he was still inside of her and they were still latched onto one another like they were.

"Even so, you should have thought of something else. I don't want to put you in a worse position than you already are." He grunted softly. "It was only a couple of days ago that you had your home burn down right on top of you and you were nearly captured by Caster."

"But that's why I have you here. My foolish sword in black armor… capable of wielding all the blades in the world in an instant…" As soon as she said those words, she stopped moving and her grip on him tightened slightly.

"Sakura?" Shirou blinked, unable to see her face as her head was right next to his. "What's wrong? Are the worms acting up?"

"… No. I… you shouldn't be doing this." She muttered as if talking to herself. "You've done so much already. You've put yourself at risk for me so often just so Rider can't use up my Mana. You're giving me the grail so that Grandfather will undo what he did to me and free me from the Matou name. You who already have a future and a name at the Clocktower… It's not fair. I'm not worth it. I'm little more than a human after what Grandfather did to me. The vampires. The War. Grandfather. I love you but… but… why? Why me? Why am I so special that you trust yourself to me without a second though even though I'm the reason why you are always getting hurt? It doesn't make sense."

It was then that Shirou noticed that she was shivering in his arms. Fear. Depression. Guilt. Anxiety. Any and all of these were coursing through the girl's naked body, even when he wrapped it into his arms tightly.

"… Because I think you are." He whispered softly, making her body still once more. "Because I know that you're a good person. I don't care that your body is tainted, because mine is just as bad. I have no right to complain about your past since I can't remember half of mine. I trust you with all my heart because I know you'll keep me from doing something stupid just like you'll know I will protect you with everything I am. If anything I'm not good enough for you given how much danger I attract."

The girl in his arms sniffed heavily. "I'll manage. And Rin? Do you trust her too like you do me?"

The teen paused for a moment as he had to take a moment to process her words. He was a bit surprised that Sakura would bring up her sister, but then again he shouldn't be surprised given the rivalry they had. "… Yes. I don't know if you'd appreciate that, but even though Rin's a bit of a sadist at times, I know she's just as trustworthy as you are, and I care about her just as much. I'm sorry if you don't like that but it's how I truly feel."

Much to his surprise though, the girl let out a sigh. "Is that so? I guess that's a bit of a relief…"

"Eh?" Shirou blinked in confusion. "What do you mean? Most women would get mad by that answer."

"You're right. Most would." The crying girl laughed tiredly as she rested her head on his shoulder. "Most women wouldn't be taking care of a completely selfless idiot like you though."

o. o. o.

Deep underground, a small hive of worms slowly began to turn and come to life once more. The sound of wet rocks rubbing together and resembling a distorted human's laughter could be heard if anyone had been unfortunate to be within the disgusting chamber.

The source of the noise had felt its prized project suddenly lose a good deal of Mana. Not a defining amount, but more than enough to weaken its defenses and allow the creature to establish its influence in the oncoming days.

"Well then. This was slightly unexpected, but not unwelcome. I suppose I can work with this for the time being…"

o. o. o.

Servant Stats :

Lancer

ID: Cu Chulainn

Alias: The Hound of Ireland

Master: Bazett Fraga McRemitz

Alignment: Lawful Neutral

Strength: B

Agility: A

Mana: B

Luck: E

Endurance: B

Noble Phantasm: B+

Class Skills:

Magic Resistance: C

Personal Skills:

Battle Continuation: A

Disengage: C

Divinity: B

Rune Magic: B+: At this level, the servant is capable of utilizing all 18 original runes and more recent ones in perfect tandem. Is capable of high level thaumaturgy with enough preparation.

Protection From Arrows: B

Noble Phantasms:

Gae Bolg: B

Gae Bolg: B+

o. o. o.

Archer

ID: Gilgamesh

Alias: The King of Heroes

Master: Kirei Kotomine

Alignment: Chaotic Good

Strength: B

Agility: C

Mana: B

Luck: A

Endurance: C

Noble Phantasm: Ex

Class Skills:

Independent Action: A+

Magic Resistance: E

Personal Skills:

Charisma: A+

Divinity: B (A+)

Golden Rule: A

Noble Phantasms:

Gate of Babylon: E-A++

Ea: Ex

o. o. o.

A/N

It's ALIIIIIIIVVVVVEEEE!

Sorry about the wait people, but given what I want to do in the near future of this fic and how the last chapter ended off, writing this one was a pain in the ASS. Which is why I focused on TTRT for the past few months.

Oh. And then there's the whole… intensive job training, summer grad school, getting three certificates in three months, and moving soon to Jersey for a job that's sending me to Jacksonville Florida in January thing.

First things first. This right here? The "sex scene" with Shirou and Sakura? Yeah, that's the closest you'll see me to ever writing a lemon in fanfiction. It's not my thing. I'm not good at it. But it had to be done for the plot so I just got it over with.

A quick reminder for anyone who forgot, in the last chapter Rin hinted at Sakura at just how messed up Shirou was in the head as a result of her dreams of EMIYA's past. Sakura on the other hand, slightly misinterpreted it and now she believes (albeit not without reason) she's been selfishly driving Shirou to the brink with regards to the war and that unless she does something he will pretty much kill himself in the process… which is technically true and very possible knowing Shirou.

Same thing goes for Shirou's and Saber's talk. I just had to get it out of the way seeing as there are going to be a lot of other massive snafus to be dealt with in the story. Saber's not instantly cured of her mindset and goal, god forbid I do something that corny, but you'll see in the next few chapters that she's less… motivated would be the best word to describe it.

All in all, FFD Shirou is a hybrid personality that is predominantly like HF Shirou but with a little UBW mixed in. Because of Kiritsugu's machinations, FFD Shirou is focused on his loved ones above everyone else where as UBW and FATE Shirou were focused on saving everyone and HF Shirou was primarily focused on Sakura only. Like post UBW Shirou though, he is more aware of his faults and limitations, but still dedicated to his goals and protecting his close ones to the point of doing very irrational things.

The main difference though is that FFD Shirou is trained in both thaumaturgy and tactics, AND has his father's information about the war, which affects his decision making greatly compared to in the story. His irrational decisions have more logic in them, but still push to ensure that he's the last one protected if he has to weigh his safety against others. His instant decision to supply Sakura with Prana even though he himself is rather low without a second thought exemplifies that.

For the Lancer Saber fight… Gonna admit it right now, I pulled that one out of my butt for the hell of it. It just seemed to fit to me and honestly I think it fits more given for what I have planned for later. Plus… I just wanted to use Lancer with his runes boosting his abilities. There is no way that could not have been cannon at some point considering that Bazett does nearly the same thing. Damn Kotomine and nerfing a solid character like that.

Yes. I know. Nobody has died yet (Shinji doesn't count, he's not a person). It takes me forever to do kill off characters, but it's hard for me to do that when I actually have good setups for them later in the damn story. The standard war is roughly two weeks long in cannon. If FFD's plot goes as I envision it, this one will be nearly twice as long and for damn good reason. There are at least TWO scenes that I wanted to add to this chapter and each would have been a major cliffhanger, but I didn't because it was already long enough, so I'll put them off for later chapters.

And as for Bazett having banshee kids as legs… yeah. Some very interesting things are going to come out of that. Heheheh.

On other news, YAWALEH's tv tropes has a character page now, but it needs some lovin people. Give it so much love that would have Flonne pass out in sheer ecstasy! NAAAOOOO!

And a bit out of place, but I have a Fic challenge. I have been looking for a Fate story that fits this very simple criteria, yet it does not exist! Not on Space Battles! ! Or Beast's Lair! This Must Be Corrected!

The Challenge is simple! KIRITSUGU SUMMONS SABER ALTER IN THE FOURTH WAR!

That's it. I don't care how you do it, why it's done, or how it ends. Someone just make the damn thing and make it good. This means realistic character interactions, reactions, and how the change influences their behavior as the war progresses. I can already tell that Lancer and Caster's actions would completely change due to this compared to cannon.

So… that's it people. I'm tired. Sleepy. And already planning out the next chapter in my head, which was FAR easier than doing this one.

REVIEW! WORSHIP THE LOG! SOMEONE DO MY DAMN CHALLENGE ALREADY! AND REVIEW AGAIN!


	31. Chapter 31

Chapter 31: Contortion

I do not own Fate/Stay Night and stuffs:

o. o. o.

"Something interesting occur?" Kirei asked with a hint of curiosity as he opened the door to the wine room where he found Gilgamesh drinking some of the stored contents. "You are not normally out this late. I hope you did not do anything excessive."

"I suppose you could say that my day has been rather informative," Gilgamesh replied, his ever present smug grin on his face reflected back from his crimson drink. "I learned of a good deal of things. Some irrelevant. Some surprisingly worth noting."

"Oh? That is a rarity." The priest expressed some disbelief at that as he sat down and served himself a very small glass of wine. The Servant in front of him was extremely difficult to appease most of the time, especially in this world. He didn't bother to inquire the prideful Servant of the information, as doing so could be seen as an insult. Still, for anything to catch Gilgamesh's attention was a rarity and as such probably meant it would cause a huge stir in the future.

The Servant let out an amused snort and looked at him as if he knew something rather amusing at the expense of his partner. "Indeed. In fact I have not been this curious since our last excursion ten years ago. It is a rather pleasant delight considering how boring this world is. A breath of fresh air in a sense."

"I see. So that is why you have decided to have some of the nicer wine tonight," The priest mused as he swirled the fluid in his cup. To be honest he had yet to come across anything truly monumental or particularly interesting in the war save for maybe Emiya's son participating and plotting. True, there had been some abuse of the Servant summoning procedure on several counts, but nothing that he had considered out of the ordinary given the nature of the war. None of the Servants had died yet even though several fights had occurred, and he was still waiting for Shirou to enact whatever little scheme the young Emiya had planned for the war in particular. To be honest, he was quite curious as to what the boy could do to force his hand to help with his schemes.

The blonde man chuckled. "Come now Kirei. Do not lose faith just yet. In fact this war may prove to have a good deal of potential to be a grand source of entertainment. So much so that I have tried my own hand at spawning a small piece myself."

"What?" That had Kirei's full attention, forcing him to look up and narrow his eyes at the King. "You mean to say that you revealed yourself to the participants? This early?"

"Come now. You know me better than that, Kirei." Gilgamesh drank without a care. "My existence has not been revealed in the slightest." It had merely been confirmed. "No fun would come out of a story where the cast is aware of the audience. I merely gave a few of the plebeians a direction to look and am now standing back to watch my fruit grow."

The priest frowned but said nothing. It would not end well if he critiqued the one in front of him, and if that was the true extent of the King's actions that day he supposed that it would be inconsequential to the end result of the war… or it might affect everything. Regardless it would not matter. The Servant in front of him was capable of fighting all of the other contestants in this war at once and come out on top. That was just how overwhelming his power was.

"I am eager to see how it turns out," he finally stated. "However, for the time being please keep your actions to within the Church. It would be quite troublesome for me if the others established a relationship between us."

"I suppose. The knowledge would disrupt the play should it be known by the cast." Gilgamesh's sigh sounded as if he was making a minor sacrifice on his part that he only vaguely did not want. "I hope you will compensate me for this, Kirei."

The human didn't so much as flinch. Normally when his partner said something along those lines, he had to shell out a good deal of money for one or several bottles of particularly expensive and rare alcohol. He had long since given up on collecting the drinks as the high maintenance King seemed to down the stuff like water.

Thankfully the Church's funding was more than enough to obtain a few bottles of tithe.

"I will see what I can find," the holy man conceded without any hesitation before holding out his cup. "Well then. I suppose a toast is in order. To the King's show."

"Humph. Indeed." The light sound of two golden cups was heard only by them. "Although I suspect that you will enjoy it far more than I this time around, Kirei. Be honored."

o. o. o.

She felt as if she was suffocating.

She didn't know how or why, but even though she was above ground she could not breathe. Air filled her lungs but there was nowhere near enough oxygen to circulate properly.

Oddly enough the world around her was in a blood red hue, as if she and the rest of the world was under a dyed sea where hundreds of fresh corpses had recently been disposed into.

It hurts.

It huts. It hurts. It hurts. It hurts. It hurts…

Hungry.

Yes. On top of struggling to breathe, she was starving as well. Her hunger hurt her as much as her inability to breathe adequately. The combined strain in her chest with the crushing pressure in her stomach was maddening.

And yet there was also a pressure off of her chest as well. She had admitted her love to Shirou. She had made love to him on multiple occasions, however it was the first time she had said it outright. That night had been exhausting on so many levels, but it filled her in a way that she had forgotten since she had been adopted into that loathsome family.

… He didn't return her feelings that night, at least not verbally. He had been too worried about her condition and the situation at hand to probably notice it when they were talking. However she didn't need it. That night he had been more into their session than any of their others. He held her tighter. He kissed her rougher. There was more energy in him… granted just moments before it had been her energy, but that didn't matter.

She didn't need for him to say it. She already knew that he loved her even if he didn't normally act like it. The tainted girl loved the broken boy and he loved her, and that was enough for her to ignore her pain for now.

So she danced and hummed in the crushing pressure that befell the commercial district of Fuyuki, unable to breathe correctly and starving to the point of being crippled.

It did not take long for her to tell that something was wrong. The pressure and hunger was painful enough, but she could not shake the more distinct feeling that something was clearly off.

This dream was unusually lucid. The sensations she was experiencing were too distinct, and underlying them she was recalling something else. Something familiar. Something that she normally was able to control…

She saw some things moving in the distance. A couple of figures were walking down the street towards her.

Without bothering to think about the situation, she swayed some more while moving into one of the nearby alleyways that littered the city. The one she entered in particular she believed went on for a while before it came close to a remotely active road, especially this late at night.

Night? Ah. Yes, it was nighttime. She paused to look up at the sky and saw the moon in the distance, tainted red from the crimson water that had flooded her world.

"Ah… beautiful…" She whispered. Even altered the nearly full moon had an unearthly presence to it that she had never noticed till now.

She remembered occasionally seeing Shirou staring up at the moon on occasion absently after the incident with Louvre… after he himself became tainted. It made sense now that his connection to the satellite was the cause for it, but even so this was probably the first time she wondered what he had experienced when looking at it. She didn't feel any personal relationship to it like Shirou probably did, but she was aware of its unparalleled significance now.

It was akin to looking at an impressive statue as an artist when the statue itself was in tribute to something irreplaceable to the locals. Both parties admired it, but for significantly different reasons.

Just looking and losing herself to the image in front of her was enough to further lessen the pain that still assaulted her existence in this twisted world.

Perhaps she could do this with Shirou next time. Just dance without a care and look at the beautiful moon in the sky…

She was broken out of her musing when something grabbed her shoulder and spun her around roughly.

"Oi- are y- girl? Do- na have so- un?"

She frowned at the thing in front of her. How dare it interrupt her enjoyment of the moon? Of her furthering her connection with the one she loved more than anything else on the planet?

Reaching out to the thing in front of her, she decided to make it go away so that she could go back to her previous activity. As fast as the eyes could follow, black and red fabrics shot out and skewered the man in front of her, spraying blood everywhere, covering both her and the man's paralyzed comrade.

"Wh…at?" She blinked in confusion as she looked at the extended appendage. She knew what this was, but why was it here? She didn't go through the normal procedures to make them, no, she didn't even notice their existences in the first place.

Had she not been surprised, she would have noticed that the hunger that assaulted her had abated just by a tiny margin.

"Wh-! Monster! T- Fuck! H-!" The other person screamed as he fell backwards in fear. The smell of urine met her nose, adding to the list of more than unpleasant sensations she was already experiencing.

Unfortunately for him, simply attracting her attention in her current state was a self imposed death sentence as a small wave of black erupted from the shadows around her and caused his body to disappear from the world.

Realizing that something was wrong with this dream, Sakura shakily looked around at her surroundings and herself, seeing that she had far more control over what she was doing than she should be. Her hands came into view, bloodless, but shaking as much as she felt her body was at the moment.

It was then that she noticed that the darkness that enveloped her was moving around. Her shadows were writhing dangerously in their natural environment almost like Zouken's worms, waiting for the nearest prey to enter their clutches and almost completely independent of her will if she wasn't paying attention to them.

_Eat._

It really was impossible to breathe now.

_Eat._

Her stomach was contorting so badly that she swore her organs were tearing apart.

_Eat._

Her attention was drawn to the corpse that was still there. She didn't know why but the mere sight of it made her mouth water. This pile of flesh in front of her that used to be a person would be able to release at least some of the strain that was tearing her stomach apart.

_Eat. Eat. Eat. Eat. Eat. Eat. Eat. Eat. Eat. Eat. Eat!_

"No…" She stumbled back away from the corpse. The world was becoming more lucid and clear, however the pain would not abate in the slightest. "No… not now. Not when I'm so close…"

Despite moving back, the darkness around her continued traveled forward to the free meal, spurred on by their master's subconscious thoughts until they were right on top of the body.

In terror she watched as the darkness converged on the body. Deep down she knew if it continued, as she was right now, something in her would change.

_Thump thump._

Shirou.

_Thump thump._

If she continued with this, and Shirou found out…

_Thump thump._

Shirou, who had been hiding even more than her, who was as twisted as she was, who had worked as hard as he could to control everything for her sake… how would he react to her turning to a thing that ate people without hesitation?

No… he would still love her as he would always do. It just was the way he was… but how would he be able to live and support someone who was straying even further from that which could be called human?

_Thump thump._

She already knew. He would follow her without a second thought down the pit away from the safety of a comfortable life…

She could not allow that.

_Thump thump._

_No. I don't control much in my life, but this…_

"NO!" She shouted, for the first time not talking to herself since the nightmare had begun, pushing through the pain and trauma to establish dominance. The worms in her body began to thrash around wildly as their host battled for dominance, but she paid them no mind. She had already killed two men in cold blood and done… something, to one of them.

Enough was enough.

"The mistress bears the transparent blade.

Her tears of blood give it color.

Neither sees the change.

Neither care about its taint."

The words came from her mouth with a combination of force and anger. The aria that she had never thought of before calmed her mind and claimed absolute control over the shadows. Her entire torso was tearing itself from the inside out, but it did not matter now.

"The blade has no equal.

It tethers her to life.

The mistress has no future.

She is tethered to the abyss.

Her reign has no definition as her land does not exist…"

Her shadows had all but halted, no longer following her subconscious desires and slowly retracting back to her. She could feel the hold of whatever had pushed her into this state losing its grip on her existence. If she could feel her body outside the pain, she might have felt her teeth grind to the point of causing her gums to bleed.

She could tell that she was not here. Not completely at least. She was still at Shirou's home sleeping and experiencing this unholy nightmare. All she needed was a little more control to get rid of her current "self" and return to the reality that she had enjoyed with all her heart.

"…Thus her rule is unquestioned."

Everything around her disappeared, enveloped in a sea of perpetual darkness. There was no light, no life, no conflict, no nothing…

And it never felt more right to her…

…

She was sitting up in her bed in the middle of the night. Her stomach was in pain but she felt more like throwing up than eating bodies. Her lungs sucked and expelled air rapidly, functioning properly for the first time in what seemed like an eternity. The world no longer had a crimson hue. There was no blood near her…

And yet the pain and stress was still echoing through her body.

"Sakura?" Rider materialized next to her. "Is something wrong?" The Servant was completely unprepared for the girl to reach forward and hug her waist tightly. Judging from her uneven breathing, she was on the verge of crying.

"… Just… just stay like this for a little bit Rider." Her original Master mumbled into her stomach.

Rider hesitated for a few seconds, clearly not comfortable with the close contact or the situation, before managing to relax and gently support the girl with her arms. "Alright."

The human's breathing began to steady slightly. "Don't tell Shirou. He's already working too much for me. There's no point in worrying him now."

"… If that is your wish."

"Thank you, Rider."

It would take the girl twenty minutes to get back to sleep again, her dreams filled with nothing but calm emptiness.

o. o. o.

Emiya Residence:

"SHIIIIIIRRRRROOOUUUUUU!" The familiar sound of Taiga bursting through the front door of the building was made known to all. "BREAAAAKFAAAASSSST!"

"Yes. Yes. I heard you Fuji-nee." The owner of the building replied from the kitchen, making eggs, toast, rice, sausages, and other quick pieces for the morning.

After his time with Sakura last night it had taken him some time to get back to sleep. Again he had dreamt of Rider's past, solidifying his suspicions that physical proximity had something to do with which Servant determined what he dreamed of next since Saber went out driving.

All in all though, he was quite certain that he never wanted to stab a god and goddess in the face as much as he did last night. Obviously the legends forgot to mention that Poseidon was a god that wouldn't take no for an answer, and Athena favored pride more than common sense.

"She must have had some coffee from home before coming over." Sakura sighed tiredly as she prepared the plates in the dining room. "She isn't this loud in the morning otherwise."

Shirou caster her a brief look, noting her lethargic demeanor and the small shadows under her eyes. "You okay? You said that you were good, but…"

"I just had some trouble sleeping. That's all." The Matou smiled weakly. "Don't worry. I'm in control of everything."

"Ohoooo?" The sole human adult in the building grinned as she approached the pair from behind. "Is there something that I should know about you two? You haven't done anything I wouldn't approve of, have you? You can tell Nee-san. Your secret's safe with me."

Shirou and Sakura looked at one another skeptically. Technically they HAD done what Taiga was jokingly insinuating, along with other surreal and potentially illegal activities, but they weren't going to tell her that…

"No, Sensei." Sakura smiled sincerely. "We were just talking about the secret war and conspiracies that we are currently involved in that may or may not involve our violent deaths in the near future."

… Or maybe they were.

"Oi! Sakura! Are you serious?" Shirou frowned in frustration.

"Sakura!" Taiga recoiled with a gasp. "Even if that was a joke it was too much! I thought we told you to hold back on the dark stuff this early in the morning!"

Refuge in Audacity. The nobles of the Association do not use this tactic when dealing with secrets, probably because they gave people the impression that they sucked at humor and imaginative sarcasm to pull it off believably. Other than them though, it was still very commonly used among everyone else involved in their world.

"Sorry, Sensei. It was a bit much. I guess I'm a bit more tired than I thought." The culprit admitted with perfectly displayed fake remorse. "I'll be more careful next time."

"Scary…" Shirou shivered at the girl's ability to get around sensitive situation. The more he saw it, the easier it was for him to believe that she was Rin's sister.

"Come to think of it, you do look a bit off-kilter." The teacher frowned as she got a better look at the girl. "Are you sick? You're a bit pasty."

"I'm just a bit tired. I'll take an aspirin or two before going to school for my headache." The Matou reassured the woman as she put the dishes on the table and sat herself down. She had made sure to keep enough hidden away in the kitchen for the Servants to have later when Taiga left and Saber got back. The King of Knights had yet to return from her biking excursion from last night. "That reminds me, do we still have school?"

"Surprisingly enough, yeah." The eldest human there instantly began to serve herself sizeable portions. "The guys at the temple are a bit freaked at the damage that's been done on their property with the fire, but so far the only thing being enforced has been the curfew. No one's targeted the school yet or anyone during the day so classes are still on. Clubs are out though, so there's no point in coming early for now."

"I see." Shirou mused as he brought the rest of the dishes to the table. "That's a relief. It's good to give everyone a sense of normalcy while the police deal with the situation."

Oddly enough Taiga snorted in disbelief. "Hah. Yeah right. Let me tell you something Shirou. Gramps has told me that the badges around town haven't been doing jack other than covering up everything these past few weeks, but even his moles on the inside don't have the slightest clue on what's going on. It's suspicious as hell if you ask me."

The students looked at one another skeptically. It wasn't like Taiga to have an interest in the town's chaos or bring up her illicit family activities. Actually, she normally put more faith in the local police than her family when it came to maintaining the peace. "Fuji-nee, is something wrong? You don't normally say things like this."

The adult pouted as she swallowed some of her food. "Well, what do you expect? People are passing out left and right all over the place, not to mention the fires that are starting to pop up, and nothing seems to be done about it by the people that are supposed to. Of course I'm a bit frustrated about the entire thing. At this rate one of my precious adorable students could be hurt soon."

Shirou didn't have the heart or lack of common sense to let his teacher know that at least half of the fires started recently were made BY said precious students, himself included.

"By the way…" The woman looked around curiously. "Where's that cute little friend of yours? Saber?"

Speak of the devil and he shall appear. Or in this case walk in through the front door.

"Shirou. Are you present?" The King of Knights asked hesitantly as she walked in through the main entrance of the room.

"I'm here with Sakura and Fuji-nee eating breakfast Saber." The only male there replied calmly from his seat. "Come on over and join us. Have you calmed down?"

Arturia walked in with a tired expression. Physically she was in top shape as she was a Servant and was always being supplied Prana from Shirou, but mentally she had no doubt been contemplating her conversation with her Master ever since she had left. "Yes."

"What the heck happened to you?" Taiga blinked owlishly as she began to eat once more. "You look worse than Sakura."

The King of Knights frowned momentarily and looked at the other Master present to assimilate the teacher's words before reigning in her features. "… Forgive me for my late appearance, however I required time to myself to contemplate certain decisions I have made in the past."

"And have you made any final conclusions?" Shirou asked with a hint of worry.

"No, however I have at least become more… comfortable, with seeing different perspectives on the subject." She sat herself down, again tending to avoid eye contact with her Master in shame. "Shirou, I must also apologize to you for my lack of judgment and care. Unfortunately I was so preoccupied in my thoughts that the Hayabusa ran out of gas without me knowing. I spent the last hour walking back to the house with it."

Shirou would have said something about how the gas was of no issue, but he couldn't as Taiga was busy spitting pre-chewed food into his face. It was quite impressive seeing as they were on opposite sides of the long end of the table. Her lungs apparently not only gave her loud volume but good distance as well.

"Ha-cough cough." The teacher gasped for breath before rapidly drinking down the water in front of her. "Ha-Hayabusa?! Shirou!? You actually let this tiny girl ride that monster?! What the hell were you THINKING?! Even YOU have trouble controlling that beast after it goes past a certain speed! And you were the one that tweaked it out and know it better than anyone else! I thought you were more responsible than that!"

Shirou couldn't really blame his sister figure for her reaction, save for maybe not aiming her projectiles in his direction. His bike really was a monster to control, and as skilled as Saber was, he had to admit that she was small enough that the initial image of her riding the bike was rather comical.

Still he could have done this without getting half a prechewed breakfast sprayed all over his face.

Thankfully, while he stalled for time by wiping his face clean of ground up eggs and rice, Saber took the initiative. "I understand your concern Fujimura-san; however, they are unwarranted. I am more than capable of managing the bike to its full capabilities. While I am not a skilled mechanic like Shirou is, you can consider my riding abilities to be of that level. Not once had I feared for my life during the times I was on it."

"TIMES?!" The adult stared at Saber's impassive face before turning to Shirou in disbelief. "As in plural?!"

"As funny as it sounds, she's telling the truth Nee-san." Shirou sighed before eating again. "I've seen it myself. She's better than anyone under your family's employment. Never seen anyone so natural on a bike before. I've managed to learn a few things from seeing her in action to tell you the truth."

Half truth, but still technically not a lie.

"She was one of the main reasons I managed to get out of the fire," Sakura added her two cents helpfully, shamefully looking away and embarrassed to great effect. "If she didn't get there when she did…"

"Urk." Sakura's contribution to the argument seemed to pierce through Taiga's defenses and forced the woman back with a flinch. A quick asking glance at Shirou and Saber followed by a pair of shallow nods was all that was needed to confirm the story. "B-but I thought that Shirou was the one that got her out."

"How do you think I got there with so little trouble?" Shirou continued to eat casually, again utilizing some play on words. After all, if Saber wasn't there, Rider probably would have been killed and he would have had to deal with both Casters at the same time.

Groaning in frustration, the teacher glared at the Servant. "Are you some sort of illegal underage street racing prodigy or something?"

Saber couldn't help but recall her fights against the previous Rider and the two current Casters. "Nothing of the sort. I merely happen to be skilled when it comes to utilizing vehicles of all types. The Hayabusa, while it is an exceptional piece of machinery, is not beyond my ability to control." She began to serve herself some more food. "And once again, I must restate that I am older than I appear."

"But… but…" The teacher looked around at everyone in the room nervously only to see that she was not going to win this one and sagged her shoulders in defeat. "Fine. I'll ignore it for now. Just please don't let anyone see you on that thing. A bunch of gramp's men would go nuts if they saw someone other than Shirou riding it."

Shirou nodded, silently patting himself on the back for putting on the rune sequences that make it easy for normal people nearby to ignore the bike as it ran. "Consider it done. I know I've only known her for a short amount of time, but I know I can trust Saber with at least this."

"Even if she forgot something as simple as remembering to refill the gas?" Taiga skeptically grumbled, her bad mood slowing down her eating rate to roughly a third of its normal pace.

The Emiya couldn't help but feel as if Rider, who was invisible and by the door, was secretly amused by the jab at the stronger Servant. At the very least he could tell that his original Servant was embarrassed by it given by the way she was looking away with the slightest hint of shame and embarrassment.

He couldn't blame her for that oversight. She was a bit stressed out when she left and he was the reason for her being in that state after all. Still it was a humbling experience for the former King. Forgetting to refill a bike was like forgetting to feed her horse back in her time. True the stable boys and squires were the ones responsible for feeding the animals, but any experienced knight would have been able to tell that the horse was hungry in the first place.

Plus, he wasn't sure if she had any money on her to get gas in the first place. He'd have to address that before he left. Perhaps Rider would want some as well if she felt the desire to get something for herself. "Yes. Even though she forgot to refill on gas."

"Can we talk about something else please?" Sakura interrupted. "Like going to school? We still have to get ready."

"Education and maintaining a sense of normalcy to the public are indeed important." Saber nodded sagely before narrowing her eyes at Shriou. "However, is it wise to go still? Given the current situation, it would be safer to remain at home."

The rest of the magically aware people in the room knew instantly of what she was talking about. Since Saber couldn't go to school and Rider was still recovering, it would put Shirou and Sakura in a poor position to defend themselves should they be attacked. With Rider in her current condition, she would only be able to hold off against the weakest of the enemy Servants by herself reliably.

"Mmm." Shirou confirmed as he finished the last of his second serving. "Like you said Saber, going to school is important. Our futures in the end depend on it after all."

Taiga blinked skeptically. "… Since when have you been so keen on your education?"

o. o. o.

Fuyuki High School:

Rin Tohsaka was not in a good mood.

That was the general idea that passed through any and everyone's mind the second they either saw or walked past her that morning. Oh sure she appeared to be the same as normal that Monday morning, with her perfect posture, kind smile, and proper vocabulary…

But the bags under her eyes, the thinly veiled insults, and most importantly the aura of pure irritation around her said otherwise to pretty much everyone.

EMIYA hovered above her silently, not at all bothering to inform his Master that her efforts to maintain her image were in vain given her classmate's reactions so far. He had no doubt that she had long since figured it out herself but would keep up with the charade regardless. It was a matter of pride for her.

Plus, he was technically the reason why she was in such a bad mood in the first place. If he bothered to say anything superfluous now he wasn't exactly sure how badly she would react at the moment.

Rin had not taken to learning of Saber's identity very well, and for good reason. There were a number of famous historical figures around the world, but exceptionally few of them were as recognized by the entire global population as King Arthur and his sword Excalibur. The fact that EMIYA had tried to withhold that info from her dealt a huge blow in her trust in him, not that he could blame her.

EMIYA had initially intended to either kill his younger self or Saber at the end without Rin's approval from a distance to win her the war if she still intended on going for it. Of course there was the whole tainted grail problem that needed to be dealt with first, but he was certain that his Master could have managed the issue in time. He didn't really care about this reality much as it wouldn't give him his desires, but he still didn't want to bring about the end of the world or kill more than what was needed.

… Well he might as well kill his alternate self here if given the chance. The kid obviously wasn't his past self, but it might do something regardless in the end if he was lucky.

Now though that was nearly impossible as his Master would be keeping him on a tighter leash and second guessing his every word and action. Not to mention that the differences from this world and the one he originated from was constantly catching him off guard and annoying him to no end.

The better prepared version of himself. Rin's knowledge of his magic and past. Assassin's different identity. Sakura's open relationship with everyone. Lancer's original master. Just when he thought he had figured it all out to start planning his own moves another change would show up that would throw everything out of whack…

A slight tingle at the back of his mind caused him to turned around to see Luvia's car stop in front of the school gates.

There was another change he wasn't too eager to see. He had met the Edelfelt in life yes, but after the war and when he was training in the Clocktower. He had nothing against the girl personally and had worked with her on a few occasions but…

… Well, he was unfortunately there when she and Rin blew up the dormitories in London and had absolutely no interest in reliving that experience in any way shape or form ever again.

What was of interest, though, was that the blonde girl from Europe did not seem to be having a good day either given the remarkably familiar aura she had around her.

"_It seems you weren't the only one that had a rough weekend."_ The Servant mused out loud, knowing that his Master would at least want to know of the state of her personal arch nemesis that morning.

Rin had enough self control to not instantly make a scathing comment to her Servant as she turned around to see Luvia in just as bad of a mood as her. _"And her Servant?"_

Archer shrugged. _"It appears to be in prime condition, but I am unsure about specifics."_

The Tohsaka's eyes narrowed as she recalled what Sakura had told her about Luvia's servant the previous day. _"Be on your guard regardless. So long as she has prana on hand Caster is a credible threat. Also keep an eye out in case Assassin is nearby as well. Four Masters go to this school during the day after all. It would be a prime target for him."_

"_Understood." _Of all the Servants that were in the war, Assassin was the one that Archer wanted dealt with the most as soon as possible. At least with Berserker it was easy to tell how he was going to try and kill you and where it would come from. True, you had to kill the freak of nature and magic twelve different overkill times. However, unlike many of the other times he was summoned, the Counter Guardian actually had full access to his powers from the get go this time so he was sure he could pull it off so long as he didn't have to fight up close from the start.

Rin didn't wait to encounter the blonde as she continued on inside. She wasn't in the mood for their usual back and forth, and they'd have to deal with one another's presence all day regardless since they were in the same class. Shirou was in another class of the same year and Sakura was their underclassman so there was no chance of them talking to anyone until lunch.

A brief scanning around her classroom told her that no one had laid any traps of any sort inside, so the school idol decided to waste no time going to her desk, put down her books and sagged into her seat. Normally she was better at controlling herself when she was exhausted, but yesterday had been exceptionally trying and today would be no better. She didn't want to see anyone, let alone talk or think about them. That went double for Shirou at the moment given how much of a pain his future self was. But lo and behold she was going to the one place that pretty much everyone was going to be at once.

She should have forced Archer to make her coffee black this morning. It would have made her talk to him more than she wanted, but some sacrifices had to be made.

"Tohsaka," a haughty voice greeted her from behind her, much to her ire.

"Not in the mood this morning Edelfelt," the native stated in a monotone voice. "Can this wait till lunch?"

"Oh? You actually bothered to be productive this weekend? I'm surprised."

"So does that mean that you've dealt with your sister and that other Servant she's teamed up with yet?" Rin grumbled, not caring if anyone else heard her at the moment. Normally people did try to listen in on their conversations, but on a Monday morning people were either too busy trying to wake up or gossiping with their friends about what they did over the weekend. "Because in all honesty, the sooner Assassin is dealt with the better."

"_Smooth Master. I thought that we weren't supposed to start fights during the daytime." _Archer sighed and shook his head. He watched as Luvia stepped back in mild surprise and anger. This would not end well.

"How did… humph. Emiya must have told you no doubt. No matter. I have been occupied with other matters the past few days." The blonde attempted to regain her composure. "Things that have obviously slipped past your lazy eyes."

Rin frowned and turned around. "What the heck are you talking about Edelfelt? And since when did you start calling Shirou by his last name?"

Luvia leered at the native with a level of pure irritation that was new to the Tohsaka and was no doubt about to say something when people began to walk into the room. Class wasn't about to start yet, but it was about the time for more students to start walking in. As such it was no longer possible to talk about such sensitive information. That being the case, she instead turned to her seat. "Emiya's been holding out on everyone Tohsaka. I'd be careful of him if I were you."

Rin skeptically rose an eyebrow as the other girl walked away. _"Care to tell me what that was about?"_

EMIYA was at as much of a loss as his Master. _"I'm honestly as confused as you are."_

His master frowned seeing as her Servant left his answer open ended. _"Let me rephrase this. Do you know what she was talking about? Yes or no?"_

"_No. Not in the slightest."_

"_Do you have any idea or guess as to what she could be referring to?"_

"_Considering the fact that she still has her Servant? No. I can confidently say without lying that I do not have any idea, hint, or clue that could point out what she is angry at my past self about."_

"_And your knowledge on Medea of Colchis?"_

"_I only remember that her witch variant was a tricky and shrewd Servant that undermined the rules more than she followed them. She did in fact take up residence at the temple and she wields powerful magic from the age of gods, and despite what others believe, I do think that she is Assassin's Master. I recall absolutely nothing on her other self and I definitely did not remember their joint attack on the Matou residence."_

"_And Assassin?"_

"_Nothing." _His voice darkened to express his frustration. _"Truth be told, it is as if I was expecting a different spirit protecting the temple."_

"_No mysterious sense of Déjà vu then?"_

"_I…" _He paused. Archer didn't know why, but for some reason he DID feel as if he had met that Servant before, but he honestly could not tell where. The other changes in the war he had managed to reason with, understand, and connect the dots, but Assassin… he just didn't understand the connection there. _"There is… but it's… misplaced. That's the best way I can explain it. I don't understand why myself." _

"_Wonderful. As always you've been a great help then." _Rin's scathing comment was made just as the school bells rang. _"Now be quiet will you? I'm going to have a hard enough time paying attention to class without you confusing me more than I already am."_

EMIYA rolled his eyes. _"Careful. You almost sounded like Shinji for a moment."_

Rin paused. _"Shinji? You mean Shinji Matou?"_

The Servant blinked at his Master's sudden change of tone. _"Sakura's brother? Blue hair? Decent looks for a teenage male? Womanizer? Can't open his mouth without saying something offensive? Yeah. Him. Come to think of it, he hasn't been at school since I was summoned…"_

"_Shirou… Shinji Matou has been dead for two years."_

The Servant felt an ominous chill down his spine. _"… What?"_

Rin's anger abated and genuine concern started to fill her body. _"Shinji Matou died two years ago after encountering the son of the Dead Apostle Ancestor Louvre and was turned into a Ghoul. You with me, Bazett MacRemitz and Sirius McGinty teamed up and killed him and his family in the following week. That's when you caught the eyes of the Clocktower. Don't you remember?"_

"_No… I don't." _EMIYA was honestly stumped. Shinji was dead? For so long? But… how? As much as he disliked the worm for his actions which he had found out later in life, EMIYA had remembered that the idiot had served a purpose in giving Sakura prana through is actions. She NEEDED prana from an outside source in order to survive. If Shinji wasn't there anymore than who could have possibly…

It hit him like a ton of bricks.

It was obvious who had taken Shinji's place in this world. Shirou Emiya was already working with Sakura in the War and had supposedly already been close to her at the time. It would not take much to suspect that monster Zouken had already played some cards after the supposed vampire incident to guilt his other self into protecting her without informing him of what she really was. Shirou Emiya was a fool like that.

He could see more pieces falling together now. Instead of Shinji becoming Rider's substitute Master to reduce the strain on Sakura, Shirou served the role instead despite the drain that supplying two powerful Servants with prana would do. It would explain the near perpetual state of exhaustion he had seen the teen in since being summoned. It would also explain how the boy was so quick to Sakura's aid when she was attacked at her home…

The Shirou Emiya of this world was still a hopeless idiot as he had expected… however Edelfelt was right. He was far more capable and withholding secrets than his original former self.

The idiot was not at risk of possibly throwing his life away to save another's life. He was already doing it, albeit in a slightly smarter way.

"_Archer? Is something wrong? Did you remember something?"_

His Master's voice was worried now. Her earlier anger was gone as she felt his shock, frustration, and finally anger run through his being. He could not blame her. His memories had been a touchy subject since his summoning. She had assumed that after last night that they would be a bit more accurate or that he was purposefully holding out on her for some reason, but due to his slip up he had inadvertently reaffirmed to her that he still did not recall everything in life, or that his memories were mixed up. It was a mixed blessing in a way.

"… _I believe what I recall is more uncertain that I had originally thought." _He honestly replied with a grave tone. In the back of his head, he made a mental note to keep track of the third Servant that had made its way onto campus just a short while ago. _"It would be best if we did not rely on them for the time being…"_

"_There's no telling what mistakes could be made on my misinformed judgment."_

o. o. o.

"Edelfelt-san. Would you please come to my office for lunch? There is something I wish to speak to you about." Kuzuki's monotonous voice snapped Luvia from her bored daze as she struggled to stay awake for class.

History was important, but there was only so much a teenager could stand before they passed out no matter how violent or convoluted the topic was at the time. More so if said teenager was participating in a secret war during the night.

"Ugh. Sure, Sensei." The foreigner nodded half-heartedly as she grabbed her food and made way to the door. She barely noticed Rin giving her a curious look as she made her way out, but didn't bother to make any sign that she had noticed or respond. The Edelfelt didn't know why the teacher wanted her, but she wouldn't give the Tohsaka the luxury of that knowledge. She doubted it was of any importance anyways.

A few minutes later she had made it to the teacher's office area where all of their desks were located and organized… or not in one Taiga Fujimura's case. It wasn't peculiar to see the room nearly devoid of teachers during lunch time as many of them often had some sort of patrolling or supervising duty during this time, and the rest frequently went out for lunch whenever possible…

But this was the first time she had seen it so devoid of anyone save for the Teacher in question sitting at his desk… and Shirou Emiya sitting at a table nearby with his lunch out.

"Glad you made it here so quickly." The young assassin greeted her calmly but with a tinge to his voice indicating that he meant business.

Instantly on guard, Luvia scanned the room to see if there was any evidence of thaumaturgy that she might have missed only to come up blank. _"Caster?"_

"_There is a subtle bounded field around the door to deter anyone from entering but other than that he has done nothing to this room. It appears he merely wishes to talk, though why the teacher is still here is beyond me. He is not magically attuned in the slightest and his mind has not been altered in any way… however…" _The Princess replied in a dry tone. She obviously still did not trust Shirou for obvious reasons, but she would not lie to her Master.

"_However?" _Luvia frowned as she looked at the history teacher skeptically. The emotionless middle aged man had always unnerved her for some reason. Shirou and Issei seemed to get along with him for some reason, however she always had the chills when around him.

"_He seems more… in tune with the world than a normal human of this era… or rather his breathing does. I have heard of this before although I have not_ _encountered it until now. I believe you refer to it in this time as "Perfect Breathing"."_

"_And you didn't catch onto this earlier when we had class with him?" _The blonde frowned skeptically as she slowly closed the door behind her and made her way to the table. While she was not familiar with the concept in detail, she had heard about people with "perfect" traits before and what they were capable with the right training. The fact that he was here only meant that Shirou had found and exploited this resource long ago from right underneath Rin's nose.

Yet another secret that the Emiya had been keeping from everyone.

"_It is a subtle trait Master. Unless I was paying attention to him in particular, it would be easy to miss. Regardless, I would not underestimate this man. There must be a reason why he is still here with the boy."_

Luvia did not miss the venom in Caster's voice when she talked about Shirou. There was no love lost between them and she herself was not far behind in that department. "I must admit Emiya, I did not expect our next meeting to take place here, or with such company."

"That simply means I've done this right then." Shirou replied in a factual tone as he took out his lunch. "For the moment, I have to request that you do not speak about sensitive topics while Sensei is in the room, or at least refer to them by name or directly. I will explain more once he leaves."

"And if I don't?" The teenage girl skeptically rose an eyebrow as she sat down at the table and looked at the impassive teacher sitting at his desk and watching them without even the slightest hint of emotion.

"Then you've ruined your best chance at getting her back and wasted one of the greatest resources you could possibly get your hands on." Shirou carelessly began to eat in front of her, not bothering to gauge her reaction. The time for soft handed diplomacy had long since passed between the two.

Luvia's flinched at Shirou's rather callous ultimatum should she not follow his rules. True, given the circumstances they were not that difficult to follow but regardless she was not used to being forced into a corner so hard and fast by someone she had once trusted. "Is… is that so? Please. Care to elaborate how this is the case?"

Shirou swallowed his mouthful of food before turning to the former assassin. "Sensei. Has what I warned you of come to pass?"

"Yes. I assume that you and Edelfelt-san are related to the incidents that have been occurring recently given from what I have gathered." The teacher passively confirmed. "The woman at the temple is an acquaintance of yours?"

The Emiya held up his hand to stop Luvia from talking. "Of sorts, however we will not talk about her." There was a warning in his voice that seemed to hint that doing so would lead to unpleasant things. "I need you to do something for us tonight."

"Will it lead to the end of events that have been surrounding the temple?" The teacher frowned momentarily. "The constant disturbances have been causing everyone living there no end of concern. It has been affecting Issei's classwork and studying habits."

"I see. I apologize for that; however, it is something that I had no control over." Shirou bowed his head in remorse for a second before returning to the topic. "I need you to see if there's any part of the temple that you are unable to access or get near. Don't investigate it, merely confirm its location."

"Is that all?" The teacher asked, not at all perturbed by the odd nature of the question.

"That's all?" Luvia asked, bewildered that she had been called over to oversee such a menial task.

Shirou shook his head, walked over to his teacher and took out a marker. "Sensei, hold out your hand with the watch on it. The ink that I'm going to put on your wrist reacts to certain… activity, and changes color depending on how much of it there is. It'll wear away after a day or two. Black means it's inert. Then it will work backwards down the prismatic color system starting with violet down to red. See how low you can get it but avoiding attention will be your biggest priority. It will also remind you of this favor in case you forget for some peculiar reason."

"I see." The teacher nodded as he looked at his wrist to see the black almost violet dot hiding conveniently behind his watch. It would be easy to conceal. "I have until this wears away at the latest. What is the preferred time frame?"

"By tomorrow if possible, but don't push yourself. A solid general location is just as good." Shirou nodded. "I'm sorry I can't explain more at the moment, Sensei, but I will in time. Thank you again for your help. Now I need to talk to Luvia about some things in private."

"I understand." Kuzuki evenly acknowledged before gathering his papers and walking silently out the door to the room, not at all bothered by the fact that Luvia had not talked to him since entering the room.

"Care to tell me what that was about?" The foreigner skeptically asked in a calm tone while Caster materialized next to her. She was irritated at Shirou's actions and behavior, but even she would admit that there was a rarely seen professional interaction between the two males just now.

"The Witch has set up shop at the temple, and Sensei lives there with the monks as well as Issei," Shirou elaborated. "Given that it would look odd if people simply disappeared or left the temple at once, there is little doubt that she must have cast some spell on the residents there that react to certain uncommon topics or words. Talking about thaumaturgy or inquiring about her in particular to him would no doubt potentially trigger them. Likewise, removing them would inform her that Sensei is no longer under her altered control…"

"I see." The Princess closed her eyes in thought. "By using my counterpart's confidence to your advantage, you have effectively placed a spy in her midst to gather basic, yet critical information on her. In essence, you have just asked the man to zero in on where Caster's main workshop is, or at least where Marjatta may be residing."

Once more Luvia could not help but shiver at the degree of control Shirou had on the war. It seemed that he had managed to get a worm or a hold on virtually everyone participating in it before the fighting had even started. "I must admit I am impressed, Emiya. Even I would not have suspected that Sensei was working for you."

"He's not." Shirou shook his head. "I merely spar with him on occasion. Believe it or not he's a former assassin. This is the first time I've asked him to do anything else but fight me."

"Assassin?" The foreigner blinked in surprise. "You mean like your father?"

"No. Sensei's skills lie in martial arts and his position as a killer was… not his original choice in life. I don't know much to be honest, but he is trustworthy. His style on the other hand is not like anything I've encountered on the job." The teen mentally shivered as he recalled fighting the man. True he had not been using reinforcement, but even so it was a horrifying style to go against, especially if you didn't know what it was like. "… Actually, after his position as a spy is done, I am allowing you to make use of his abilities in the war if you wish."

The two females blinked in surprise before the human of the two snorted in disgust. "Other than a spy? How, may I ask? He's a normal human with some interesting physical skills, but that is it. Do you mean to say that I can use him as a convenient distraction? I must say this is a poor joke even for your taste."

"No. I mean you can use him as a front line fighter, or more effectively as an ambush fighter for the killing blow." His response had no humor in it. "Should Caster enchant his physical capabilities to resemble that of a Servant, and enable him to harm them, Sensei would no doubt be a force that other Servants cannot afford to simply ignore. That is how good he is."

Caster and Luvia looked at one another skeptically, having a hard time swallowing the idea that the somewhat odd teacher could be that big of a powerhouse. "And why may I ask are you letting us use such a potentially devastating individual knowing that both of us are very much inclined to exact our justified revenge on you in the near future?"

Shirou didn't reply at first as he continued to eat some of his lunch slowly before sighing and putting down his food. "… Saber came into contact with Gilgamesh last night."

"That certainly is convenient for you." Caster frowned. "Not even a day has gone by since you revealed your deception and already you are playing this card."

"If you want to risk everything and try and fight off the King of Heroes by yourself, by all means go ahead. I won't stop you." Shirou's ultimatum hung in the air dangerously. "If you want proof, look at my memories. It's all there and I won't stop you."

Luvia shifted in her seat a small bit. Her faith in Shirou had taken a major blow, yes, but she still knew him well enough to tell when he was lying and when he wasn't. Instead she decided to take a different approach. "If he's so dangerous, then am I to assume that Saber is no more?"

The Emiya paused before looking to the side with discomfort. "No. Words were exchanged, but thankfully we did not fight last night. He did not seem to be in the mood for fighting."

"Then why appear at all?" Caster frowned. "What are you not telling us?"

For once the teen hesitated. "It's stupid." He mumbled under his breath. "But he…"

"He what? Speak up, Emiya. We don't have all day," Luvia barked out incredulously.

"He has a thing for Saber all right?!" he snapped with a faint blush on his face. "Saber was summoned in the previous war and because of then he wants her to be his queen!"

Whatever Luvia and Caster were expecting Shirou to say, that certainly was not it given by their dumbfounded expressions.

"Well then…" The Servant blinked. "That is certainly not what I was expecting."

"Seriously?" Luvia was just as shocked as her partner. "He's… into Saber? As in rings, jewelry and flowers?"

"He offered her that in addition to land, gold, riches among other things." The male glared darkly. "He also offered breaking her and forcing her to his whim should she continue to refuse him. He seemed to be extremely pleased when she turned him down again last night."

The almost comical expressions on Luvia's and Caster's faces were instantly replaced with ones of anger and disgust.

"Men." Caster spat the word out like a poison. "Give them power and they all end up the same."

"I take it this means you do not question my story then."

Luvia glared at Shirou. "You are many things Emiya, but even you wouldn't make something as distasteful as that up."

"Glad to know I still have a shred of dignity as far as you're concerned, Luvia." He sighed in resignation.

"While we are on the subject of men, let us go back to our previous subject. Sensei is rather valuable as a spy, however I do not see what his value is after his position is exposed," the other Master spoke up again. "I am somewhat surprised that you would even get another involved in this war that you claim to despise. He is not even a magus. Why would he even help us in the first place?"

Shirou calmed down somewhat before breathing deeply and sagging into his seat. "As I said before Luvia, Sensei's a former assassin, different than Dad though. It was as if he was born and raised for the position. I don't know exactly what he went through, but I can tell for a fact that there was some sort of severe mental conditioning done at an early age. You can't force him to do anything he's against such as hurting his students, but he will genuinely help you out if you ask him without question even if it's dangerous."

"He lacks a purpose." Caster analyzed what she had heard. "Or rather, it is more accurate to say that he is in the process of looking for it for the sake of having one at all. I have heard of people like this before, but none that are as unemotional or self controlled as him. Quite the contrary, most humans tend to be mentally unstable and transparent when possessing this quandary."

Shirou nodded. "I thought the same thing. Regardless, he's aware that something severe is happening in Fuyuki at the moment and my involvement, but nothing about Thaumaturgy or the nature of the war. As you have seen though, he has not said anything about it to anyone so he can be trusted with secrets if you wish. I'm unable to use him much after his role as a spy is done, but you and Caster can."

"And you believe that your encounter with Gilgamesh requires that you expedite your plans to ensure that things to not go awry." Caster crossed her arms and sighed heavily. "It is likely that you would not have suggested our personal utilization of this Kuzuki unless things were dire."

"Just how do you plan on fighting this supposedly overwhelming Servant anyways?" Luvia frowned. "You never went into detail about it."

Avalon. Unlimited Blade Works. Sakura _maybe_. Abusing the Grail itself. Gathering several of the other Servants together at once to fight him. Informing the Clocktower and or the Church as a last resort and instructing them to take covert operations.

And of course, a combination of any to all of the previously stated plots.

"I have several potential solutions, but none of them are assured to work, and all of them take some degree of preparation. At the moment I only have a couple of them at hand but they could be better set up, and others are blocked by Zouken's and Kotomine's positions. Again, Caster's presence could make the aftermath a complete mess if handled poorly. I'd prefer to not do something radical that would attract everyone's attention first before relying on some of my more extreme fallbacks that may or may not lead to the entirety of Fuyuki possibly bursting in flames. Unless the first one or two fail, I'm keeping them close to heart just in case."

"And dare I ask how many of these potential solutions are possible should you and your Servant die?" Luvia skeptically questioned. It could either be a way to determine how bad their situation was, or exactly how vital Shirou was in the end game.

His eyes narrowed, not missing the double meaning of the question. "Roughly a third of the possible strategies would be flat out impossible then, and the rest would be significantly more difficult to complete than if I were to do it."

"Is that so?" Caster leered at the teen with doubt. "You put your abilities that much higher than my Master's? From what I've been told your magic is rather restrictive."

"My abilities? No. Luvia is and will always be a more competent Magus than I will ever be," Shirou agreed with the Servant before his eyes carried a dangerous glint to them. "My resources on the other hand… well you've already seen the evidence a few minutes ago… and Caster... well, she's here isn't she?"

Luvia momentarily grimaced. Despite the fact that she was one of if not the most affluent individual in Fuyuki at the moment, even she could not fathom how many, let alone which circles Shirou had managed to get his hands into. He not only had more than enough time to establish himself in the city that he had grown up with, but two years as the Queen of the Clocktower's personal enforcer.

There was no telling who he had the ear or owned the favors of, not including the fact that he had Direct Access to Barthomelloi herself, something few could claim.

"I have not forgotten what you have done to me boy." The Servant scowled, clearly not fond of the fact that she was only here because Shirou had orchestrated things that way. "You best remember that, otherwise the King of Heroes will not have an opportunity to kill you at all."

"And I will not forget it Princess of Colchis. However please keep in mind that I had only intended for your more… notable counterpart to be summoned. Your appearance in particular was an unfortunate event that I had not expected, planned for, or intended in any way and I apologize for that. Once things have calmed down I will try to make amends to you in any way I can, but for now I must focus on the more immediate issues at hand." Shirou diplomatically bowed his head. He had had a lot of practice at apologizing after irritating the enforcers on more than a few hunts.

Jobs that he was on tended to have a good deal more civilian survivors after everything was said and done than others.

"My willingness to forgive you is not faring well, Emiya, considering the fact that what you said means that I would have been stuck with the Servant of questionable loyalties had your plans come to fruition."

The blonde teen's demeanor darkened. Shirou's eyes matched her own with steel-like resolve. "Had there been only one Caster, I would have already seen Rule Breaker and have killed her by now, thus keeping you safe and out of the War by now, Luvia. I also doubt Sakura's home would be burnt to the ground in that scenario."

"And now?" The Princess' stance was stiff as if ready to move. "Are you still planning to kill me? My Master's Servant?"

Shirou shook his head. "You are not the Witch of Betrayal. You won't endanger Luvia's life on a whim, much less go after the other Servants mindlessly after learning what's at stake. Rider said that you were trustworthy after you two met at my home, so I trust you."

"… Seriously?" Luvia blinked disbelievingly. She would have felt somewhat happy that Shirou had planned on killing her Servant on the premise that it was a threat to her, but the the notion was squashed due to the fact that he was responsible for her summoning it in the first place. "Just because Matou's Servant and mine get along you automatically think that she'll just work with you? That… I mean…" She began to rub her forehead in frustration. "Gah. I'm starting to understand why Tohsaka complains about you sometimes. How have you lasted in the Clocktower for so long again?"

He began to eat again, not at all bothered by the question. "I kept quiet for the most part. You'd be surprised how well the mysterious angle worked for me with the shroud covering my head. Dad's reputation and being picked up early by Lady Barthomelloi didn't hurt either. You were one of the few people that bothered to talk to me on a regular basis when I was there."

A small twitch was seen on the noble's eyebrow. "… I… I honestly don't know what to say after hearing that. I really don't."

"Rin said the same thing when I told her." The sole male in the room snorted before eating another bite of food.

"Forgive me if my hopes of this War resolving without serious incident is not high." Caster's dry comment seemed to drain any mirth there had to be in the room.

"No need. I didn't think it was likely either." Shirou grimaced. "No plan survives the enemy and all that."

"Says the boy that's trying to manipulate an entire secret war." Luvia snarked.

"I've already told you that I've been playing things by ear since the night you attacked Sakura. I've long since given up on attempting on making a single established plan for something like this. Too many variables." The Emiya raised his hands in admittance. "I just know more about what's going on than everyone else at the moment. The longer things take, the less that advantage gets me."

"At least he is not a complete fool. I would have murdered him had he claimed that he had everything under control." No one bothered to question if Caster was serious or not.

"Saber probably would have killed me if she heard me say that too." Shirou shrugged as he focused on his food again. "Anyways there's no point in worrying at the moment. Unless someone acts now, we're not going to do anything for a few more days while I get more info and come up with a plan to get inside. Once Rider heals up we can pick from more options on how to approach things."

"What do you have in mind?" Luvia asked curiously. Shirou was on her shit list, but she could not deny that he was good at what he did when he was on the job.

Before Shirou could answer however, a knock on the door distracted everyone and instantly prompted Caster to go into spiritual form.

"What happened to your field?" Luvia questioned with a frown.

"Doesn't work if they're looking for either one of us specifically." The Emiya put his food away just as the door opened to show Kuzuki. "Sensei? Did something happen?"

"Emiya. Forgive the interruption; however, I believe you would wish to know that Matou has collapsed," the emotionless man stated.

"What?" Shirou's halfway curious expression instantly snapped to one of shock and disbelief. "That shouldn't be possible. She's nowhere near low enough to… unless… shit!"

Before Luvia could ask what the teen was talking about Shirou was already running to the door with a look that instantly made her clam up. Despite being pissed off at the teen, even she didn't get in his way when he looked ready to murder something.

She had been there when an idiotic, albeit fairly well established and a prominent noble at the Clocktower, had picked a fight with Shirou because she believed she was untouchable or too valuable or some other clearly baseless reason. She didn't get much result in his taunting over the course of two weeks, that is until the fool had brought out her fourth fiancée to describe some of her personal experiments regarding puppetry. That and in addition to that she talked about what happened to her previous husbands… ones that were rather distasteful even by the tower's standards.

What came next practically turned Shriou into the boogieman of every puppeteer and familiar user in the Association overnight. Luvia didn't know exactly how Shirou had did it, but it resulted in the fool's soul trapped in the decaying skull of one of her biological puppets (which had apparently been made from parts of his second husband) while its cut, broken, and mangled body slowly bled out for everyone to watch.

It pretty much became an unofficial rule to never genuinely piss off Barthomelloi's Dog ever again after that.

Needless to say, the Queen had been irritated. Not that Shirou had killed a member of a prominent family, one that had only recently inherited her family's crest no less, but that it had taken the Emiya so long to establish the pecking order at the Tower.

The moral of the story though had been that it was never a good idea to genuinely piss Shirou off or get in his way whenever he was.

Making sure to follow from a distance so that no one would think they were together earlier, Luvia followed Shirou and Kuzuki to the medical room where they had taken the underclassman. Caster could tell that they were heading in the right direction as they were travelling closer to one of the two other Servants in the building.

In a few minutes the familiar scent of alcohol and minor chemicals met Luvia's nose as she approached the room and peeked in to see the Matou girl sitting up in one of the few beds in the room. She looked a bit pale, but otherwise fine as she tried to placate the overworked Emiya who was bombarding her with half asked questions. Above the pair, Rider could be felt hovering protectively and ready for anyone, most likely Luvia and Caster in this case, to attack them.

"_Hmm. Now that I know what the girl is… yes I can tell that she has been tampered with." _Caster warned her Master with some concern. _"In some ways she even reminds me of my other self."_

"_Don't tell Emiya that. We are tolerating him for now, but even without Saber he is not one we should make a true enemy out of lightly. As much as I dislike admitting it, he IS helping us at the moment."_

"This is sooner than you thought." Shirou whispered to the bedridden girl in a serious tone so that the busy nurses doing paperwork couldn't hear them. Luvia and Caster however were exceptions to the rule for obvious reasons. "Is it…?"

"Mmm." The purple haired girl nodded with a faint but clearly faked smile. "He's getting impatient. I think it was a reminder, but something was off. It felt more frantic than it normally was."

"That bloody worm. It's not like he's even doing any of the work." The registered killer grunted under his breath. "I know you can hear me you old bastard. If you have anything important to say then show up and say it. Otherwise stay out of this. This thing is hard enough without you making it worse."

Much to the blonde's disgust, whatever was inside Sakura seemed to have understood as it caused the girl to suddenly grab her chest over her heart and cough up a few drops of blood into her other hand. The spasm lasted only for a few seconds, and afterwards the Matou quickly wiped away the evidence before anyone not in the know could see it.

A brief moment later Sakura seemed to have noticed Luvia's presence, which was all the incentive the elder female needed to leave. There was nothing more to be learned for now. Walking away she went back to her classroom to try and eat her lunch with what time she had left, ignoring Taiga Fujimura as she barreled down the hallway screaming her head off in the process to the nurse's office.

"_Master. Do you still intend to follow with his lead?"_

"_For now Caster. Our goals coincide at the moment and he is better informed and connected than we are. Once my sister is rescued and the King of Heroes is dealt with however… we shall burn that bridge when we cross it."_

To be perfectly honest, Luvia had not intended on go through with her contract to kill Shirou if she could help it. She'd _try _to kill him sure, but in the end she doubted that any of her attempts would actually come out fruitful.

The only reasons why she had accepted the job at all in the first place was because her sister had already jumped on it before she knew what was happening, and she worked better with her sister than anyone else in the family thanks to Ore Scales. Marjatta was good, but her planning abilities were not up to par for something like this. They worked best together anyways.

She believed Shirou was, at least at the time, a good friend, a solid contact to the Barthomelloi, a damn powerful fighter, and overall a viable resource for a good range of things. Given how good he was, she had originally planned on encountering him a few times in battle with her sister, make a few elaborate traps, watch him escape, lose, perhaps at best manage to kill his Servant and end his time in the war, and then contact home saying that the job was too much and that Shirou was not worth the current pay.

The last part was technically true by default. The family was getting paid a good deal for Shirou's death, but it was still not common knowledge that he was the one making all of their extremely cost efficient gems that they had been buying in bulk recently. All in all, they would save far more by keeping him alive than they would earn from killing him.

True, they'd also get bragging rights if they pulled it off as well, but it was somewhat of a hollow victory in that Shirou was still rather young and still somewhat riding on the back of his father's reputation. It would have said far more about the Edelfelt family if they had managed to do it when Shirou was at least in his mid to late twenties when he had more to his name, not that it wasn't already impressive enough with an Ancestor kill and multiple Apostle kills.

But with this war being an absolute snafu from the start, and finding out that Shirou had been the one who had decided her Servant in the first place, the Edelfelt had begun to make a good deal of second thoughts.

Her main priorities was for the moment getting her sister, preventing Armageddon, and surviving the damn war. As confident as she was in her abilities, she was not stupid enough to think that she could manage Heracles, the King of Heroes, or a corrupted omnipotent wishing device at once, even if she had her sister and her traitor of a Servant with her. She just didn't have the firepower, the information, or the resources to do it.

Shirou on the other hand apparently did, and from what Luvia had seen she was willing to go with him for now.

However, it still did not change the fact that he had used her. While the blonde did not blind herself with the fact that she was nobility, she was a very proud person.

She had been used the instant she had been chosen as a Master, and that was unforgivable. Even if it was for the sake of the world, to betray her trust was nothing short of reprehensible.

She did not know how, but Shirou Emiya would pay for his actions by the end of the war. In one way, or another.

o. o. o.

One hour earlier:

He stood in front of the burnt property impassively.

It was not the first, nor the worst case he had seen firsthand. He himself had been responsible for quite a number of them himself. It was not exactly a hard thing to do to start a fire or burn down a building.

Doing so with a well experienced and established Magus' home on the other hand took a bit more work and creative thinking. Not impossible, but far more tricky.

Even nearly a week after it burned down, the property was still saturated with a good deal of prana, indicating the potency of thaumaturgy used at the time. The bounded fields surrounding the land and building had all but been utterly destroyed and most evidence that would have pointed out that the place housed magi was gone.

Most of it above ground at least.

It didn't take much for him to find the secret passage that led to the underground catacombs. There was a bit more ambient mana around it than on the rest of the property, even though said entrance had clearly collapsed upon itself so that it too appeared to be a part of the wreckage.

As previously stated, it had already been almost a week since the place burned down, before he had even been summoned. Most if not all magi would have simply inspected the area within a day of the incident, check up on things, and then leave after finding nothing and disregard the location altogether in the end.

This Servant from experience knew better than to follow such faulty logic as he turned into spiritual form to bypass the debris and reform into the stairway that led down into the earth. Without making a noise or a disturbance in the shadows he proceeded without so much as a pause.

He kept his senses out for any potential bounded fields, familiars, or ambient spells, but encountered nothing so far. Given that anyone who wanted to use this area would probably wish to go unnoticed, it was smart that they did nothing. Setting anything up this close to the surface would cause any magus or Servant curious about the area to be instantly on guard and potentially go back to inform others about the oddity. No, if he encountered anything it would be at the bottom where there should be no hope of escape, in the center of the spider web so to speak.

The disgusting smell intensified as he continued downwards, furthering his decision to inspect the ruins. If what he recalled about it was correct, even if he found nothing he would destroy the place. He had witnessed disturbing practices of Thaumaturgy before, but even he had trouble tolerating the continued existence of this particular method, especially on such a grand scale.

His reinforced eyes saw through the dark clearly. Normally he would use his sniper rifle for the task instead, but the catacombs were too small and he needed his hands free. Soon enough the pathway opened to reveal the massive room with walls consisting of unmarked graves…

And the thousands of worms that were writhing on the floor below.

"Hmhmhmhm." The wet laugh of Zouken Matou echoed ominously through the room as a particular cluster of the sick creatures began to take another form. "Well well. I must say I am surprised. I certainly didn't expect to see a Servant here again anytime soon."

Knowing that there was no point in hiding anymore, Assassin canceled his Presence Concealment. He silently and emotionlessly walked out into the open, barely noting the worms slowly crawling out of the graves behind him. They still stayed several meters away from him whenever possible though. Even as the weakest Servant he was still a force of nature that the blind creatures instinctively shied away from.

"I'm afraid that you will not find anything of note or value here, Servant," Zouken continued as his body ceaselessly formed. "While my family was involved in the creation of the Grail system, I'm ashamed to say that the fire took our recorded notes on the subject. As for the Matou heir, she is currently taking up residence elsewhere. Surely you can see why most would avoid this place. As it stands, all that is left here is a single weak and decaying old man."

"Fire boundary. Two meters. Expansion."

Assassin's self explanatory aria took effect, doing exactly as it said and created a bounded field of fire around him in all directions, immolating any and all of the crest worms that had been approaching him from all sides before dimming enough to appear as if it was only burning the floor around him.

He rarely actually used his thaumaturgy in such a direct way, but even he would admit that such spells like the one he used were useful every once in a while. His weapons were useless in situations like this. Truth be told, he was even now only capable of doing it due to his Grail-given Thaumaturgy skill, which was embarrassing considering that most Magi that practiced fire manipulation and manifestation could do this with ease.

He tended to avoid said situations like the plague whenever possible, however that possibility was not available in this case. The tombs were too far underground and there were too many worms around to try and sneak anything in via his standard means.

He needed to be careful around this twisted excuse for a human, lest he be used as a catalyst for another Assassin to appear. Should even one worm get close to him, his life was forfeit.

The revelation of his skills only seemed to further entertain the old worm as his body continued to define itself in the middle of the pit. "Oho? An Assassin class that can use modern thaumaturgy. How interesting. You wouldn't care to tell a curious old man who you are, would you? You're obviously not one who bears the title of Hassan I Sabbah."

The faint sound of Assassin grabbing something metallic under his cloak caused the smile to drop from the pale fleshy face.

"Careful Servant." The fully formed Zouken frowned. "I am merely an observer for this war. There is no purpose in killing me and there will be consequences should-"

BANG!

Before Zouken realized or could even react, Assassin had taken out one of his disposable Noble Phantasm guns out and shot him in the chest, causing the worm to stumble, but not fall back. The sound of the pistol echoed in the room violently as if to make up for its owner's silence to tell the worm user that Assassin indeed intended to kill him despite how seemingly pointless it was.

"… How disappointing." The self proclaimed frail old man grunted as he stood back up, seemingly ignored the fist sized hole in his chest, and the worms that were coming out of it. "I was hoping for something a bit more interesting from you; however, to see a Heroic Spirit rely on such mundane tools has killed that notion."

The worms in the room began to thrash more actively and savagely before beginning to move to the aggressor's position. "I guess I will have to recycle you after a-"

Assassin took out a second gun with his other hand.

"Origin Bullet."

BANG!

The second bullet shot in the room dwarfed the first in everything, giving the impression that a cannon had fired instead of a mere gun. Its use was so loud that the sound practically shattered some of the stone in the room, and the gun it had been fired from was nothing like the pistol used in the other hand.

The impact on Zouken was clear as instead of stumbling, the feeble man had literally been blown back from the impact and landed harshly on the bed of slime and tissue that made up the floor.

But there was no bullet wound this time.

Instead roughly half of the worms that had made up Zouken's body, apparently the half that had been channeling prana as they were used as substitute magic circuits, self destructed while he was in mid air, taking out another third of the worms in the explosions and marring the rest.

What remained was a cadaver consisting of chopped worm meat in traditional loose clothing writhing in pain.

Likewise, the mindless creatures that were purely driven by their hunger and their maker were rendered near harmless as they thrashed in the agony and confusion transferred by their master.

"What?!" Zouken spat out blood and worms in surprise with his already decaying body falling apart rapidly and drive his prana all but wasted in the process. Due to the nature of his craft he did not die, and likely would not die given his powers. The damage probably would have been worse if it didn't take little to control his weak familiars, but the feedback was painful and horrifically messing with his control.

Even as he began to force the remains of his failed body to fall apart to save the worms that had somehow managed to come out unscathed, he knew that it would take a good deal of effort to reform his body later. The man had long since adapted to feeling his mind, body and soul themselves in a constant state of decay; however, this pain was entirely foreign to him. "What is this?! What did you do to me Servant?!"

Kiritsugu didn't respond as he put his weapons away under his cloak, took out two napalm grenades and began to focus his prana. Early in his career, he had learned that enhancing explosives in particular with thaumaturgy was a suicidal thing to do unless you intended to use them immediately after said upgrades. Then it was only slightly suicidal. "Augment compounds. Firestorm setting. Magnify output. Break Phantasm."

The moment after he had tossed the now glowing explosives into the sea of worms, Assassin had bolted up the stairway as fast as he could, completely ignoring the shouts of rage coming from below. The bombs may have been his Noble Phantasms, but that did not mean that they lacked the ability to kill him if he was in their blast radius.

Indeed, about halfway up the stairway the explosives had gone off, illuminating the pitch black tomb with equally blinding white and orange fire that consumed everything and rapidly travelled in every direction, including up the only way out of the hell. However it was not enough to overtake the Servant as he reached the end of his path and turned into spiritual form to get past the final obstacle before exposing himself to daylight once more. Behind him the rubble that had obscured the path had been partially knocked away and several gouts of flame burst out in every direction, but none that would harm the Servant or the surrounding landscape. His broken phantasms were powerful yes, but most of their output had been dampened by the bounded fields within Zouken's sick excuse for a workshop.

Straightening himself out, the Magus Killer didn't bother to look at what he had sown nor did he bother to check to see if Zouken had truly died. If he were asked, and bothered to answer, he'd admit that the monster was one of the few magi that could survive the devastating effects of his ace in the hole without help. The old man used his familiars likely more often than his circuits for most of his mysteries, which explained why the worms that made up his body had practically blown up upon contact.

The odds the Magus dying from the assault was still unlikely. Zouken had long since shown his ability to survive when he shouldn't have from Kiritsugu's memories. However that didn't matter now.

The inhuman priest had informed him during their meeting that he had been waging his own minor war against the worms that pervaded Fuyuki, albeit he didn't go into specifics. Combined with the Servant's recent purge of the Catacombs, the elderly Magus would be forced into a corner and more importantly, be desperate.

Desperate people did things. And doing things tends to draw attention.

As he left the premises, Kiritsugu noted that despite being in the tomb for five minutes at the most, his clothes had unfortunately taken in some of the terrible smell. He'd be able to and would replace them once Tools of the Trade reset again; after all there were Servants that had strong enough noses to point him out if he wasn't careful. But until that happened it would be best to keep his distance from his so called Master.

The woman was intolerable enough as it was. The less reason he gave her to talk or complain to him, the better.

o. o. o.

In a hotel:

"If you even consider saying that your ankles look fat, I will stab your heart. Just letting you know."

"Actually I'm pretty sure that females of this era focus more on their waists, rears and bust."

"You obviously have not been in many relationships then. Trust me, women will find virtually any reason they can to hate their body in some way if they can."

"Do I look like I am capable of engaging in established relationships with the modern day female?"

"And trust ME Lancer when I say that if you keep on talking on that subject, I will use a command seal to make you sodomize yourself with your spear."

"Now now. Please mind your language Ms. MacRemitz. There are children present after all."

Bazett scowled at the Servant, Vampire, and human sized Rat King as she sat on the couch in a white button up top and green boxers, and looked at her new legs.

The left leg, which had originally been blown off above the knee, now was wrapped in tattoos that resembled three intertwining chains of dry red leaves starting at her thigh and all the way down to her foot where it split apart and around her foot like the lines on a plank of wood. In a way it reminded the human and Servant of the markings they saw on Merem's hands that no doubt extended up the limbs. The right was similar to the left, only the dry golden leaves imprinted on it started from her mid calf downward.

It was a strange experience for the Enforcer in that while she KNEW that these legs were not really hers, she could not help but admit that they felt… well… like her legs. She felt it when she touched them, and she could wiggle each toe as easily as she could before. It was almost haunting to remember that each limb was now a small child that looked to her as a maternal figure.

"So, they can still hear everything then?" She started off slowly, warily looking at the limbs as if they were going to do something suspicious at any moment.

"Oh yes." The King of Rats nodded pleasantly. "The children are aware of everything you are."

"It's rather convenient when I forget things." Merem added. "My limbs are able to remember them for me… well you are at least."

"Yes. It would be somewhat amusing to see you asking your right arm for detailed information." The left arm chuckled amusedly.

"Well that's a mood killer." Lancer chuckled. "Anytime you'd try to go far in a date you'd either have to go legless or ignore the fact that you'd be having fun with a couple of adolescents having front row-"

Bazett instantly held up her left hand which held her violently glowing command seals. "Keep talking. I DARE you."

"Now now. There's no need to resort to such things. We are capable of sleeping, for lack of a better term, while attached to our hosts." The left arm laughed nervously. "Please do not be concerned about that."

"_We can be quiet." _A soft voice echoed in the woman's mind, suddenly putting her on guard for a few seconds before she realized where it came from.

"They spoke to you didn't they?" Merem easily determined what the Enforcer's reaction meant. "Don't worry. It takes some getting used to, but it's no different than what familiar users experience with more capable servants. At the very least you speak the same language. My legs require… more basic methods of communication most of the time."

"Will they interfere with my magic?" She asked skeptically. "I put runes on my clothes and sometimes use reinforcement."

"No doubt the latter was from Shirou." The vampire smiled. "No. For all intents and purposes, the young banshees are as much a part of your body as they are individual beings. They are dual existences that satisfy one and both positions whenever you wish."

"That's nice and all but can they do anything while they're like that?" Lancer looked at the legs curiously. "I mean… other than being legs and give Master headaches?"

The question had the vampire and his separated limb pause. "Well, normally no they wouldn't, but I'm afraid I am unsure in this case."

"Unsure?" Bazett frowned for good reason. "Why?"

"We stated it before did we not? Your blood has unique and potent properties," The King of Rats elaborated. "Your… daughters for lack of a better term, are young and have yet to adapt or learn of their powers yes; however, we can tell that their latent abilities are incredibly potent. I am not that familiar with their legacies in particular, but I do believe that they have the potential to be as powerful, if not more, than those that attended the Irish kings of old. I recall that the O'Brian clan's Banshee in particular was rather powerful…"

Bazett swallowed heavily. While there were a good deal of legends in Ireland, Banshees held a particularly strong position in them and not just because they originated from their lands.

The wailing women, the Bean Sith, the Fae of the Mounds, these creatures were held with a sort of reverence back home. Their songs were omens to indicate that someone in a family had or was about to die soon, supporting that they possessed a unique ability that resembled a specified hybrid of both clairvoyance AND precognition, something that was extremely hard to come by in a single species or existence.

They had been so respected and idealized that it was almost standard for any great clan in the older days to have at least one as a member of court. The banshee that the King of Rats had been referring to, Eevul, was so strong that she had twenty five other banshees at her beck and call, and she only cried when a truly significant or holy existence died. To put it in perspective, the latter was something that was also signified with the wailing of numerous banshees at once.

Hell, almost _any_ family that had some sort of relationship with them in the past had the prefix O' or Mac' before their last name. Seeing as her last name was MacRemitz, apparently there had been more to her family history than she had remembered.

Still… the ability to determine when death was near… yes, it could definitely come in handy in the near future.

"… I know I'm in a war and their powers will come in handy, however I am still a bit unsettled with the fact that I will be in fact taking advantage of making small children cry on purpose." The young woman frowned skeptically.

"You wouldn't be the first or worst perpetrator of that act in the history of the war," The King of Rats mused. "I believe the Caster of the previous battle in addition to his Master were both renowned for their carelessness and cruelty to the general public and often focused on women and children."

Bazett shivered. She had talked to Waver briefly about the Grail War when she had first gotten her seals. She had seen some disturbing things on the job, but what the veteran had described to her was nothing short of an affront to Gaia and Alaya themselves. "Thank you. I so very much wished to be compared to Gilles de Rais of all people."

"Bluebeard?" Lancer raised an eyebrow as the name jogged his memory. "That nut got summoned in the last War?"

"From what I've learned, his master possessed the same depraved mentality as he did," The rat priest added.

"Ouch."

"Can we focus on more important things than psychotic murdering Servants, please?" Bazett sighed as she began to stand up and slowly walk around to see if everything was in order. "Back to the… my legs. Solomon, unlike you I do fight up close and with my limbs. Will that be any trouble?"

The Apostle Ancestor looked at his limb warily. "That I am afraid is up to you and the young ones. So long as you keep them and yourself in shape, they should be able to handle impacts as well as your old limbs could… however any real damage done to them will proportionally be dealt to the girls and vise versa. My right leg was heavily injured against this war's Berserker, and as such when he returned to me it was broken in several places and bleeding in others."

To prove his point, the immortal lifted the pants leg to reveal his slender, pale, and distinctly bruised leg. "On the other hand, as our limbs are certainly not normal in origin, they do heal significantly faster than their originals. Mine would obviously recover faster than yours… but then again your limbs are peculiar even by the normal standards, and Banshees are known to tend and look after the dying. It would not be abnormal to assume that they have healing abilities of some sort."

"_I… I think we can do that…" _The 'younger' child's voice echoed in the woman's mind. _"We helped clean Mommy's legs when she was asleep and they got better faster… I think…"_

The Enforcer frowned at that statement and looked as where her real limbs ended. It had only been roughly half a week since her limbs were blown off but the stumps that were now the ends of her legs were nearly healed now. They were a bit red and sore true, but they didn't need to be wrapped anymore. At first she had thought that Lancer or Merem had done something, but now she was wondering if that was really the case. The Fae were supposed to possess unknown potential after all.

"_Is something wrong_, _Mother?" _The 'elder' child asked telepathically.

"Er… no. It's okay. I'm just thinking," the woman muttered out loud, appearing as if she was talking to herself.

"So then," Lancer sighed as he sat down on the bed. "They can cry, scream, and or sing when someone is about to get killed, and maybe heal. … It's not much but it's better than what you had before."

"Shut up, Lancer," the Master absentmindedly commanded him before deciding to test out the "girls" a bit more and began to hop around while switching martial arts stances, first going through a quick few small evasive maneuvers that relied more on footwork than legwork. Mentally she tried to reach out to the children to try and communicate silently. _"Let me know if I do anything that you find uncomfortable or painful. I need to know what our limits are."_

"_Yes_,_" _both voices replied simultaneously as their mother figure thrashed out her fists in a quick shadowboxing pattern before kicking out her right leg, pretending to cave in the right half of her imaginary foe's ribcage.

"Do I have to feed them regularly or can they survive off of just my prana?" Two punches to break through the enemy's guard and an elbow to shatter their sternum.

"The latter." The King of Rats watched with some curiosity. It wasn't often that he witnessed martial arts that weren't used by the Church. "However we are capable of both, and tend to be fonder of the former. I for example am quite attracted to pizza of all types." He licked his lips at the thought of his guilty pleasure, revealing that is tongue was checkered in red and white squares.

"Do I have to worry about them doing something erratic while connected to me?" Two subsequent roundhouse kicks. The first to the enemy's left thigh to break their stance, the second to their head as they collapse from the first hit, potentially snapping the neck. So far speed and reaction time is within acceptable limits.

"No. When they are with you, they are for the most part dormant," Merem answered with a casual smile. "You're the dominant existence in that state, even if you're unconscious. As time goes on and they grow up this will not change, their connected forms will always take the shape of what your limbs should be with respect to your body. I've altered my right arm several times over the years but it always looks the same when it reattaches to me."

Lancer snorted. "Heh. That right? Oh it's gonna be funny in a few years having a couple of teenaged banshee girls going through puberty stuck to your OI!" The Servant ducked as his Master's left kick nearly collided with his face. "What was that for?!"

"Take a wild guess," said master grumbled. Given from how her body felt she'd probably need another day or two to recover, mainly focusing on regaining prana and getting rid of her bed sores. Odd or not, her new legs seemed to work and feel just as fine as the originals did if not more; she was unsure if she considered it a good or bad thing.

Regardless, she continued with her routine as if she didn't just try to kick off Cu Chulainn's head.

It got even harder to focus when she heard the laughter of two girls in her head.

This was going to take some time to get used to.

o. o. o.

Emiya Residence:

It had been over twenty minutes after Taiga left with a full stomach before he had arrived.

They knew he had come before he had knocked on the door because the bounded fields around the home had triggered the instant a foot had crossed the premises.

Tapping into his home's magical security, Shirou had instantly been able to see who his uninvited guest was even if the man had made no efforts to hide himself in the slightest. Clicking his teeth in irritation and prompting Saber to follow him, the owner of the property walked to his front door and opened it.

"Mhmhmhm," Zouken chuckled as he stood seemingly harmless in front of him. "You have an interesting set of defenses and fields Emiya. The trigger itself is quite an unexpected design. A shame you will probably never let me study them in more detail."

"You have a lot of nerve showing up after what you did earlier." The teen asked evenly, "What do you want? You never make house calls personally."

"And for good reason. There is a reason why the elderly are not allowed to do strenuous exercises boy. Our bodies aren't meant for it." The worm user's false grandfatherly sense of humor slipped through. It was frequently used to drop people's guard, but neither party truly believed that would happen now. "Come now. Aren't you going to invite this poor homeless old man in? Where are your manners?"

"They are saved for the trustworthy." Saber stepped forward without tearing her eyes away from the man. "The fact that you have triggered the fields to my Master's home proves otherwise. I have heard of what happened with Sakura during the day. Explain yourself."

The seemingly harmless old man's disposition darkened. "Humph. You may have reason to distrust me; however, I assure you that today's events were not of my intentional doing. What happened to my granddaughter was merely an unfortunate aftereffect of what I had to deal with."

"I find it difficult to believe that you dealt with anything Makiri. You said it yourself that you prefer to hide in the background and watch everything play out." Shirou frowned, using Zouken's original name to drive the point home. "Because of what you did I'm set back another couple of days so that I can restore both Sakura's prana and Rider's condition before I can confidently go on the offensive again."

"That is true boy, however I am currently left with few options after what Assassin came for me."

The news of the mystery Servant caused both Shirou and Saber to blink in surprise. "Assassin? Why? He is paired with Caster at the temple. She shouldn't even be aware of your existence," Saber asked completely bewildered. Pleasantly surprised in fact, however she did not reveal that much emotion.

"Regrettably, I have no lead on that." Zouken's irritation at the situation was clearly heard in his voice. "He may have been investigating the catacombs in the hopes of stealing some of my work. He may have been after me in particular for some other reason. I have nothing to go on. The only words he spoke were to activate his mysteries and Noble Phantasm. As much as I dislike to admit it, at least he was not like the other brainless Servants in this and other Wars and did not gloat about his abilities."

He did not say that he had barely managed to escape with enough worms and prana to reform his body, or that he had spent the following hours recalling all the few remaining worms he had in the city to an underground cavern that not even rats could reach.

His home. His workshop. His research. Virtually all of his work had been destroyed in less than a week. It was more than enough to cause the five hundred year old magus to thirst for violence.

"I do not care what your plans were for this war boy, but I have a new condition. You will kill Assassin, the Casters, and all of their Masters first before any of the others. My legacy has all but been wiped off the face of the planet thanks to them."

"I was already making plans for them in the first place, Zouken. The Caster at the temple has been tapping into the leylines of the city and is causing the mass faint spells. Assassin is capable of attacking others during the middle of the day without revealing Thaumaturgy or the War. Both are priority targets. While individually they are not that great of a threat, together and situated at the temple their danger levels have increased to the point that I have to approach this with caution," Shirou bluntly told Sakura's "grandfather" without hesitation. "As for the other Caster, I have been making plans that utilize her abilities to make dealing with the former two more manageable. Once they are taken out, she will pose no issue."

Saber glanced at her Master calmly. Her Master had revealed his plans without exposing his true intentions or complying with Zouken's wishes of killing the Masters, or the Princess for that matter. But at the same time he had revealed enough information that would indicate just the opposite.

"I fail to see how Assassin would pose that great a concern Emiya." Zouken frowned. "From what I could tell, he was exceptionally weak compared to your Saber."

The King of Knights nodded darkly. "That may be true, however Assassin's threat level is greatly magnified when within his own territory. The reason why Rider is currently recovering is because of a failed attempt to get to Caster by both her and Archer, who at the time was unknown and was encountered just before the assault. He held them off at the same time and would have killed them had they not retreated."

Zouken glanced at the blonde. "And where were you?"

"Here with Shirou and Sakura. My Master was still recovering prana and could only sufficiently support one Servant in battle at a time. He decided to use Rider to scout the temple when we encountered Archer and decided to proceed."

"You've made your request and now you know I'm already working on it." Shirou stepped forward. "Unless you have something else to say, I have a few things to ask myself."

"Hmm. Well I guess I can humor you and listen to them. After all, I came here to do that in the first place." The man chuckled darkly. "It does sound like you need some help after all. You look quite pale."

The fact that the old man's flesh was so white he was practically transparent was not missed on anyone.

"I need some way to find or locate you," Shirou bluntly stated, ignoring the bad joke. "That wasn't a problem before, but with your home burnt down I have no idea where you could be hiding. The only reason why I knew you weren't killed in the fire was because your familiars in Sakura were still alive."

"Hmhmhm. Well then, how convenient. I actually had a second request upon coming here." Zouken's laugh sent down more chills down Shirou's spine than he normally got.

"No," the Emiya said on reflex, knowing exactly what the request was instantly. "There is no way you are staying here. I forbid it."

"Come now. Where's the infamous hospitality of the Emiya household that I have heard of for the past few years?" The old man's mocking smile did nothing to ease the tension in the air. "It would be nice to spend the night in same building as my lovely granddaughter again after the traumatizing experience of your home burning down around you. Don't tell me that you want to have her all to yourself?"

"Bastard." Saber stepped forward threateningly. "Continue to speak in such a manner to my master and…" Whatever she was going to say next was interrupted as something loud fell from inside the building.

"_Shirou! Something is wrong! Sakura has collapsed and is clutching her chest!"_

Rider's sudden message was all Shirou needed to confirm his fears as he glared at the old man in front of him with murder. Unlike when he was a child, Shirou Emiya did not yell explosively when he truly got angry. Instead he oddly enough donned a cold and ruthless persona unnaturally similar to his father's. "Careful old man," he warned softly as the field of blades in his soul began to slowly shift. "If she dies, you die too."

"Hmhm. Yes, but from what I can tell at the moment, her continued living will require a… joint effort, on both our parts," the more experienced magus amusingly replied the boy. Clearly he did not believe that Shirou could make do with that threat, even if he secretly was on his last small stores of worm familiars.

"_She's beginning to lose consciousness!" _Rider's mental voice was beginning to show far more signs of emotion than he would felt comfortable with coming from. It was a sign that it was getting far worse than she was saying.

The Emiya grit his teeth in frustration but did not turn away his gaze or move his face. "You will abide by my rules, the Sixth head of House Emiya. You will leave everyone else be, especially Sakura. You will not appear in front of guests. You will NOT have a workshop here, nor will any of your experiments, nor will you perform any thaumaturgy here without my permission save for that which keeps your body together. You will not touch my workshop. You will not expose any of my secrets to anyone else once you leave. In exchange I will supply you with a room, food, water, free entrance to my home, and the protection my home provides."

"How generous." The Matou scowled, clearly not as fond of the conditions.

"Take them or leave them. You are the one who wanted to stay here in the first place. Save for your interactions with others, the conditions is the same as what I grant anyone else that stay in my home." The home owner didn't budge. "I am going to have to adjust my bounded fields a good deal to account for you simply being inside."

"I will need to store my worms somewhere nearby in order to maintain my body," the elderly man noted.

"Not in my home you're not. I'm already making an exception for the ones that make you up and the ones in Sakura's body. I am not the reason you have lost both your home and your workshop, Makiri, and you are already intruding on my home. Do not embarrass yourself further. You can hide the rest in the woods down the street. I'm sure that it isn't too far for one of your disposition."

"Humph. Arrogant little brat. Fine. The Head of House Makiri accepts your terms of hospitality." The old man clicked his teeth. Both males knew it was a shallow vow that would not be followed during an extended stay; however, both doubted that it would last long regardless.

"Now if you don't mind, I would appreciate it if you would refrain from toying with Sakura, lest you void the terms of the agreement." The Magus Killer frowned.

Without so much as flinching, the elderly man cut off his connection to the worm around his granddaughter's heart, enabling her to blood to flow freely through her body again. "Hopefully you have an adequate room for me to stay in."

"I don't have any tombs on hand, so you will have to make due." Shirou turned around and slowly walked back inside, guiding Zouken, with Saber following in the back to ensure that he does not do anything. "I have traditional Japanese rooms, and I believe I have one western room left."

"A pity." Mocked the five hundred year old demon. "Give me the western room. I have never adapted to this land's bedding style, and at my age it would be difficult to pick myself up from the floor."

Doubting that greatly, Shirou walked through the living area with the old man, trying his hardest to ignore Sakura's look of surprise as they passed, out through the outside hallway, and to the end of the admittedly large property to where the designated room was. Thankfully it was far from where everyone else would rest and recover, so Shirou didn't have to worry about him trying anything while they rested.

"Here it is." Shirou showed the room. "Unfortunately dinner has already been made, so you'll have to wait for breakfast for food. Now if you don't mind, I have to adjust my bounded fields and then prepare to go out tonight. Thanks to you, we have to go gather prana for Sakura else we get distracted again."

"Oh? Why do you not simply conduct another ritual instead of go out of your way to her fields?" The elderly man mused as he inspected the somewhat small room. He had not immediately commented on it which meant that it would do for the moment at least, even if there was a small layer of dust from disuse. "Do not tell me that you tire of her skills."

The Emiya didn't rise to the bait. "I'm trying to conserve my prana which has been low for quite some time, and Rider is still recovering from injuries. It wouldn't bode well for us if Saber was the only one of us capable of fighting to her full potential if we were caught off guard. Our alliance is hardly a secret to the other Masters by this point."

"Mmm. Yes that makes sense I suppose." The elderly man walked into the room. "Do I have your permission to set up some fields Emiya? You must be aware by now that I am not comfortable with open and bright settings."

Shirou looked at the room warily before slowly nodding. There was a reason why his shed was his workshop and not inside the house. The main building was too thinly set up and would easily leak the contents if too much energy was used. If the old man tried something big in the room, someone would be able to tell. "So long as it is only to make your room more accommodating to you, yes, but only for that. No other field is allowed."

"Very well." Zouken relented as he closed the door. "If that is all Emiya, I must start adjusting this room to my standards."

o. o. o.

Two Hours Later:

"Are you sure this is wise?" Saber questioned as she, Shirou, Rider and Sakura crossed the bridge that connected the two halves of Fuyuki together. "Leaving your home while that monster is inside is not something I would recommend, Shirou, and taking us to less familiar territory will raise the risk of us getting attacked."

"Sakura needs to recharge, and it's better if we use up all the farthest bounded fields now so we don't have to rely on them later." Shirou's answer was logical but it didn't make any of them feel better.

"I'm really sorry," Sakura apologized in an almost audible tone. Between what happened during the day and just a couple of hours ago, the girl's ability to stand on her two legs was somewhat impaired as Rider sometimes had to help steady her. "If it wasn't hard enough, now Grandfather…"

"It's not your fault," Rider consoled her. Regardless of how long she was Shirou's Servant, she would always be Sakura's. "That monster is to blame."

"Don't worry. Soon enough you won't have to bother with him again," the only male there consoled her. "I'll make sure of that personally."

"_Why don't we just kill him now?" _Rider questioned Shirou through their link. _"He's staying at your home. We know where he is."_

"_It's not that simple." _Shirou replied. _"It's nearly pointless to kill his body since it's made of his familiars. Even if he's running low on them, if he has enough to make just one more body, we'll be back to trying to find him again. Then there are the worms inside Sakura that need to be dealt with and I don't have the ability to remove them. And then we'd need to take her somewhere that Zouken won't be able to kill her before that happens."_

"_I see. It seems that we have no choice but to follow his commands for now."_

"… _Rider… I said it was not simple. I never said it was impossible." _Since Shirou was walking ahead of everyone, no one ever saw the small knowing smile on his face.

The Servant paused in mid step before continuing on forward. _"I take it that what you have in mind is circumstantial?"_

"_Yeah. In fact, until a couple of hours ago, it wouldn't have worked."_

Rider once again paused momentarily before continuing forward, this time though a small knowing smile formed on her face. _"… I am beginning to see why the other Masters consider you to be so terrifying_,_ Shirou."_

"_Only to my enemies Rider, and Zouken made himself one years ago. Zouken is not a stupid man. He knows I know more than I show, and probably suspects that I'm trying to do something now, but… let's just say he… no, everyone underestimated what I'm capable of in this war by a very large margin."_

"_I never suspected that you would go against your end of the deal first."_

"_No. Zouken had defaulted on his end before the agreement had been made. He simply doesn't know that I was aware of it the entire time."_

"_I will keep that in mind. I take it you intend to act now."_

The smile on Shirou's face disappeared as he looked up to see the church in the distance. _"… I need you to follow my orders to the letter_,_ Rider. Zouken showing up saved us from dealing with the hardest part of the plan…_

… _But the next is by far going to be the going to be the most dangerous."_

o. o. o.

A/N:

Thank You Wayfarer2000 for betaing.

My black cat is a lazy shit. Just throwing it out there.

Chapter's done and things are picking up again. Muahahahaha!

Ok. So I know people wanted more of Saber after last chapter, but I honestly couldn't find a good spot for it and end it where I wanted without making this thing even bigger than normal. As of right now, she's still contemplating everything, but she's more willing to consider different viewpoints and options at this point. As a result of this, she's going to be a tad bit more subdued when things aren't being hectic.

As for Sakura, basically her condition is a bit hectic. Zouken can pretty much turn her into the Shadow on a dime now, but at the same time, she has enough experience and control over herself that she can, with a good deal of effort, fight back. It's not something that she'd be able to pull off every time though.

For anyone who would complain about Assassin just wrecking Zouken… yeah, he's a Servant with a ton of tricks that knows his target, Zouken's not a Servant that tends to underestimate people. Of course it was going to end up like that if Zouken wasn't on the attack.

Luvia on the other hand… yeah. I agree with many people that her character has been a bit shallow as of late. The way I'm trying to make her, she's halfway between Rin and the standard Noble. She still has the conscience of a normal person, but she prioritizes her family and pride by nature. Shirou's actions pretty much crushed her pride as a Merc, a Fighter, and as a Magus on a fundamental level and it would take something massive in order for her to forgive him for it.

On other news. I have a favor to ask from you guys. My sister is looking for a ps2 visual novel game that's in English, so it has to be torrented. It used to have sources but it's so old that no one is torrenting it anymore. I don't know what it's called, but its based off of the manga Skip Beat and it's supposedly the second game in the series. If anyone can find it that would really be great.

And yeah, TV tropes, updates. Blah. You know the drill.

I'm gonna start my job in a couple of weeks, so… yeah. That's gonna be fun.

That's about it!

So Review! Worship the log! Pray that Bazett won't sodomize Lancer with Gae Bolg even though his Luck Sucks! AND REVIEW AGAIN!


	32. Chapter 32

Chapter 32: Positioning

I do not own Fate/Stay Night and stuffs:

o. o. o.

"_Why did you call me__,__ Zouken?"_

_His irritated tone was understandable given who__m__ he was dealing with. The fact that he was following the old worm user down into the Makiri catacombs didn't help with his mood either. Anyone with a rational mind would be a bit on edge if they had to go down to that hell hole for any reason._

_The only reason why he was going now was simply because the master of the household had called him over, and seeing as their secret partnership was a few months old at best it was best to keep things… cordial if nothing else._

_The sound of his guide's decaying laugh made his hairs stand on end__;__ however__,__ he didn't make any outward reactions to it._

"_Mhmhmhm. Come now__,__ Emiya. It's not right for one your age to be so uptight. We are allied after all. I have need of your services. Have I not been a suitable partner? You don't think I allow just anyone to access my tomes and resources do you?"_

"_You didn't answer my question. Why am I here?"_

_The old man didn't say anything at first before letting out a dramatic sigh. "I will be honest with you Emiya. I am somewhat fond of you. You, unlike my incompetent dead grandson, have a good deal of potential in many areas. Given the nature of my family's condition, what we have set up is virtually a godsend for me… so tonight I am showing you the truth."_

"_The truth?" Shirou parroted. He was getting mixed feelings at the moment. On the one hand Zouken seemed to sound truly honest and sincere about whatever he was talking about… that he actually cared about him…_

_On the other, the Emiya's instincts were screaming at him that whatever he was walking to was wrong in every way imaginable._

_Given that said instincts had acted up on __his__ past two Apostle Hunts and had effectively saved his live, he was going to go with the latter feelings._

"_I'm giving you the option to back out of the deal. No strings attached__,__" Zouken replied, not showing any hesitation or distaste to the sickeningly sweet cloying smell that __emanated__ from the basement._

_The teen paused on the step he landed on for a second before continuing on forward. Whatever he had been expecting, this was certainly not it. "Care to explain why now and why I had to come over to have this conversation instead of over the phone? I know you're not against using them. You have parent teacher conversations over them."_

"_Hmm. Resourceful too. Another commendable trait. I guess you could say that I've developed some compassion. What you have with my granddaughter is something that has warmed even my withered heart. So much so that I am unable to deal with the guilt unless I make you fully aware of what our agreement entails."_

_The younger male's instincts were screaming louder now. They were almost at the catacombs and he could hear the sound of countless tiny bodies moving among themselves unconditionally. His senses were telling him that whatever was down there would not please him in the slightest__;__ however__,__ he could not act now. "You are not making sense. Our deal was simple. I provide Prana to Sakura over the next few years and win the Grail for you in the oncoming War, and in return Sakura is no longer obligated to undergo the Matou Family's magecraft and has the worms removed from…" _

_He paused in mid__-__sentence as he realized why Zouken had brought him here to the basement, why the sound of worms were coming from his destination, and why Sakura had not answered his arrival like she normally did whenever he came over._

_That sick diseased conniving twisted mother fucking…_

"_It seems as if you have finally realized what the topic of our conversation will be." The five hundred year old monster in human skin chuckled dryly as they finally appeared into the main catacombs, walls filled with corpses, floor flooded with crest worms…_

… _And Sakura lying naked in the middle of it all with a blank look on her face staring at the ceiling._

"_This is what you have set yourself to save__,__ boy." The contorted example of a human stated without mercy as they looked at the girl twitch and twist as worms entered and exited her body. "This is what you lay with. A beautiful, but none the less defiled child that undergoes this before each and every time you aid her."_

_Despite managing to maintain his composure during his multiple dealings with Zouken, Shirou couldn't help but stumble back with a look of pure horror on his face. He had read about this from his father's notes. He had KNOWN that this was what had been done to one of the people he had dedicated his entire being to for nearly her entire life._

_But to see it in person. To just stand there…_

"_S-Saku-ra…"_

"_You see why I have called you?" The elderly man didn't look at the stunned Emiya. "This is the truth I spoke of. I could not in good conscience let this partnership continue without you knowing firsthand __of__ what the nature of my family's mysteries __are__, of what you are involving yourself with."_

_Had Zouken turned around, he would have seen possibly the most murderous glare anyone had ever given him in the past three hundred years._

"_Calm yourself boy. You are well aware that this is not a new occurrence to Sakura, isn't that right__,__ granddaughter?"_

"_Grand… father?" The girl's faded consciousness momentarily surfaced, allowing her to look at the speaker, and then subsequently look at the borderline paralyzed Emiya leaning against the wall behind him. The sight of the unexpected guest further pulled the girl to reality, albeit not pleasantly. "Shi-rou?"_

_If Shirou had thought the situation couldn't have gotten any more terrifying and sickening than it already was, he had been wrong as Sakura became aware of his presence. Instead of the nearly doll like emotionless expression on the girl's face, it now had her looking directly at him with a combination of shock, embarrassment, unmatched shame, sorrow, disbelief, and fear._

_He wouldn't be surprised if he was wearing the same thing on his face._

"_I give you a choice__,__ Emiya." Zouken slowly fell apart into countless worms that mixed into the pit. "You can either stay, and watch this entire session of training that my Granddaughter undergoes and stay to the deal, or you may leave and null our agreement. I will not hold your decision against you__.__H__owever__,__ should you chose the latter I will turn to another male to serve the purpose of keeping my successor… healthy."_

"… _Ah. Yes, before I forget. My apologies, but regardless of what you decide, Sakura will require your particular aid after her training tonight. I'm sure you understand…"_

_The great fire in Fuyuki broke him and made him who he was. It was the event that gave birth to the broken being that was Shirou Emiya before Shirou Emiya._

_However__,__ even that traumatic experience had been dampened by the confusion of an unknowing and innocent mind, focused only on survival and blinded by the pain assaulting his very being. His very memories of the event had been shattered by the experience, exemplifying, yet at the same time diminishing its effect on him. The event had torn apart his previous self, not who he was now._

_In the catacombs under the Matou home, Shirou watched one of the people he had dedicated himself to suffer her conditioning, while she stared back at him with the same expression he probably had, but for different reasons._

_For three hours he had watched her writhe in the pit, constantly being violated in every sickening way possible as she was unable to reign in her mind, unable to calm and protect herself due to his presence._

_She had tried to stay as far away from him as possible when it was done, too ashamed of herself to even hope that the boy who had sworn to save her would even consider making the effort for a disgusting thing like herself. She had tried to push him away, convinced that he was only now with her out of pity and the natural good nature that he possessed. And yet…_

_And yet after all of that… he had taken her shivering body into his arms, both crying. One was tears of shame, the other was tears acceptance and rage. It was almost a mystery in __of__ itself that they had managed to perform a tantric condition in their fractured mental states._

_Shirou Emiya was naturally broken. Born from the Fuyuki Fire, he had been traumatized from the start in a modern hell that swallowed everything…_

_However__,__ this incident had scarred him in ways even the fire had not touched._

_It assaulted the very foundation and pillars that gave his existence purpose, and he had all but been forced to let it happen right in front of him._

_He remembered everything about it as his mind and body were not touched. __However, the ideals and anchors that his life was given purpose to__ had been marred and played with in ways that would forever give him nightmares as it would the girl's…_

_It was unforgiveable. It was a blight on existence. It was something that had to be addressed by any means necessary._

_That night Shirou Emiya for the first time resolved to kill someone in cold blood without any hesitation or remorse. Kirei Kotomine was a target simply out of logical precaution due to what he could and probably would do during the Grail War, but Zouken…_

_Zouken would die for personal reasons even if he didn't do anything during the War or afterwards__,__ and the Emiya would feel genuinely happy when it happened._

… _Two years later, __neither__ the decision nor the feelings with it had changed in the slightest._

_Only the number of plans of the Second Magus Killer had made._

o. o. o.

At the Church:

"Hoh? This is quite unexpected." Kirei blinked as he took in the sight in front of him. The aggressive Shirou Emiya was standing in front of him with the Servants of the mount and sword behind him…

And the Matou Master was unconscious and being held by the former Servant.

"I take it that you are ready to enact whatever event you alluded to earlier Emiya," the priest mused. "Please, by all means proceed. I must admit that I am curious as to what you have planned. Given your relationship with Miss Matou it is surprising that her condition would be willingly part of your plot." He shrugged. "Then again, if this is a spur of the moment visit, I must remind you that the services I can provide you are quite limited given our relationship with the War still in full swing. If Miss Matou's condition is a result of battling in the War, then I am obligated as the impartial judge to this event to leave her be, unless she surrenders her Command seals and her position in the conflict."

"I am well aware of the rules of the War, Priest." Shirou frowned, his shroud over his face and his eyes never leaving the man. Even if Gilgamesh wasn't here and he had two servants supporting him, Kirei Kotomine's presence always put him on edge. "And I believe that tonight will prove to be quite eventful for you."

The last human that the first Magus Killer truly feared gazed upon his rival's son with a piercing yet relaxed look. A single glance told him that the boy was not lying, even if he was making a rather amusing attempt to hide his tells with the shroud he generously gave him. Whether the girl's current condition was intentionally part of tonight's events he didn't know, but the Emiya was going through with it regardless.

Still it was somewhat odd. Kirei had expected whatever the redhead was planning would involve him after a couple of the other Servants had been killed. However none have perished yet, which likely meant that his plan had a high chance of not involving the War at all, or at least not in a way that would directly interfere with the other Masters and Servants. Most likely the latter, else he wouldn't have considered risking this during such a chaotic time in the first place.

Ah. Now he saw it. "I assume that our future topic of conversation will have something to do with Miss Matou in particular. Given how little you trust me, I highly doubt you would bring her to this meeting in her current condition unless it was significantly relevant to the subject at hand."

He turned to look at the two Servants behind the boy. Another curiosity. The boy had refrained from bringing or revealing them last time, but clearly this time was not the case. Had he been looser of the tongue, he would have made a comment about the boy's choice of keeping company of the appealing opposite sex; however that would be beneath him.

Besides, it would be of better effect to speak of such things while Rin was around. Despite her claim that she detested everything about him, that girl was quite talented at spreading pain and misery without repercussions if she put her mind to it.

It was a nostalgic feeling looking upon the Saber that was King Arthur once more. True he had never seen her in person, only through the eyes of his Servants, but even so he could not help but reminisce about his times in the Fourth Grail War. The event to him was not so much appealing as it was a major turning point in his life, and as such it would be a foolish thing to do to forget or ignore the individuals that contributed to the event.

The nostalgia however did not blind him to the unnerving fact that Gilgamesh was lounging in the back of the church and had most certainly sensed the presence of the two approaching Servants. He most certainly hoped that the King of Heroes would reign in his impulsiveness and not approach the woman of his current desires. Kirei was quite curious as to what the boy had planned, and he hoped that the Golden Servant's curiosity would be enough to keep him in line for the time being.

"Given how you are willing to bring your Servants inside this time, I assume that you plan to be here for quite some time… no, you plan for Miss Matou to be in this location for that time. My question then would be why? She does not appear to be grievously injured or in any sort of peril. No curse or other thaumaturgical anomaly seems to be present either."

"I want you to take the Matou crest worms out of Sakura," Shirou stated calmly without any hesitation.

The somewhat pleasant look on the elder male's face dropped instantly. "… That is an interesting thing to ask of me, Emiya, one that cannot be taken lightly. I am familiar with a good deal of the Matou family's mysteries. The crest worms implanted into their bodies can be considered the equivalent of the family crest of other families. What you ask can be considered… no, it is a great insult to the Matou family in its entirety."

"Funny. I didn't think that a member of the Church would be so considerate of a Magus' family or their feelings," Shirou dryly retorted.

"I am obligated to give out advice to whoever requests my aid, even if he is my inherent enemy," the elder lectured as if talking to a child. "Even so, I am unique in that I have been trained in the mystic arts in the past, as you well know from Rin. No doubt your faith in my ability in the healing arts must be significant if you would come to me of all people for this. However that does not change the nature of your request. I hold no love to the Matou, but I find what you ask to be concerning. This does not fall under the rules of the War. I do not have any reason to not accept your request; by the same token I have no reason to follow it either. No, you could say that I have a good reason not to…"

"Zouken made a second Grail."

Shirou dropped the bomb without any hesitation or emotion, not breaking eye contact with the judge of the War.

"Wh-at?"

The Priest's eyes widened in surprise and disbelief as he digested what the teen just said. The sheer absurdity of what the child had imparted upon him was matched only with how suddenly it came. Whatever he had been expecting from the Emiya, THIS was certainly not what he had been expecting… and yet now that he had heard it he could not dismiss the very real possibility that it was indeed true.

Kirei was not the only one who was surprised though. Had he bothered to pay attention to the Servants in front of him, he would have seen the normally stoic Rider flinch momentarily with the unconscious girl in her arms… and Saber remain as impassive as ever.

"Being the Judge of the Grail War, I believe you are now more inclined to consider what I have to say…"

o. o. o.

The streets of Fuyuki Residential District:

Taiga Fujimura walked around aimlessly in a daze. Unlike most nights she's out late for more… personal and private reasons, she didn't seem to have anything in mind.

She wasn't getting drunk with friends. She wasn't talking to her grandfather's men about the mysterious things going around town. She wasn't sneaking in something of questionable origins into the city for her own personal projects.

"Ah. Man. Even with all this crap I'm dressed in I'm freezing my butt off." She grumbled while looking up at the February sky. Through the sparse clouds in the sky she could see the mostly full moon shining brightly, lighting up the ground enough that she didn't fall flat on her face in her mindless meanderings. "Why did I even bother going outside tonight?"

Really she would have preferred to just sleep. She's been exhausting herself so much lately that she's been taking cat naps whenever she could. She did it during the periods of High School that she wasn't teaching. She did it sometimes during lunch. She did it between the time school ended and when she went to Shirou's for food…

"Ah, fancy seeing you here Taiga-san."

The teacher blinked and turned around to see the silver haired girl that she and Kuzuki had met a couple days back standing alone just a few dozen feet away.

"WHO CALLED ME…?! Er. Oh! Uh. Illiam-… Ixlia… Jessic…"

"Illyasviel."

"Illya! Fancy meeting you here!" The elder female greeted the younger before pausing as though she just realized something. "Hey wait a sec. What the heck is a kid like you doing here in the middle of the night!? Don't you know there's a curfew? It's not safe!"

"Oh? If it's so dangerous then why are you out, Sensei?" The girl asked with a sly knowing grin on her face.

"Urk!" The immature woman flinched as if caught with her hand in the cookie jar. She couldn't say that she had no idea why she was outside: she embarrassed herself enough as it was with Shirou. She couldn't lose face with a middle schooler of all things! "Ah well… you know. Just walking around to see if I can help out some friends with… stuff…"

"Stuff?" The girl curiously asked, tilted her head to the side innocently.

"Grownup stuff." Taiga nodded violently while going on with the ruse. "Things kids like you shouldn't bother yourselves with."

"Really? You mean like the time I once went to see mommy and daddy in their room and they were naked and…"

"Wahh! Different stuff! Different stuff! I'm not that kind of woman!" The yakuza princess frantically waved her arms around in an attempt to stop the child from going any further with her story.

"That kind of woman?" Illya didn't even try to hide the amused smirk on her face this time.

"Erk!" The Fujimura was really starting to hate her mouth now. She hadn't been this put on the spot since she started to babysit Shirou when Kiritsugu left on his trips. "Why… why don't we just talk about something else shall we?" She paused. "Hey wait a second, you didn't answer my question! Why the heck is a kid like you out so late!?"

The Einzburn paused as if caught in the middle of a lie before putting on an innocent and vulnerable look. "Well… I might have gone out by myself earlier, and I might not really know where I am at the moment…"

"You're lost," the woman summed up her situation in two words.

"N-nooo." The German evasively looked away. "I just need a bit more time to figure out where to go and how to get there."

"Aww. You're so cute that I'm going to ignore the fact that you're trying to lie to me." Let it be known that Taiga Fujimura was not a stupid woman. She was just very selective on what she decided to pay attention to. "Do you want me to help you out? I can take you to my place so you can call up someone to take you home."

"Really?" Illya asked hopefully. "You'll do that for me?"

"Of course!" The proud woman laughed haughtily. "It's my job as a Sensei to help the misguided youth of this era when they travel cluelessly forward! Hahahaha!"

"Eheheh. Yeah." The girl laughed unconvinced before her stomach rumbled. "Um. I'm hungry."

"So you are young one. So you are." The still proud woman nodded knowingly. "Quite a situation we are in. No one is open this late."

"What about that student you talked about earlier?" Illya asked with her red eyes making direct contact with Taiga. "Shirou, right?"

"Well…" The teacher hesitated for good reason. As much as she mooched off of her little brother figure, she did have standards and never tried to do so after a certain time… unless she was really drunk and forgot what time it was. And even then she's never brought strangers over to his place before, but then again she's never had an adorable foreign lost girl on her hands before either. She was just so small and helpless, a little princess doll in distress. Perfect to tickle his old fancy of being a super hero. "I guess we can go to him for help. He normally gets angry when I come this late, but he'll probably make an exception this time."

"Yay!" The fairy cheered, acting her physical age as she jumped up and down happily.

"Come on. It's freaking cold out here and you shouldn't be out more than you have to be." Taiga sighed as she began to walk back to the area where she and Shirou lived. By her estimates it wouldn't take more than about fifteen to twenty minutes to get there at a decent pace.

"Hey hey! This Shirou person. What's he like?" Illya asked excitedly as she followed her elder.

"Shirou?" The teacher frowned and crossed her arms in thought. "Well, he's a pretty dry person all things considered. Not very exciting to be honest. But he's very dependable, nice, and great with tools and in a kitchen. Always willing to go out of his way to help people if they ask him. Hah. They actually call him the fake janitor at the school because he keeps on fixing broken machinery inside the building." She snickered. "I heard there was a secret study done by the teachers and some students, and they found out that he's saved the school nearly a million yen in free repairs and equipment since freshman year. Good thing he doesn't really have that many close friends or else he probably would be spending most of his time running errands instead of playing with his projects in his shed."

"Wow." The girl swooned with stars in her eyes. "He sounds really helpful. I bet his family is really proud of him."

The woman flinched. "Ah well… he kinda lives alone. He was adopted by my neighbor Kiritsugu a while back, but he died a few years ago and so it's just been Shirou by himself ever since. I mean I am technically his guardian but most of the time it's like he takes care of me more than the other way around." She paused. "Don't you dare tell him I said that!"

"I won't! I won't!" The Einzburn waved her hands in defense and shook her head innocently while at the same time mentally holding back Berserker from killing the woman making violent gestures at her.

"Good. We can't have his Onee-chan look bad in front of him can we? That would be embarrassing." The woman crossed her arms and nodded to herself sagely, completely missing the flinch and momentarily dark look her friend had given her.

"… Yeah…" She muttered unconvincingly while looking away before returning to her innocent persona. "It sounds like you were close to his dad. What was he like?"

"Kiristugu?" The woman blinked in surprise before smiling sadly. "Ah. Well. First of all, when I first met him, even though I was a loud kid he always seemed to tolerate me. I kinda had a crush on him for a while to be honest." She laughed while shaking her head. "Kiritsugu… well he had this air around him that I couldn't really describe. He was a bit clumsy at times. Soft spoken. Mature. Was a worse cook than me. But he was… wise."

"Wise?" The silver haired child blinked, not expecting that answer. "You mean like a doctor?"

"No. He was smart, but not in that way." The woman replied. "I mean… it was like he had experienced the world dozens of times over and bore it on his back, giving him this old wise man aura around him… but at the same time it always gave him this depressing aura around him. He always seemed to be tired. No matter what questions I asked him, he always seemed to know what to say to me that put my nerves to rest. Hah. Now that I think about it, the only time he seemed to lighten up or actually be happy was whenever Shirou was around."

"He sounds like he had been through a lot," the Einzburn commented while looking away disinterestedly. "Doesn't really sound like father material to me."

"No. Shirou and Kiritsugu loved each other like nothing else." Taiga shook her head. She didn't know why she was talking so much about Kiritsugu to this strange girl, but she couldn't find herself a reason to not really talk about it. "It was hard to tell that Shirou was adopted at times." She paused as something came to mind. "But then again, sometimes it was a bit hard to believe it whenever Kiritsugu went on his trips."

"Trips?" Illya blinked in confusion. "You mean like vacations?"

"I honestly don't know." Taiga shrugged. "Every once in a while Kiritsugu would just pack up and then disappear for months at a time to who knows where. Once he was gone for half a year without telling anyone where he was. I almost thought he had gotten lost in the wilderness at a few points if it weren't for the occasional short letter he sent Shirou. As for Shirou… I dunno, he must have found something out at some point about what his dad was doing because he simply stopped letting it bother him after the first few times. It might have been around when Sirius and Waver-kun started to come around and occasionally visit him."

"Is that so?" The girl was a bit confused. According to what she had been told Kiritsugu had dropped off the face of the earth after the fourth War. He didn't take any more contracts as far as the Einzburns knew of, and his body was supposedly in a condition that killing anyone would be impossible for him. That begged the question then of what exactly was the man doing on these trips? "Hmm. I guess it takes a special person to be close to a father like that then huh?"

"I guess." The woman smiled weakly before turning away. "… Shirou was with him when he died though. Apparently he had some long lasting disease that slowly ate away at his body and didn't tell anyone. I don't know the details, but Shirou definitely took it really hard. I remember he locked himself in his shed for three days after they took the body away, probably working on whatever projects he had in there to take his mind off of things. Even after that he changed. He was more serious and focused on whatever his secret projects were and going to England more often. I mean he was always a bit tweaked before, but after Kiritsugu died…"

"Tweaked? I thought Shirou was boring?"

Taiga snorted. "Hah! Now he is. Little runt was a handful when I first met him. Always talking about being a hero of justice and saving people just like his dad. He used to get into fights with bullies and the such back in school regardless of how badly outnumbered he was…" She paused. "Come to think of it, I think that's how he originally met Sakura…"

"Sakura?" Illya frowned. If she recalled correctly, Sakura was the name of the current Matou heir. If Shirou and Sakura had a relationship in the public eye, then it was very likely that the magus and the person the teacher was talking about were one in the same.

"Right! How could I have forgotten?!" Taiga's sudden shout caused the true child of Kiritsugu to jump in surprise. "Illya!"

"What!?" The inexperienced girl looked around frantically. "What is it!?"

"I have forgotten something extremely important about Shirou that you must absolutely remember before going to his place!"

"Really?!" Completely off guard and still rather unaware of her brother's habits, the holder of the Grail listened intently, eager for any additional hint that might help her kill her brother easier when the time was right. "What?! What is it!?"

"You must be very careful around Shirou Emiya." The woman frowned ominously. "For I fear he is secretly gathering young beautiful women and playing with their hearts."

"… Hah?"

"The School Idol. The Foreign Beauty. The Overly Attached Underclassman. Shirou Emiya has wooed and claimed the heart of these trademark stereotypes in the school he is at, and now with that Saber girl that's staying at his home as another Foreign Beauty, albeit less developed, it makes four, and I fear what he could do with you who can easily represent the adorable little sister arctype," Taiga Fujimura stated seriously. "I so far have managed to remain immune from his wiles and not fill in the spot of the loving mature elder sister; however, I am not so sure about that Bazett woman that sometimes comes over to visit." She paused before looking to the side in thought. "In fact, if those rumors about Ryudou-kun are true… oh dear lord if they are then he has a class president as well!"

"I-is that so?" Illya laughed nervously. For some reason she seriously doubted the woman's claims regardless of how close she claimed to be to her target.

"Beware his subtle charm, my child, for it is one that even he is unaware of. Beware and prepare," the woman continued, not at all backing down from her claims.

"I'm afraid! I'm afraid!" The girl nodded frantically, though she was talking more about the person she was with more than the subject they were talking about at the moment. Why was it that the things that scared her the most since coming to Fuyuki have not been related to the War in the slightest?

"Good! Then I have done my job!" The teacher stood up tall proudly before noticing where they were. "Ah! Perfect timing! Here we are!"

Illya knew instantly that something was off as they approached the doors. She didn't sense any Masters or Servants nearby, the latter of which she could detect due to her status as the Grail's carrier. By all means, that should indicate that Shirou was not home.

The bounded fields around the house seemed to be working fine from what she could tell, and had she not come under the intent of only merely screwing with her brother's head and talking to him, she was certain that she would have tripped the security fields there that would…

… Wait. No she wouldn't have. The fields were there, but the link between the intent security field and all of the other bounded fields that it stet off has been for lack of a better term been cut off for the time being. In fact the detecting field didn't seem to do anything if it was triggered. The fact that both fields were in pristine condition as well indicated that this could have only been done by someone who knew the fields inside and out...

But that didn't make any sense at all… unless…

"Oi! Shirou! I'm coming in!" Taiga yelled as she used her keys to unlock the main doors, threw them wide open…

… And passed out as she made eye contact with a hairless tiny old man standing on the other side almost instantly.

Before the teacher had hit the ground, Berserker had materialized next to his Master's side, ready to tear apart any and everything in his path. True he was still short a few lives still, but all in all it was more than enough to handle an enemy Servant or two, let alone a lone old man.

"Calm yourself, Einzburn," Zouken grunted as he glanced down at the woman. "I am of no threat to you. You have already probably guessed that Emiya and my granddaughter are not here."

The Homunculus frowned at the old man, recognizing him instantly. "Zouken Makiri. I admit, I am quite surprised to see the head of one of the three Households here."

"What is there to be surprised about?" The old man laughed dryly, looking at the girl with amusement and a hint of something else. Recognition? Familiarity? "My home has burned down, so I am residing at the residence of my ally for the time being." He glanced at Berserker's tremendous frame. "My my, your family has certainly outdone themselves this time. To summon such a powerful Servant, and to be able to handle him with such ease. It seems they have been able to accomplish and prepare much in merely ten years."

"Thank you for your compliments." Illya curtseyed, utilizing the etiquette that had been hammered into her during said time. "Berserker is the strongest. No doubt he will win the War for me with ease."

"Hmmm. Yes, I have little doubt that your Servant is the most powerful in this War. However whether it is enough to win has yet to be determined. In fact many of the other Masters have focused their attention elsewhere towards what they deem to be a greater threat at the moment, and not without reason." The old man grinned knowingly.

The girl scoffed, insulted of the mere idea that her brother would consider another member of the War to be a greater threat than her after she nearly killed him a week ago. He merely survived on a technicality. "You have a poor sense of humor, Makiri. Indulge me. Who has captured Shirou's attention so much that he would ignore the great Heracles coming after his head?"

"Hmhm. Interesting. Your fixation on my ally is quite interesting…" The worm user grinned before turning to the Ryudou Temple. "Caster has set herself up at the Ryudou Temple Leyline and has been tapping it for extra power. No doubt she will find the Greater Grail there if she hasn't already and will start to tinker with it if left alone. By itself it is of no concern as most of the Masters or Servants could overpower her if planned correctly; on the other hand she has somehow managed to enlist the aid of Assassin."

"Caster and Assassin?" The girl laughed mockingly, as if hearing a bad joke. "You truly expect me to believe that the two weakest Servant classes together are a greater threat than my Berserker?"

The old man's face dropped its mirth. "I speak no lies, Homunculus. The Assassin of this War is different than in others and far more dangerous because of it. In fact it is likely that you are the last of the participants in this War that is aware of this. Emiya is focused taking out Assassin and routing out Caster before anyone else. Given the damage Caster can do if left alone, he believes that this is the wisest decision available to him."

"And yet you have just informed an enemy Master of this." The girl frowned.

"You were curious." Zouken smirked in a way that said far more than his mouth did. "Warning you of the Servants on the mountain will increase the odds of you going after them yourself. As the representative of one of the three founding families, no, simply being what you are, you are obligated to address the potential tampering of the Greater Grail. As for me, I admittedly have a bit of a vendetta against those Servants in particular you see, so increasing the odds of their disposal will lighten a good load off of these old shoulders. If your Servant is as strong as you say, then your managing of those two will be most pleasing to me. If not, then I don't have to worry about the bastard child of Zeus ruining my chances of getting the Grail."

The girl clicked her tongue as she realized that she had become a pawn for the man simply by talking to him. She could try to kill him now, but there was no point, and the feeling she was getting from him was disturbing. As much as she didn't want to admit it, she did not believe that Berserker was capable of putting down this seemingly frail and helpless creature.

"I feel that I have overstayed my welcome. One last question before I leave though." The girl frowned at the thing before her. She didn't know why she bothered, but the question had been nagging her ever since she found out about Shirou's teaming with the Makiri. "Why did Emiya ever agree to partner up with you?"

The old man blinked, clearly not expecting the question before chuckling with his trademark nauseating voice. "Hahahah. Curious are we? Well it is not my place to divulge such information to others, but since I have been breaking that rule frequently with you so far, I do not see the harm in one more slip. You see, young Einzburn, Emiya is most dissatisfied with the way my family mysteries work and how they are… taught to my lovely granddaughter, so he and I struck a deal. He wins me the Grail… and I free my granddaughter from her obligations."

Illya went stock still, not believing what she was hearing. "Free her from her… obligations?"

"Meaning she will no longer be taught my craft is she does not desire so. She will bear the Matou name and perhaps the property when she comes of age, but no more of its secrets or its craft. From his perspective, he foolishly believes that he is saving the girl." Zouken shook his head in disappointment. "A shame that I will have to give up on the finest heir I've had in generations… yet, receiving the Grail in exchange will be well worth the trade should it come to it. Wouldn't you agree?"

The homunculus only half heard what Zouken said as her somewhat simmering hatred for her brother suddenly boiled up with vengeance.

Save her…

_Lies._

SAVE HER he said?!

_Lies._

When he was already teamed up with this parasite to _save_ another girl? How on earth could that fool save both of them when he needed to kill one to provide the other with this so called salvation?! This agreement had probably been set up for years from the way this old bastard was talking, and yet in that time she had been left alone to suffer in that damn frozen castle with nothing!

_Lies._

Wasn't he the Magus Killer? Didn't he have the direct ear of the Vice President of the Clocktower?! One of the most powerful and influential people on the planet?! Even her grandfather backed down from that woman's wrath should she turn her attention that way! He claims to want to help her, but instead has clearly been focusing all of his time on some pointless girl that happened to be conveniently right in front of his face!

_Lies._

Yes. He and Kiritsugu were just like one another. Always lying to others in order to get what they desired in the end. Hypocrites.

Sensing its Master's increasing anger, Berserker began to growl and loom over the lone magus and the unconscious woman much to the former's irritation.

"We're leaving, Berserker," the girl muttered out darkly before turning around. "I trust you will not do anything questionable to the woman, Matou."

"Of course not," the man replied as if insulted before manifesting his familiars underneath her body to transport her inside. Thankfully she was unconscious or else she most certainly would have been freaking out. "She is my daughter's favorite teacher. It would break her heart should anything happen to her. Besides she has provided me with the most interesting parent teacher conversations I've had in quite a while. Hmhmhm."

Not bothering to comment on what he just said, the Einzbern walked away into the night with the black giant following her dutifully. She had originally intended to meet her so called brother at his home as a sort of surprise, but now she didn't feel like talking to him anymore. She didn't care what he had to say now.

Instead she would meet him on the battlefield while he was preoccupied with his next target and catch him unawares. So long as that annoying vampire didn't interfere again, she had nothing to worry about. Berserker would be at full strength by then, and he was the strongest.

Caster and Assassin? What a joke. If such a pairing of Servants worried the Magus Killer so much when he had help, then she had vastly overestimated both him and this War.

Yes. She would bide her time, and then in one fell swoop she would take out all four Servants and their Masters without mercy.

o. o. o.

Ryudou Temple:

Souichirou Kuzuki was as close to frustrated for a non-student related reason as he had been in a long time.

The former assassin had been walking around the building for what he had assumed to be five hours given from what his watch told him; however, to him it had only been three.

Four separate times he had blanked out in his excursions around the building without any memory of where he had lost focus, and each time he had appeared elsewhere with no recollection of what he had been doing until he had noticed the colored dot under his watch once more.

Initially he had been doing this as a mere request for Emiya and Edelfelt. His students had asked him for his aid and so he was obligated as their teacher to aid them. However now this was something that even he could not ignore. He lived at the Temple, and enough had happened to it over the past week that he decided that doing something to end the chain of events would be in his best interests.

In addition to that, he had had the oppressive feeling and desire to go to bed for the past hour or so, and it was only due to the training self control he had received as a child that enabled him to resist the impulses. A brief look around showed that absolutely no one else that lived in the temple was up either, meaning that they most likely experienced and succumbed to the unnatural phenomena some time ago.

Breathing as if he was in battle to maintain control over himself, the teacher made a mental checklist of all the places of the temple he had been in. The main courtyard, the graveyard, the area around the reflection pool, the dining area, and main ceremony rooms had been checked out and as far as he could tell there was nothing abnormal about them…

Well, as much as they could. Since walking into the temple grounds, the ink that Emiya had put on his wrist had been a distinct yellow almost bordering on orange, indicating that whatever it was measuring was exceptionally high throughout the area.

He recalled going into the guest living areas as well for the most part, but that still left the main living areas, the storage areas, the main offices, the record storage rooms, the special guest quarters, and the dozen miscellaneous rooms that were in the two buildings between them that he had never truly bothered learning about.

He stopped.

It wasn't because he had once again encountered Caster's bounded field that diverts anyone from coming near the set of rooms that she had used to conduct her experiments. Nor was it because he had finally succumbed to the wide ranged spell that prompted the residents of the temple to fall into a deep sleep after ten…

It was because he saw someone that he had never seen before, standing in a place that had just moments earlier been devoid of life. The cloaked man was clearly not someone that belonged in the temple with his ratty out of place clothes, and even if that wasn't the case, the fact that the cloak covered his head was enough to raise a good deal of suspicion…

The teacher took in the sight of the individual with some concern. While he had not been asked to deal with any suspicious individuals, experience told him at once that the person in front of him was just like him.

Someone with experience.

A professional.

A killer.

The two stared at one another silently, not needing to or bothering with conversation. It was pointless for men like them. A single hint of weakness or distraction could set them off at one another out of sheer necessity and habit. Professional killers were considered as such due to two aspects about them: they could kill without hesitation, and they left no witnesses whenever possible.

The mystery man made the first move. Without turning away he slowly lifted out his right hand to the side in a non threatening gesture and pointed to one of the buildings that held mostly office equipment and ceremony props for the Temple. "He'll figure it out from there."

The teacher's expression didn't change. This person obviously knew about his relationship with Emiya and why he was exploring the area. The fact that he had not killed him and revealed himself instead indicated that either he was an ally, or he was laying a trap for later…

No, if he was laying a trap it would have been more efficient to kill him here and make Emiya wander around without any information at all.

"Hurry. She'll notice you if you stay out much longer."

The human of the pair nodded shallowly before backing up to where his room was. This stranger may be a possible ally; however, that did not mean that he would expose his back to him. "I will tell him of you."

The equally reticent individual didn't seem to react to the Kuzuki's statement for several moments before deciding on what to say. "It will change nothing."

The Servant faded away in front of the man without a further word.

Kuzuki frowned at irregular phenomena. He knew what he saw, and he knew that it shouldn't be possible, yet it none the less occurred.The fact that the stranger simply rendered himself invisible made him a far more dangerous individual than he had anticipated and thus made him uncomfortable.

Knowing that the conversation was over, the teacher made way to his room. Should Emiya not provide an explanation about the going ons of the temple the next day, he would have to make plans to live outside this land for the next few weeks until things calm down.

o. o. o.

Emiya Residence:

"Sakura's missing."

The head of the Matou family frowned from the doorway of his room at his host, clearly not pleased with the news. "You had two Servants with you. How could you possibly be so incompetent as to manage that?"

"A Servant took us from behind, knocked out Sakura, and took her away before we could respond quickly. Given from how fast it was, odds are it was Assassin," Shirou explained darkly.

A half truth.

"He did reveal the ability to increase his mobility without warning during our last encounter. If he is still working with Caster, then it is likely that he took her in the hopes of controlling two more Servants by using her as a hostage. It is a risky move considering it would have been safer to just kill us both with the opening he had; however, it might have been the smarter one as well. Seeing as he technically did not attack us, it didn't interfere with his Presence Concealment and enabled him to get so close without detection."

"Then what are you doing here? You know full well where Assassin is located," [t]he worm user lectured. "I thought you were more competent than that. I do not need to be informed of every minute detail child."

The Emiya let the insult pass by. "Rider's connection with Sakura is pointing out otherwise. According to her she isn't even close to the Temple, more towards the city, however she cannot sense it exactly for some reason."

Another half truth.

"I have Rider and Saber in the area to look out for her, but so far I have not heard from them. She is still alive, but at this rate I will need additional help."

"Humph. I had thought you better than that, Emiya." Zouken grimaced as he walked out of his room slowly. "The legendary Magus Killer, feared among Dead Apostles and Sealing Designates can't even hold onto or find a single girl. Feh. Laughable."

"Forgive me if I do not have the means or desire to infest those close to me with worms." The Emiya dryly retorted. "Regardless of what you say, I have nonetheless made progress on my targets. Assassin and Caster should be dealt with within the next couple of days."

"Progress does not equate to results boy. I will consider giving you praise when you deliver on your promise." The old man snorted as he walked into the back yard. He would need some space to make a formalcraft circle for this particular job as he was running low on worms and did not wish to use up the few resources and prana he had left. "You are sworn to ensure that the Makiri win the War and protect my Granddaughter and so far I have seen you fail at both. Now if you are a competent magus, bring out some seal inscribing materials. To find my familiars from this distance accurately, I'm going to need a medium sized solution. Three liters of Ether. Twenty grams silver. Five copper. Ten carbon soot, and of course a knife to pour some blood into."

Shirou flinched at the twenty grams of silver. Queen's lackey and noble color or not, he did not run on a large budget for most of his experiments. The Hayabusa for the most part had been a gift, and even the gems that he used for his jewelcraft (If he could call it that… Rin certainly had a hard time doing so) had been essentially made from scratch by him and thus were technically cheap material as far as he was concerned. "… Fine. I'll be right back."

"Best you hurry, Emiya. We both know that Sakura is a rather gifted child. Who knows what uncouth things another talented Magus would do to her should they come across her nature or the family secrets I have engraved into her."

The teen held his tongue. Magi. So long as it furthered their research and sick curiosities, they would have no issues with sloppy seconds of any sort. It was the ones of this variety that he hated most and unfortunately looked over by the majority of the Clocktower…

Fortunately for him though…

Shink! Splat!

He wouldn't have to deal with them at home anymore.

Standing in the middle of his back yard, Zouken gasped for air as he looked down to see the black veined falchion tip sticking out from his stomach, covered in the blood of the body he had stolen, twisted, and possessed this time.

Behind him, holding the grip of the blade and looking down at his shorter target impassively, Kirei Kotomine stood.

o. o. o.

"_Given how he's broken the rules of the War and that he's not actually a participant, I believe that it would be prudent for Zouken to be dealt with as soon as possible__,__" Shirou spoke in a tone almost as condescending at the stunned priest's normally was._

o. o. o.

The moment the blade had penetrated the body, the curse of Angra Mainyu took effect along with the binding properties of Kiritsugu's bones, extending throughout Zouken's corpse of an existence and latching onto every spiritual existence with a malicious grip and twisting it all together with no hope of release. The physical body fared no better as every organism inside was all but melded to its shocked host with no hope of freedom.

"I must admit." The holy man mused as he gripped the back of his target's head tightly with one hand before hammering it into the earth without mercy, causing blood to splatter in all directions before raising the body up once more to reveal the face he had mangled. "I had always planned to address you at some point, Zouken; however, I did not anticipate it would be in this manner or location. Indeed it is quite peculiar and unexpected, and yet surprisingly appropriate once one thinks of the details?"

o. o. o.

"… _Even if I do find evidence in the girl and remove her worms, killing Zouken will not be a simple task Emiya." Kirei frowned after managing to regain his composure. It was not often that he was hit with a bomb like that but it was too late to act otherwise. "He is remarkably powerful and cunning for a magus, not to mention elusive. Spending as much time in his home must have shown you that much."_

"_I've already addressed those problems." Shirou held out his right hand and projected a copy of Maiya. "I know where he is, and if he's stabbed with this, he won't be able to split himself up or switch to another one of his familiars. I've tested it out on other puppeteers before, and the results were… promising. As for Zouken, he still believes that he has me on a leash."_

"_No doubt made of the worms in the girl's body." The Priest mused as he looked at his soon__-__to__-__be newest patient. So long as the operation and the girl remained in the Church, Zouken should remain blind to their actions. It was a fairly good plan all things considered… however… "Why recruit me though? If you have the means to kill the man, why not do so already and then deliver the child to me?"_

"_Zouken's magic is too unpredictable." Shirou admitted. "I can't be sure that simply killing him with the blade in him would truly finish him off, and if that's the case he would just use Sakura against me in the aftermath. The sword is effective on him, but I want to ensure that he dies in more than just the body, and to do that I need…"_

o. o. o.

_"I will kill. I will let live. I will harm and heal. None will escape me. None will escape my sight."_

The Baptism Rite.

It is the sole magical mystery that is permitted to be learned in the Church. The teachings of God are considered to be the greatest weapon against spirits within the systematic basis of their magecraft, so the chant is a key of providence that eliminates wondering souls with the holy words of the Bible. It is the purification and elevating of a wayward soul through the teachings of the Lord by sending a ghost to its "throne".

It's a simple ten-count ritual that is instantly effective once completed. It doesn't have much effect upon the physical world; however, that was not its intended use in the first place. It was intended for spiritual bodies, and as such has near absolute power over them.

The ritual in itself would be exceptionally damaging to Zouken as he is in essence a spiritual existence that uses worms to anchor himself to the world; however, for it to be fatal to him it would _normally_ have to be used on his "real" body.

Said real body was the worm right next to Sakura's heart, which Kirei had been unable to remove in his surgery along with the worm wrapped around the nerves in her spine.

"_Be crushed."_

Normally.

_"I welcome those who have grown old and those who have lost."_

Shirou was well aware of this as it had been one of the things he had focused on in his father's notes. He knew well enough that the odds of Zouken willingly leaving Sakura's body while she was still alive were slim to none, but his desire to save her was unyielding.

The answer came with Maiya and his occasional fights with puppet users over the past few years.

While he was well aware of how well the two got along, Shirou had been pleasantly and disturbingly surprised when he realized that a fully possessed puppet stabbed by Maiya more or less contained its master's soul. Even more interesting was that should the puppet be destroyed with the soul in it, the soul would be forced out of the fake body so violently that it would essentially be unable to return to its original body.

He had, much to his silent shame, played with this theory several times on a good number of apostles and unruly sealing designates.

And it just so happened that Zouken's public face was nothing but one big walking puppet target with his full consciousness inside.

However as far as he was concerned, this was not enough for Zouken, even if he did die from it.

"_Devote yourself to me, learn from me, and obey me."_

So Shirou decided to take it further and convince Kirei to help out up front. It was something that even Kiritsugu didn't suggest on the count that he didn't know of Maiya's effectiveness on familiar users, and that he did know that the Baptism Rite would only provide a temporary solution if used by itself.

But together?

_"Rest. Do not forget song, do not forget prayer, and do not forget me."_

Shirou was considered a moderately proficient Magus at best, but by his estimates, the results of this experiment, where the vast majority of the subject's consciousness and soul were locked into his current writhing body while _simultaneously_ forced out and dispersed in every direction…

… Would do nothing short of absolutely _shred apart _the mind and soul of the stain of an existence known as Zouken Makiri.

And Shirou had a feeling that the old bastard would figure this out as well before the deed was done.

Zouken struggled against both the physical and magical bindings that had claimed his body. He could not summon his insects. He could not split himself apart. He could not transfer his consciousness. He could not mutate the insects in him…

He could not call Sakura…

It was only when he had attempted to undo whatever mystery the sword was enacting upon him that he realized the sheer irony of the situation… and for the first time in a centuries grew truly fearful.

"Th-this magic? This curse?!" The shriveled body rasped in surprise. "Binding?!"

Oh look. He figured it out. About time considering the theme of his mysteries was "binding onto oneself." One would think that he would recognize another binding mystery faster, especially since it was being used on him.

Even if a fraction of the blight's soul remained within the worms inside Sakura, it would VERY likely be only be enough to keep the things alive in their primal states as the Church's standard defenses would prevent any dregs from getting close to her. And from what he could remember, soul fragments without hosts could not last long by themselves... and Zouken's soul was nowhere near in decent shape.

_"I am light and relieve you of all your burdens."_

As for dealing with the remaining worms inside Sakura? A simple combination of Structural Grasping, Avalon, Rule Breaker, and some minor decomposing based reverse Reinforcement were all he needed to get rid of the things. All in all he just needed Kirei to get rid of the bulk of them in her body and provide a place to hide Sakura until Zouken was dealt with.

This was the general plan designed, set up, and executed, by the Second Magus Killer to destroy the five hundred year old Russian Magus known as Matou Zouken.

And he didn't even have to raise a single finger against his target in the end.

_"Do not pretend. Retribution for forgiveness, betrayal for trust, despair for hope, darkness for light, dark death for the living."_

"Emiya! What are you doing?!" The old demon shouted frantically through the pain, finally finding his stolen lungs.

Another great thing about Maya and familiar users was that once stabbed the victim was locked with whatever they had under their direct control. What they had was what they had, no more no less.

"Getting you supplies for the ritual," the teen responded with a hint of dry amusement in it not unlike the one the priest he so disliked utilized.

"Stop joking and kill the man!" Clearly the eldest one there did not share his sense of humor.

"Relief is in my hands. I will add oil to your sins and leave a mark."

"Sorry, but I can't do that. It would go against the deal we set up." For the first time ever, a genuine smile appeared on the teen's face while in Zouken's presence.

"WHAT?!"

"Zouken Makiri," Kirei broke out of his aria with an authoritative if not smug tone. "You have been found guilty of tampering with the mechanics of the Fifth Fuyuki Grail War ritual by means of illegally fabricating a second lesser Grail without informing the required parties. As the Judge of this event, I sentence you to death."

"YOU!" Spit flew everywhere as the hate filled word left the man's decaying mouth. "YOU ARE TO BLAME FOR THIS! YOU LED HIM HERE!"

Shirou shrugged as if listening to the answer to a simple inconsequential problem. "My hands are tied. I'm obligated to fight in the War to win the Grail for the Matou family, and to protect Sakura. Killing the priest or helping you now would no doubt result in my expulsion from the War."

"_Eternal life is given through death."_

"Don't worry, I'll still keep my end of the deal. If I win the War I'll still hand the Grail over to Sakura. That way the Matou still win the War."

"EEEEEMMMMIIIYAAAAAAAA!" The old man's pierced lungs gave out a rather loud and impressive blood curling roar of absolute rage. Had the teen not had his bounded fields up, it would have no doubt attracted the attention of his neighbors.

_"— Ask for forgiveness here. I, the incarnation, will swear._

_Kyrie, Eleison."_

A flash of light erupted in the skull between Kirei's hands quickly accompanied by a golden rune in the center before the world returned to night.

o. o. o.

At the Church:

"_It's done."_

Shirou's brief message echoed through Rider's head with finality, and prompted the stoic gorgon to smirk faintly before moving to the unconscious Sakura silently lying on the couch behind her.

According to the priest, the girl's operation had been for the most part a success. He had removed most of the worms from her body; however, as expected there were some that he could not work on without killing her including ones around her nerves and heart. There were some other worms that he claimed he could not touch either to Shirou's minor surprise, but not enough that the boy couldn't handle himself.

As expected, the judge had ordered them to allow the girl to rest in the building for the night to recover from the operation, which under most circumstances was the right thing to do. The girl had just undergone a rather invasive procedure and moving her right after it would be a foolish thing to do. While Shirou and the others did not like the idea of that, especially with the chance that Gilgamesh could show up at any time, they had agreed that it was for the best.

Of course now that Zouken was dealt with and no one was paying attention…

With a bit of focus, Rider placed her hands on her chest and slowly pulled out the copy of the golden sheath that her second Master had bestowed upon her just for this moment and with similar effort dissolved it into the body of her original Master.

Saber was standing guard just outside the door, partially to do that and partially so that Gilgamesh would have less of a reason to look inside the room. Nonetheless, she was close enough that the fake sheath instantly had an effect on the recovering girl, causing her pale complexion to color rather quickly.

Wasting no time, the woman carefully and gently picked up the girl and walked to the door before knocking on it three times.

Saber got the message instantly and opened it for her. The two Servants looked at one another for only a brief moment before walking silently to the entrance of the building. Had they ran, they would only pique Gilgamesh's interest even further and prompt him to expose himself, no doubt spouting false concern about Sakura's condition and Kirei's instructions to leave her there.

However, the King of Heroes didn't interfere as they left the building and politely closed the door behind them.

Originally they had planned for Rider to take Sakura out by herself through the window and leave Saber as the decoy to ensure that Gilgamesh wouldn't follow, but that plan was scrapped due to the fact that Avalon needed to be nearby in order to work properly, and they couldn't risk the girl's health anymore than they were right now, so they had to take the risk.

Off into the night the two bolted, as fast as possible and as smoothly as possible for the third member of their group. With their eyes focused, they navigated through the streets with expert ease, heading in some seemingly random direction until they found what they were looking for.

Fuyuki business stay hotel.

Taking a note out of his father's book, Shirou had ensured that should his house be unsafe to stay in, he would have backup locations set up to be his temporary bases of operations. As such he had three hotel rooms in three different complexes around the city booked in three different names for a month each spanning the time he estimated that the War would take place, give or take.

None of the locations were rather elaborate, but they would serve their purposes, and were so standard and in such crowded areas that it would be highly unlikely for any master to guess he would stay in there while in hiding.

Or, say if he wanted to temporarily hide someone or something important but not at his house.

It was not difficult for the two women to get in. Saber had her casual clothes and the key that Shirou had given her, and it was so late at night that even the people that frequently go out drinking were already asleep and unable to see Rider, dressed as she was, carry Sakura with her to the specified room.

Lying down the girl onto one of the semi adequate beds, the two Servants looked at one another once again before nodding. The bounded field that Shirou had set up in the room was only meant for privacy and cloaking, meaning that all three of them should be safe and undisturbed for the time being.

For now though… all they could do now was wait and hope that their Master was not so unfortunate enough as to get into any trouble before returning to them…

o. o. o.

Crunch! Splat!

The priest apparently held no remorse for the dead as he crushed Zouken's skull against the ground, visibly deforming the head and body with his bare hands. No doubt he was making certain that the old bastard was dead.

"Did you have to do that here?" Shirou wearily asked, not at all bothered by the display of brutality. "Now I have to clean all of it up when you leave."

"Had he somehow circumvented my ritual, time would be of the essence," the man factually replied as if not just desecrated an old man's body. "I trust you have some practice in subtly cleaning up a scene."

"Wouldn't be much of a hunter for Barthomelloi if I didn't after two years." The Emiya shrugged. "It's just harder for me than most."

"My condolences." The man took out a cloth from somewhere on his person and began cleaning his hands, still not taking his eyes off of the body.

"If he's set anything up, it's not in the body." Shirou's eyes flashed silver. The carcass that had once been a container for Zouken Makiri was dead in all senses of the word. Nothing that made it up had even the slightest hint of life or possession in it. The few bits of soul that remained in the body were what were locked into place by his sword, and they were in no condition to maintain anything that resembled a mind or consciousness. At most they could make something in the body twitch in some random directions.

He briefly glanced at the room where Zouken had been living in for the entirety of six hours and saw that much to his disbelief the old bastard had kept his word and only used the bare minimum of bounded fields on it. Still he'd be on the safe side and scan his entire house later to see if anything was altered.

"Trace. Field."

Five identical runed long swords embedded themselves point first into the ground equidistant from one another around the corpse. The second they had settled a bounded field had been made using them as the boundaries.

"Set Echo Resonance."

The corpse and anything inside the confines of the blades that carried prana instantly went up in blue fire. Among the tools that Shirou had copied from Louvre's collection during their fight, this particular sword was rather useful in cleaning up thaumaturgical evidence while leaving everything else untouched. Since the flames fed on the prana it burned, it cost Shirou almost nothing to enact.

"An interesting application of mystic codes," Kirei mused.

Shirou didn't bother saying that he was still working on this particular trick. Setting things on fire with it was pretty much the only thing he could do with it for the time being, but he knew well that he'd be able to do so much more as soon as he ironed out the kinks in it. "… Thanks for your help."

"I'm confident you don't mean that given your opinion of me. Still, I shall accept it nonetheless." The elder looked at the teen. "It was not necessary. Executing one who interferes with the War is one of my duties as a judge after all… well it is if the combatants are unable to perform the deed themselves."

"And now the deed is done." The Emiya didn't bother responding to the glancing insults. As infuriating as he was, the priest did speak the truth.

"Quite," the priest agreed. "… Still, I believe that a reward is in order for your services. Had you not exposed Zouken's plot, I shudder to imagine what might have occurred."

_Yeah. You'd probably be jealous that you didn't have a hand in it. _"Save it. You got rid of the worms in Sakura and helped me kill Zouken. That's all I wanted from you." Shirou didn't blink or turn away as the blue fire in front of him began to die down, taking the last scraps of Zouken's stolen body with it.

"I am merely performing my duties as the judge presiding over the War Emiya. I suggest you be a bit more considerate as to what I am offering." Kirei frowned. "It is rare enough that a situation would warrant such an action from one in my position."

The man's tone caught Shirou's attention and prompted him to turn away from the dying flames. "What are you talking about, Kotomine?"

The elder initially did not say anything as he rolled up the sleeve on his right arm to expose a large and intricate but mostly faded tattoo. "As compensation for your actions, I as overseer of this War am rewarding you with an additional Command Seal for your actions. Hold out your hand."

That had surprised the teen. He was vaguely aware that the judges of the church had the ability to bestow additional seals to participants should the situation call for it such as when Caster got too out of control in the previous War, but he had never assumed that Kirei Kotomine of all people would do this.

For a moment Shirou had half a mind to turn down the Command seal anyways. He still had all three of his and he didn't want to become indebted to the man more than he already was… however, he had long since had practiced swallowing his pride in order to think of the bigger picture.

He had done so when dealing with Zouken with regards to Sakura.

He had done so when working at the Clocktower and not killing the Nobles that were nothing short of monsters in human form.

He had done so when talking about the War for months on end with those closest to him and not saying anything about its true nature.

He didn't know how, but the seal could potentially be a godsend in the future. Any extra resource helped in this War and it was still far from over.

The process was surprisingly brief. With a quick muttering of some page from the Bible, one of the lines from Kirei's arm disappeared and a new addition to the design showed up on Shirou's hand.

Now in addition to the pommel, guard and blade that designed the back of his hand, what could be interpreted as a moderately intricate glow of light surrounded the "blade".

"Seeing as you are never comfortable in my presence and our business is concluded, I shall take my leave," the priest stated calmly. "I shall inform you when Matou's condition improves."

"Yeah." Shirou didn't bother telling him that Rider and Saber had already taken her out of the Church. If confronted about it later, he'd just tell the man that his Servants were acting independently and informed him of it later.

Before exiting through the back gate, the man paused. "I must admit, you interest me, Emiya. The Grail Wars have always invited chaotic and unpredictable events; however, even I would not anticipate Zouken's actions, nor how efficiently you addressed them. You remind me much of your father in that regard."

The mentioning of Kiritsugu instantly pressed a nerve on the teen but he held his reaction in. "What are you getting at?"

"I am aware that your Kiritsugu Emiya's wish for the Grail was World Peace before he decided to destroy his prize at the last moment for whatever reason." The man made eye contact with him. "You've had this plan to kill Zouken set up for quite some time given how smoothly you acted once he had appeared… meaning you never truly intended to give him the Grail in the first place."

"So my question is, what is your intention for it?"

"I don't have one." Shirou replied almost instantly and reflexively. "I'm just keeping to the deal and preventing the collateral from getting out of hand. I won't let something like the fire happen again."

A spark of amusement flashed upon Kirie's face. No doubt finding the irony entertaining seeing as it was Kiritsugu who had unintentionally started it in the first place. "Somehow I find that hard to believe. Had you truly been only fighting for the Matou, you would have been their representative instead of Sakura. Instead you both were, meaning that you must have some sort of desire that the Grail can fulfill."

"Speaking from personal experience?" Shirou didn't know why he said it, but he felt as if that was the most appropriate thing to say given from what he knew of the man.

The normally stoic man paused for a moment and looked away as if remembering unwanted events before returning to normal. "Somewhat. Enough to know that what I speak of is indeed the truth."

Shirou closed his eyes as he digested the man's comments. "Then be satisfied that what I speak of is also the truth. A Servant can only be fought with by another Servant. Should any of the other Masters go out of control, I would require the correct resources to combat him with. It could be seen that my desire to stop things from getting out of control was enough to satisfy the Grail's conditions."

Kirei looked at him emotionlessly without any tell to show if he believed the teen or not… though it was likely the latter. "And should your Servants die? Would you continue to fight to mitigate the damage that any potential wild Master of Servant would do?"

The teen snorted. "I'm the Queen's Silver Dog and the Second Magus Killer. Even if I didn't plan to, Barthomelloi would have ordered me to do something worthy of my position regardless."

"Ah yes. I have heard that the Queen of the Clocktower was rather unyielding and demanding. My condolences for having such a supervisor. No doubt being around one of her reputation can be rather trying for someone like you."

The Emiya paused at the comment. Had the man been referring to his semi-vampiric condition or was he merely talking about his genealogy and lack of background? Feeling his temper starting to act up again he decided that the man had overstayed his welcome. "If you don't mind, I would appreciate it if you left. I still have to ensure that Zouken didn't leave me any unwanted parting gifts in my home."

"Of course. My apologies."

Shirou watched him depart. He was very tempted to end the man with his back turned, but it would only lead to more trouble. He doubted that he'd be able to kill Kirei that easily, even though he was fairly confident that his combat ability was enough to take the man down in a direct fight, let alone in his territory.

No, once more it was the storm that was Gilgamesh that stayed his hand. So long as the priest prevented him from going out on his own, Shirou still had enough time to gather more allies. Even just one more Servant working with him could greatly increase his odds against the man and prevent excess damage from happening.

Of course, it also ran the risk of Kirei guiding Gilgamesh to perform more pinpoint and damaging attacks if he left them alone for too long. It was a risk he had to take for the time being though. Only Luvia and Bazett were forewarned about the oncoming Servant, and they were still technically working by themselves at the moment…

But now that Zouken was out of the picture, Shirou was free to capitalize on this in ways he could not before.

He looked down at what was left of Zouken's body, just as the last embers of blue ate away at it…

And slowly… he began to laugh as the first few tears fell from his eyes, his calm controlled demeanor finally breaking and he didn't know why.

He had done it. He had killed Zouken… no… that wasn't why he was like this… he wanted to kill the old bastard for years out of sheer reflex. Doing so had merely lifted a great weight off of his shoulders but nothing along the lines of overwhelming emotion.

His voice was getting louder now. When was the last time he had laughed this much?

He had saved Sakura… no… closer but that wasn't it either… he cared about her dearly; however, he always knew that he would manage to rescue her from her fate at some point or another. That was just who or what he was.

His ribs were starting to hurt now as he collapsed to his knees, but his joy fueled laughter was only louder because of it.

His planning was coming to fruition, and he was getting results… no… he almost had it, but that wasn't the reason why. It was a good feeling to be sure that his efforts for dealing with the War were so far proving to be effective, but it was still early in the game and much could go wrong.

Come to think of it, when was the last time he had cried this hard for a reason other than Sakura? He didn't even recall being this bad at Kiritsugu's funeral…

Ah.

That's why he was like this.

He was closer to realizing his father's dreams.

A Hero.

The one thing that Kiritsugu strived to be while remaining human. It wasn't Shirou's life goal anymore. Not really. He wanted to be one certainly, that would never change, but it wasn't his driving force anymore. The ones he had dedicated himself to took the place of it now…

But even so, realizing that he was becoming one, saving his loved ones, actually making progress in his strive to save the world, realizing the dream and goal of the person that he looked up to more than anyone else in his life even after he no longer lived for it…

It was like hearing the funniest bad joke in his entire life.

So he laughed.

o. o. o.

A/N:

Thanks Wayfarer2000 for betaing.

I pulled this shit off in a week. BOOYA!

Not much to say. Shirou's a badass. Zouken's dead. Illya's going to go on a murderous rampage…

And Kirei has already started to work some of his trolltastic magic. Heh.

I really don't know what else to say really. That's about it.

So uh…

REVIEW! WORSHIP THE LOG! THE FIRST KILL OF THE WAR DID NOT IN FACT HAVE AN EPIC FIGHT IN IT KINDA BECAUSE ZOUKEN WASN'T REALLY A MASTER SO I DON'T KNOW IF HE COUNTS OR NOT! AND REVIEW AGAIN!


	33. Chapter 33

Chapter 33: White Rabbit

I do not own Fate/Stay Night and stuffs:

o. o. o.

Tohsaka Residence:

"You've been staring at your notes for hours." Archer stated in a slightly embarrassed tone to his Master.

"Quiet you!" Rin snapped. "I'm focusing here! If you want progress then remember something useful while you're recovering!"

The servant sighed helplessly as he didn't bother to retort to the girl's testy attitude. Ever since his near escape from Assassin, Rin had been busy trying to figure out a way to use what she had learned to either take advantage of Assassin's position at the temple or find some way to lure one of the other masters there in a way that would ensure the mystery Servant's demise.

The biggest problem was simply where Assassin was situated. Heavily forested with one straight clear path, ensuring plenty of cover and positions to scout or assault the enemy from without detection. Only one main entrance to the temple that the Servants could enter, funneling in all potential major attackers. Mana rich environment for recovering in.

It was literally the perfect setup for someone that fought like their target did. Neither Rin nor Archer believed the weakest Servant in the war would pose half as big of a problem if it weren't for his current base of operations.

Attacking from a distance was out. Even with Archer's eyes and powerful stock of Noble Phantasm sword arrows, the odds of him being able to actually find and hit his target from a distance was slim to none. Plus after his close escape last time, neither Master nor Servant wished to risk being nearly blown up again from predictability.

Close ranged combat was out too simply because there was little doubt that Assassin had once more rigged the walkway and the forest near the entrance to the temple like a Vietnam jungle. True, Archer's eyes would be of more use here and he would manage to spot out more traps. However, he essentially would be open from all angles the moment he stepped into the woods or on the stairway. The shrouded Servant had more than established the fact that he was not the type to answer to challenges of battle, let alone reveal himself unless necessary…

… Except he _did_ when Archer and Rider had first attempted to get through…

He had established that he certainly was not on friendly terms with Caster, who was still draining the people of Fuyuki of their prana via the leylines. If anything he seemed to be trying to sabotage her efforts by any means available to him while still doing his task of protecting the entrance to the temple. It would have certainly explained his behavior during their humiliation of an encounter.

Had Assassin kept himself hidden until he attacked, Rin was certain that he could have easily killed one of the attacking Servants before the other one could have responded in time.

But he didn't. Instead Assassin had drawn out the battle and forced both Archer and Rider to retreat. While that in itself was an impossibly impressive feat for a Servant as weak as him, it had left his opponents aware of how he fought, greatly enhancing his odds of being killed the next time they came…

Except they were still stuck with trying to find a solid way to attack him in the first place that wouldn't expose them to being blown up or shot on the spot.

Honestly, the only non-suicidal, reliable, and certain way Rin saw of managing to kill Assassin at the moment without relying on outside aid was to…

Ring. Ring.

The antique phone in the workshop distracted the frustrated magus from her thoughts. Rin had installed it soon after she met Shirou simply because she was tired of missing important calls while working on experiments. If her father disapproved of it she'd take it up with him in the afterlife.

"A call, now?" Archer mused as he checked the time. It was nearly three in the morning. By all means, even if Rin was busy with the war she'd still be asleep by now, however the issue with Assassin had been driving her nuts ever since his defeat.

The magus frowned as she reached for it. "It's because someone's calling me now that I know it probably won't be good." She picked it up. "Hello? Tohsaka residence."

"My, you certainly picked up quickly. Don't tell me you've been skipping out on your sleep as a habit." Kirei Kotomine's voice echoed from the other side with an amused tone. "Do remember that you need your rest if you plan to succeed in overcoming the other Masters in the war."

Rin's eyebrow twitched at the sound of the loathsome man's words. "Do be careful, Priest. I thought you were supposed to be impartial. What would others think if you were giving advice to Masters?"

"I was merely giving a suggestion based on common sense out of concern for your health," the man replied, just as impartial as always. "I am your guardian after all. Outside of what occurs in the War, your health is primarily my responsibility. It would not reflect well upon me for my charge to be incapable of taking care of herself."

"Thank you for reminding me of something I'd rather forget," the girl all but spat out. "Why have you called me, Kotomine? I thought I told you I won't accept your help for the War. I will win this on my own."

"Far be it for me to forget that conversation." Kirei's dry tone nearly made the girl thirsty over the phone. "No. I am calling to inform you, Second Owner of Fuyuki, that Zouken Matou is dead."

It took a good ten seconds for Rin to comprehend exactly what the priest had just said, and even then she had trouble believing it. Looking back on the event, she would have betted a fair amount of money that Kirei savored every second of it. "… What?"

"I believe you heard me the first time Rin, however I shall indulge you this once. The old worm is dead," the voice on the other end replied with a hint of amusement.

The teenaged magus was thrown for a loop as she tried to comprehend what this could mean. In a way this was bigger than anything that could have potentially occurred in the War. It drastically changed the power balance in Fuyuki once the conflict was over. The Matou name was now limited to just Sakura, a former Tohsaka, and without Zouken to back it up Rin's position in the area had gained a significant degree of weight.

Screw sleeping now, she'd be up for the rest of the night busy looking at the old contracts between her family and the Makiri to see what this event truly meant for her…

"How?" she managed to rasp out, ignoring the look of confusion and concern Archer was giving her. He had sharp eyes, but his hearing was only so good. "A… person, like that would not die so easily."

That was not an understatement. There had been records of random members of both their families trying to kill him over the centuries, methods and all. None of them worked in the slightest and anyone who tried was never heard from again. It was virtually an unspoken rule in Fuyuki that Zouken was off limits if you knew what was good for you. Even Shirou took the rule to heart…

"Ah, now that I believe was the true interesting part." Rin could almost feel Kirei grin on the other side of the line.

"The one responsible for Zouken's death was none other than your classmate, Shirou Emiya."

Rin's stomach had turned to ice at those words. "Shirou… what?"

"Indeed. With one of his blades, Emiya managed to end what even I would deem difficult to conclude with certainty," the man continued without regret. "Why, my sources even tell me that the two were engaged in some sort of agreement at the time, no doubt regarding the War in some way…"

Rin's mind went back to when she had met Sakura back at Shirou's home just a few days before, all but confirming that the Emiya and Makiri houses had joined forces in the war…

Kirei's voice was almost ignored by the girl's raging thoughts. "Who knew that the boy could be so much like his father?"

"Rin. What is the matter?" Archer asked sternly, not liking the shade of white her face had donned. "What is going on?"

"… And Sakura? Where is my… where is the current head of the Matou?" Rin managed to rasp out, not sure what to think at the moment but still unwilling to give the man more ammo to use against her for later.

For once Kirei didn't respond at once. "The current location of the Matou representative is unknown. At best, I can confirm that the Servant she has summoned is still very much alive. That may simply mean, on the other hand, that Emiya has become its Master as well to increase his odds. The last that I had heard, the state of her health was confirmed to be less than ideal…"

"I see…" Rin's voice was unsettlingly neutral. "… Is that all?"

"For now, yes," the man confirmed. "I plan to make an announcement later to all the Masters regarding another subject, but otherwise continue as you have. I look forward to your victory."

Rin didn't bother to say anything else as she hung up the phone and briefly glanced at her slightly worried Servant before turning to the stairs.

"Rin. What happened?" Archer frowned. "You don't look well."

The girl paused at the foot of the steps. "Zouken's dead, and Sakura's missing." She softly stated. "… Remember anything about that?"

"Zouken? Sakura?" The white haired man blinked in confusion and some surprise. He was well aware of Sakura's predicament, but as far as he knew Zouken wasn't dealt with in most timelines, if any, until the end of the war.

Rin laughed humorlessly at the man's perplexed expression. "Hah. Guess not. Why am I not surprised?"

"Rin…" The Servant made a move to approach his Master…

"STOP!" The girl snapped more forcefully than he expected. It may not have been a Command Seal, but he was anchored to his spot all the same from the sudden order. "Don't follow me, Servant. I need time to think about this alone and being near you at the moment will only give me a headache. Focus on healing, since it's the only useful thing you can do for now."

EMIYA straightened himself out before looking at his boss' disappearing figure with his hawk like eyes…

It didn't take much to determine that his younger self was responsible for Zouken's end. All things considered he was just as surprised as Rin. Unlike the girl, he knew just how annoying the old bastard was to end…

And therein lay the problem.

From his seemingly countless experiences through the war, and the fact that he actually _remembered _some of them this time, the Counter Guardian recalled that Zouken had frequently left the worm that contained his soul, his anchor as it was, in Sakura's heart…

… The odds of his younger counterpart actually knowing this, let alone doing something to counteract the possibility of Zouken returning to it and then controlling or destroying the girl from the inside were not good.

The Blacksmith Hero decided to remain quiet and simply watched how things turned out for the next couple of days. As impassive as he tried to be, he still held lingering feelings and guilt for what happened to the Sakura of his time, and would not wish to put salt in the wounds of Rin should the same thing happen to this world's version of the unfortunate girl…

… Then again, hopefully she'll remain and possibly die simply an unfortunate girl and not that monstrosity that she occasionally was turned into. He had been called in on Counter Guardian duty a few times in the worlds where the worst possible ending had indeed happened and from what he barely recalled it did not end well… not that it ever did whenever he had to answer Alaya's call.

At the very least, it might snap his foolish younger self out of his delusions…

o. o. o.

Emiya Residence:

"Mmmm." Taiga moaned as she woke up slowly. "Shiiirou… breaaakfast…"

Stretching cat-like unconsciously, the woman slowly returned to the land of the conscious and looked around in a daze. "Huh? Oh… I am at Shirou's this time… that's nice."

She blinked a few times, yawned, then blinked some more… before her eyes snapped open so fast that one would have sworn they heard glass breaking if they were there.

"Oh shit! I slept over a student's house! And one without any parents to boot! On a school night! Oh crap if the board hears of this my ass is so fired it's gonna leave smoke signals! I'm too young to get fired for a false sexual misdemeanor!"

The sound of a door slamming open was clearly heard throughout the property.

"SHIIIIIIIIIIIRRRRRRRRRRROOOOOOOUUUUUUUUUUU!"

The sound of what could only be described as a tiger in human skin would have been heard throughout the neighborhood had it not been for the bounded fields in place.

The young teacher barged through the open hallways and to the kitchen like a force of nature, throwing open any and every door in her way until she literally skidded into the living room adjacent to the kitchen.

"Shirou! Whatever you do don't tell anyone that I slept… over?" The frantic woman was stopped by an image that always seemed to terrify her…

An empty Emiya kitchen in the morning.

No spices reached her nose. No sounds of chopping, boiling, steaming, or frying were heard. No images of Shirou or Sakura were seen in what Taiga considered their ultimate habitat. Nothing.

"… Shirou?" The woman peeked inside the elaborate kitchen to see that yes it was empty. A glimpse at the microwave attached to the wall indicated that yes, she was neither up early nor late compared to normal.

A quick look outside told her that her favorite (and only) charge was not doing his standard morning warm-ups, so he wasn't there…

Given by the fact that no one reacted to her infamously loud yelling, she determined that no one was in the main building, so that simply left the shed outside…

… The shed that Shirou kept under heavy guard and rarely let anyone inside.

Had Shirou been anyone else, Taiga would have honestly assumed that the shed was where he had hidden his x-rated personal items that any healthy teenaged male should possess. He certainly spent enough time in there to warrant such an idea…

However this was Shirou. Not only was the teen a certified stick in the mud most of the time, but he had enough females (and possibly Issei) all but hanging off of his arms to scratch off the possibility. The few times that she had been inside the building or seen Shirou, Sakura or Rin come out of the building, she had not received any sort of hint that there was anything illicit happening. No odd smells outside that of motor oil and stuff burning. No flushed faces or panting when the children coming out. And certainly no items of potential sexual origins...

Though come to think of it, there was quite a bit of screaming from Shirou's end when Rin first started coming over when they first met…

Then again, it wasn't as if she didn't know what went on in there… sort of…

Taiga shook her head as she cleared her head. She could dwell on what was inside the shed later. She needed to find her charge so she could get him to lie to the school board if anyone ever asked if she stayed over his place. It wasn't exactly the most honorable thing a teacher could ask their students, but she didn't want things to be easily be blown out of context.

She was too young to be falsely charged for inappropriate interactions with a student damn it!

Just as she was about to rush to the shed and pound on the door, the teacher noticed two letters on top of the dining room table between her and the door outside. She would have missed them if the one on top said "to Fuji-nee" in big bold characters.

"Hmm?" The teacher blinked in confusion as she looked down at the envelope addressed to her. She vaguely noticed that the second envelope was a bit thicker than her's before she opened her missive and read it out loud.

"Fuji-nee, there was an emergency in Sakura's family. Had to leave quickly with her and Saber to help. Couldn't wake you up. No time. Won't be able to make it to school today. Please let the other teachers know. Please give the other letter to Kizuki-sensei. Will be back soon. Shirou."

Her stomach growled.

"P.S. I made you a quick breakfast. It's in the fridge. Just warm it up."

"Shirouuu. You're such a good kid…" The woman lowered the paper with tears falling from her eyes before she continued.

"P.P.S. I will ignore the fact you brought THAT into my home this time given the circumstances in town, but please don't do it again. You know how I feel about it… Oops."

Taiga nervously looked at the bulge on her right hip which was covered by her striped yellow sweater. She had been so worked up about waking up in the Emiya household she had forgotten about the… defensive measure she had taken with her last night during her stroll. Normally she left it at home when she went to work or to Shirou's, but she had not anticipated going to either last night.

Shirou was under the impression that she had taking to carrying it after a particularly bad experience she had with a rival gang despite its illegality. It just went to show just how much he valued her safety if he was willing to disregard such a blatant disregard for the law.

Hopefully he wouldn't find out about the real reason she made a habit of carrying one on her…

She had promised Kiritsugu…

o. o. o.

With Sakura:

She woke up in a bed that she instantly could tell was not her own or the one she used in the Emiya residence.

She could instantly tell something was off with her body even though she was still lethargic from regaining consciousness. Breathing came easier to her, as did moving and virtually everything else, and yet something felt as if it was missing. It took her a few moments of pushing herself up and rubbing the clouds out of her eyes to realize what it was.

The perpetual "warmth" that she had experienced for what seemed like forever was vacant.

Upon further inspection, the "lumps", for lack of a better term that best represented the worms in her body were surprisingly vacant. A very brief channeling of the prana in her body was all the proof she needed that she was now worm free as she found herself completely unable to utilize the parasites as makeshift circuits like she had been taught to.

At the very best, she could only use the internal scars the worms had made as barely usable circuits, but ultimately she was left to rely on just her forty natural circuits again for her thaumaturgy once more.

She was so stunned that she completely ignored the new… thing… that was supporting her body.

Despite the fact that breathing was physically easier to do now, the Matou could not do it. The last thing she had remembered was going out with Shirou and the Servants and then… nothing. What had happened last night?

"Welcome back." Rider materialized to her side, snapping the teen out of her shocked state. "I trust that you are well, Sakura?"

"I… Rider…" The Matou attempted to rationalize what was happening as she looked around the unfamiliar room. It appeared to be your standard every day hotel room with two beds, complete with TV, closet, bathroom, lamps, etc.

Oddly enough, it was Saber that was sleeping on the bed next to hers. As much as the idea of seeing the Servant sleeping baffled her, Sakura's attention was quickly drawn to the only other human there.

Shirou was sleeping in a chair situated on the other side of her bed with his head and arms resting right next to her side. It was clear that he didn't change his clothes, his tan pants, black and blue shirt, and overcoat, given that first, they were what she had seen him wear the night before (or at least she hoped it was the night before), and second, he was smelling a small bit.

"What happened?"

A twinge of a smile appeared on the Gorgon's face. "What happened is that you are now the last surviving member of the Makiri family. Congratulations."

The girl blinked several times in confusion before the weight of Rider's words finally crashed down on her. "I… what?"

"It appears as if your grandfather, Zouken Makiri was interfering with the mechanics of the Grail War in degrees that surpassed what could be overlooked," Rider elaborated. "Shirou discovered this, and with the aid of the overseer of the war… addressed both him and his machinations."

Sakura, freshly woken up from being operated on, de-wormed, and knocked unconscious, understandably began to develop a headache. "Rider, as much you seem to be enjoying this, and I can indeed tell that you are, can you please start from the beginning and not be so mysterious? While being told that Grandfather is dead is great news, I'm afraid that I'm too tired and confused to be any more shocked than I currently am."

The dark Servant's minor grin widened a fraction. "Do you wish for me to do so before or after you get some coffee?"

The purple haired girl pouted as she turned her attention to Shirou and began to stroke his head affectionately. After spending more time with Rin, she had picked up her sister's habit of needing a caffeinated jumpstart in the morning. It was partially due to the long nights they had spent together, which in turn left them exhausted with the handful of hours of rest they managed to grasp. Soon enough it become habit for her to down a cup of "brown gold" when she woke up in the morning whenever possible.

The fact that Rider was already familiar with this habit spoke for itself.

"Hopefully, after. Thank you. Unfortunately, given that the only ones able to go out to grab some are sleeping the odds of it happening soon is unlikely." Sakura sighed as she focused on playing with Shirou's prematurely graying hair. Much like countless times before, it seemed as if the Emiya was the only thing that she could rely on to maintain her sanity during stressful times. "I'll just ask some simple questions for now. Where are we? Why are we here instead of Shirou's home?"

"We are in a hotel in the south side of the city," Rider answered. "Shirou believed it was unsafe to transport you all the way to his home after your operation at the Church. He has several rooms set up in the area for the duration of the war in case his home is compromised."

The girl frowned. If she was in such bad shape, then why take her out of the Church in the first place? Oh, wait. Shirou didn't trust the priest there. In hindsight, it was more shocking that Shirou willingly went there for help in the first place. For some reason he considered Kirei Kotomine to be just as bad as her Grandfather, which was absurd as far as she was concerned.

No one was more of a monster as her grandfather.

"I take it the operation was to remove the worms from my body?" She looked at her hands. They didn't physically appear any different, but to her they seemed… clean, or at least not perpetually tainted, for the first time in years.

"Most of them." Rider admitted. "Shirou took care of the few that remained that the priest was unable to reach. He did not finish until daybreak and then fell asleep at your side. From what I understand, while the Moderator of the War was more appropriate for dealing with the bulk of the worms, Master had the unique resources to address the most concerning ones."

Given from the fact that the smile had vanished from Rider's face, Sakura was willing to bet that the more concerning worms were in places that she'd rather not think about.

"So… what happens now?" Sakura asked, a bit lost as to what all this could mean. She had been under the impression that the boy sleeping in front of her was working for her Grandfather. That clearly had not been the case. His betrayal was indeed surprising, but the shock of the fact that Zouken Makiri, the monster of Fuyuki, was dead and that she no longer had worms infesting her body was overriding that minor shock.

Was she still allied with Shirou? Yes. There was no doubt about it. He wouldn't put in so much effort to liberate her from the old worm's grasp if he was just going to ditch her right afterwards. Even if he tried to push her away for her own safety or claim it didn't involve her, she'd help him out regardless. She owed him her life, and he already had her love.

Was Shirou after the Grail then? She didn't think so. In fact on the few times they talked about it, she would always detect a hint of disdain for it for some reason. Then again that wasn't a concrete reason to dismiss the idea…

There was probably something else afoot that she wasn't aware of then. Given the fact that her savior managed to somehow outmaneuver Zouken's machinations, it wasn't that far of a stretch to believe that he was up to something else.

It was really a bit of an eye opener for her. Over the past week, she had been exposed to a new side of Shirou. True he acted similar to how he normally did… however, what he had his hands in, what he was capable of without anyone else being the wiser was astounding.

She and Rin would often joke that Shirou was incapable of hiding anything from them for a multitude of reasons whether it be because they knew him too well, to him being a horrible liar, to just being too trusting…

For the love of the third magic were they wrong and she was more than glad that was the case. She doubted her savior's plan would have worked half as well if she knew, as she was unable to hide anything from Zouken for long.

Magus Killer the world called him. She had assumed that was more out of the fact that Shirou's father held the title originally. Now she knew that there was more to it than that.

"I do not know yet. Had this plan failed and Zouken survived the assault, I would be a potential liability so Master did not let me in on his other goals." Rider shook her head. "Saber is more aware of his machinations and plans than I am. What I do know is that he has additional concerns that he wished to address during the War. From what I've gathered, he has been preparing for it more intensely and for a longer period of time than what you are aware of…" She turned to the other bed. "Am I correct, Saber?"

Sakura turned to see the blonde Servant looking at her with her emerald green eyes as she slowly picked herself up. "… I cannot confirm or deny anything on the matter without my Master's approval."

Sakura couldn't help but chuckle slightly at Saber's professional and political response. Even after being released from Zouken's grasp, Shirou's original Servant would not relinquish any details of her Master's plans without his say so. It was a bit relieving in a way. That caution was what enabled Shirou to manage to get rid of her grandfather after all. "I see. Did you enjoy your rest?"

The King of Knights nodded slowly. "While I did not necessarily need it, it allowed me to regain a bit of Mana and not be a burden on Shirou. The second procedure you underwent last night was more tiring than he had originally anticipated."

"Mmm," Sakura agreed, looking at her body again. "Now that I don't have the crest worms in me anymore, I could be Rider's Master again without worrying about being drained dry of prana every other day. If not, I can still help by giving Rider more prana and reducing Shirou's burden."

Come to think of it, even as exhausted as she was, Sakura could confidently say that she currently had more Prana in her than she had on days following most transferring rituals with Shirou, and it was slowly going up for once. It felt good.

So this was what having a normal body was like…

"I suggest you postpone doing that for now." Rider's faint smile returned. "You need to recover from your operation and adapt to your current condition before attempting anything strenuous."

"Her physical health should be flawless by now. On the other hand, I do agree with your other concern." Saber stated, her soft voice carrying a stern power to it. Apparently questioning whatever was used to heal Sakura's body could be considered an insult to the blonde Servant. "I am not a Magus though I do have some knowledge of their craft. From what I understand, the creatures implanted into you acted as circuits of a sort. It would be unwise to dismiss that their sudden absence would not impact your magecraft in some way."

The new head of the Makiri didn't find anything wrong with her statement. Despite Zouken's horrifically painful and demeaning process of implanting the worms into her, even Sakura would admit that there was a sort of sick and cruel precision and care in which he did it. As sadistic as he was, the old worm did want her to be his heir to continue the family line after all. It would be counterproductive to kill or break her, and in his own words, she was a magnificent specimen. It wouldn't do to waste her out of carelessness.

She shivered as her mind went back to the man and hugged herself. Zouken was gone. He was really gone. No more worms. No more Makiri, or Matou, or whatever the family's name was. She was just… Sakura now.

A sinking feeling manifested in her stomach. What would happen to her? She was the last Matou now, at least on paper. Would she be forced to continue the family craft? Would she be able to go to college, let alone afford it? She was aware that Zouken did at least have a bank account set up for public transactions, but she had never learned of where the man had entrusted the family's true fortune.

From what she understood, she was actually almost as affluent as Luvia. The only difference was that Zouken didn't see the need, nor make it a habit to use it that often other than to make more money. Say what you want, but after five hundred years it was hard to deny that the man had learned to play the markets surprisingly well.

"Peace, Sakura. Calm down," Saber soothed the girl. "Place your trust in Shirou. He has put much on the line to get this far. I doubt he has not prepared for the aftermath of his actions."

The girl shifted in her bed uncomfortably as she looked down at the exhausted Shirou's head. Honestly, she believed that dealing with Zouken would be an impossible enough task. Yet, he had done just that and had another target in the near future to focus on. Not only that, but the War was still going on in full swing with all eight Servants still gunning for one another.

That's right. If anyone knew what to do it was her savior. He'd be able to figure out what she should do. He was always there for her…

… Because he was _her _sword… always…

Doing as Saber suggested, the freed Makiri sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose and tried to clear her mind. As if fighting in a secret war with legends from all over human history wasn't enough, she had an identity and financial crisis to deal with and it was hitting her all at once. "You're right Saber. I need to relax before I try to go any further with trying to make sense out of any of this."

Moving the sheets off of her, but still being careful not to wake up Shirou, the girl slowly moved to the bathroom. Given the way she moved, it was clear that her body was sore despite being supposedly healed to perfect health. "I'm going to wash up. Please don't mind me."

The two Servants watched the girl make her way into some privacy before she closed the door behind her.

When the shower turned on, they pretended to not hear the faint sobs that was almost masked by the sound of water coming through the piping.

"She is handling this better than I expected," Saber mused. "She is strong."

"She has had to be to make it this far," Rider confirmed in a tone that she had witnessed something of the like before. "The future does not look promising."

The King frowned. "It will without a doubt be trying. Zouken was a significant trial in himself that needed to be addressed as soon as possible. Sadly, the fact of the matter is that he was but the first as far as Shirou is concerned, and unfortunately not the most significant by himself."

The other Servant slowly nodded. "I see. Our Master is certainly ambitious to undertake such ordeals at once."

The King did not miss the slight tone of acknowledgement in the Gorgon's comment. It appeared as if the other Servant had become far more appreciative and accepting of her stand in Master as of late.

Saber sat on the edge of the bed and thought of the past night. Rider was right in that sense. Shirou was undertaking a massive task, and he was using a good deal of Kiritsugu's methods to make it so. Not enough to make him as deplorable as his father, but enough to know that he was capable of coming up with reliable and effective plans and come up with fairly unsavory, if not unorthodox, approaches.

Still, the one thing that made Shirou stand apart from his father was what made her truly _believe_ that he was able to accomplish all that he intended to do…

"Yes…" The King of Knights nodded and smiled at her fellow Servant. "Thankfully, he will not be alone in his endeavors…"

o. o. o.

Fuyuki High School:

As much as Luvia would like to say that a day without Shirou soothed her nerves, she would be lying. If anything it made her even more uncomfortable.

It wasn't simply because he wasn't in the school, though it was a bit of a warning sign. Shirou was adamant of trying to live a normal life outside of his activities in the world of thaumaturgy, as absurd as it was. For him to actually skip out on class could only mean that something happened the previous night that was significant enough to prevent him from coming.

Then there was the fact that Tohsaka was not so subtly on the warpath for him for some reason. It didn't help that she had clearly not slept at all last night. Her bloodshot eyes and dark bags were evidence enough if her temper didn't give her away.

She was so intent on finding him that when she heard from Fujimura-sensei that he and Sakura weren't coming due to Sakura's family reasons, the Edelfelt could have sworn that her rival was about to actually curse the woman right then and there.

All things considered, Luvia was pondering if Shirou skipped class on purpose to avoid them, but she brushed away the idea as ridiculous. As annoying as he was right now, the Emiya was the type to take his thrashings like a man (fool), not run away and hide like a coward (smart person).

"Edelfelt-san. I need to speak to you during lunch period." Kuzuki's monotone voice hammered through her distracted thoughts with unnatural ease, causing the affluent magus to nearly jump out of her seat in surprise. "I will be waiting in the teacher's office."

The teacher didn't pay her reaction to him any mind as he calmly turned around and left the room without any thought.

"Why on earth did he have to use this guy as his spy?" Luvia muttered under her breath as she got up and followed the teacher, Caster silently following her without anyone noticing.

"You're certainly popular with Kuzuki-sensei lately." Rin lazily leered at the blonde with her head propped on her desk. While her temper had simmered over the periods of class after finding out that Shirou wasn't there, it was still more than obvious that she was still in less than a stellar mood at the moment.

The foreigner decided to keep in character and flipped one of her trademark curls over her shoulder. "Humph. Unlike some people, I at least try to communicate with my educators and further my education."

"No doubt by shoving bills down their throats." The Tohsaka muttered under her breath as she looked away, having lost her interest in Luvia's activities.

The blonde couldn't help but mentally laugh at the irony of the situation. Despite Rin's determination to find Shirou for some reason today, SHE was the one that was about to communicate with him in one fashion or another. Granted her relationship with the Emiya was not ideal at the moment either, but the situation itself and Rin's blindness were enough to lift her spirits for the moment.

It took little time for her to enter the teacher's room where Kizuki was waiting. Unlike last time, much to her surprise, there were a few other educators going on with their business at their desks as well. Even if the teachers weren't paying attention, it was no place to hide a private conversation.

A second glance at the room told her that yes, Shirou was not there and that there was no hint of thaumaturgy in the room. Luvia pretended to ignore the small feeling of disappointment in the back of her mind that spawned when she realized this.

"AAAH!" One of the female teachers yelled in surprise as she jumped up from her seats, causing the conspirators to warily turn to her direction. "Another rat just ran by my feet! What on earth is going on in this school?!"

"Calm down." Chided an older teacher from a few seats down. "The board has called for an exterminator. It should all be dealt with by the end of the week."

"_Caster?" _Luvia warily asked her invisible Servant.

"_They aren't familiars Master." _The Princess glanced at the skittering creature as it ran between a cabinet and the wall behind it for safety. _"It appears to be a genuine infestation. There is no ambient prana in this room, nor are there any sources of any kind of thaumaturgy."_

"You wanted to see me, Sensei?" the girl asked as she hesitantly sat next to her emotionless teacher and ignored the sudden outburst.

"Yes." The man nodded as he handed her a small envelope. "Let me know when you are finished reading it. I will inform you of what I have researched last night afterwards."

"_Not one for conversation is he?" _Caster dryly mused as she watched her Master open the message.

_Luvia,_

_This can only be read by you. Anyone else will just see a request for some homework gatherings and some seafood recipes that Fuji-nee likes._

_The first target has been addressed. Zouken Makiri is dead._

Luvia paused at those words. True, she was convinced that the Emiya would likely manage to kill the old worm during the war. However, she didn't expect it to happen so quickly and without anyone noticing.

Then again, it might be the reason why Tohsaka was so adamant on finding him today. If she knew that Zouken was dead and that Shirou was behind it, the girl was practically obligated to find him. Throw in the fact that she was rather close to Sakura, who was also missing due to the boy's machinations, and there was no doubt that the Second Owner of the city would be near desperate to get her hands on him.

_I am likely recovering from removing the last of the crest worms from Sakura's body as you read this. Unless I contact you by nightfall, I won't be able to provide any direct assistance for tonight. Even so that may be for the best as it would prevent others from suspecting our current relationship, strained as it is._

Caster couldn't help but snort softly in dry amusement at that last line.

_Regardless, now that our largest roadblock is removed more options are now available. Should Sensei have a reliable location of where the Witch his hosting the bulk of her operations, and in conjunction the area where your sister is most likely staying, then I believe it would be time for you to make your move…_

Luvia skimmed over the instructions that Shirou had laid out for her and silently admitted that they were fairly reasonable and surprisingly simple. For a moment Luvia assumed that this was planned by his father.

While her Caster was not as powerful on the offensive as she was on the defensive, the tactics used would improve their odds of getting at Assassin far more manageable while all but ensuring both her and her Servant's safety. Plus, even if they couldn't bust their way through Assassin's apparent field of traps…

_Remember, even if you don't succeed in rescuing your sister, just make sure to perform your primary goal, since that is what will determine the outcome of future fights there. Please don't overextend yourself and put yourself in a dangerous position. I promised you I'd get your sister back and I don't want to lose you to do it._

"_He almost sounds as if he cares," _Caster sarcastically mused._ "No doubt he's simply trying to make himself feel better. It's simply astounding that he has the nerve to put that down after what he has already done to us."_

Luvia ignored her Servant's ramblings. True her anger at Shirou was more than justified, but all things considered, they were technically still at war. Had he been anyone else, Shirou would probably have killed them by now given his huge advantage over practically everyone. The worst thing was that it normally would have been expected for him to do as much.

That didn't excuse him for his actions, but at the very least it showed that he was serious about his goals and his intentions, which in turn convinced her that, yes, he would try his hardest to get her sister.

_I have instructed sensei through another letter to let you know of everything he's found and to follow your advice. He will still inform me of what he's told you though so I can prepare adequately. I will try to contact you as soon as I can. Stay safe._

_Shirou_

The Edelfelt looked at her teacher skeptically. She contemplated on whether or not to release him from the Witch's influence and use him on her assault, but discarded the idea after a few seconds. The man was an unknown factor as far as most were concerned, and after reading up on enough of Kiritsugu's exploits she knew that it was best to keep him that way until the best possible moment… and she had a feeling that the time was not quite here yet.

Then again, it wasn't as if she was without options herself. Perhaps it was time for her to put her own spin on things in this farce of a War.

"Sensei…" the girl started off as she quietly pocketed the note. She'd look at it later to ensure that she didn't miss anything in the instructions. "Tell me what you know."

o. o. o.

In a Hotel somewhere in Fuyuki…

Shirou woke up to the sensation of resting comfortably on a soft surface.

"Glad you could join us." Saber wasted no time pointing out his consciousness to the world with an amused tone. "For a while we were afraid you would be sleeping the entire day away."

"Mmm? Saber?" The Emiya yawned and blinked as he tried to pick himself up, only to be held down gently by a pair of soft hands, his body still too tired and groggy to put up much protest.

Zouken's worms had proved to be harder to get rid of than he had originally thought. True he had practiced on cadavers "borrowed" from the Clocktower on occasion (he wasn't going to play doctor on a person's heart without at least SOME practice and knowledge of what he was doing), but the mock targets didn't seem to cling to life or grasp onto its host as stubbornly as the worms in Sakura.

Even without Zouken instructing them anymore, the things were a downright pain to deal with. Rule Breaker destroyed their magical properties, link to Sakura, and made them weaker, but it didn't kill them outright or prevent them from clinging to her warm insides with fervor once they realized that something wanted them out. The anti-thaumaturgy Noble Phantasm merely returned the worms to what they were before Zouken played with them, which apparently, were still large living worms that should not be within a person's body. Clearly the things had been bred carefully to be as big and nasty as possible before they had been turned into familiars.

One by one Shirou manually had to finish them off before decomposing the bodies with the altered reinforcement spell he used to get rid of evidence. Most of the parasites were too deep for him to extract physically. Then he had to use a small common tool he got from the Tower to suck out residue from the experimental subject to get rid of the slush left over before allowing Avalon to finally take over and heal the small hole in the girl's body.

Rinse. Repeat.

The process was long and exhausting for him as he had to go slowly. He wasn't an expert surgeon, and had Avalon not been there with Saber keeping physical contact with the girl, Sakura's life would most certainly have been called into question a few times throughout the endeavor. It was no wonder why the priest had to use a majority of the crests on his arm to get rid of the bulk of them in the first place. The things were almost as annoying to get rid of as their creator.

As much as Shirou disliked praising Kotomine for anything positive, he would have to relent that the man was most certainly skilled in the healing arts. The war probably would have been over if the Emiya had attempted to get rid of all the worms in Sakura by himself instead of the dozen or so that took him all night to extract.

He had contemplated giving his fourth command seal to Sakura after the operation, but decided against it. As things stood right now, he was still the Master of two Servants while the girl was not supporting anyone. The odds of him needing to use them for one reason or another were much greater.

Besides, now with Sakura worm free she could allocate more of her power to Rider while Shirou focused on Saber. As much as it would be easier for everyone to return Rider to Sakura, it was generally understood that Shirou was by far the best strategist in the War, and simply having the mental connection between him and Rider could provide to be essential in the fights to come.

Part of the reason why he had managed to do so well in the War so far was his habit of being at least a step ahead of everyone else. His link with Rider allowed him to react swiftly to Luvia's attack. He used his knowledge of the currently unknown aspects of the war to get Kirei to attack Zouken before things got out of hand.

He needed to keep on making moves and place himself in well informed positions, and more importantly, to maintain his control. Granted, it had been a fleeting control at best for now, but now that Zouken was gone he intended to rectify that.

"Rider and Sakura have gone out to get some food." Saber continued, assuming that her Master was well enough to comprehend what she was saying. "Given the current time, I am under the impression that they will be returning with lunch."

"Lunch?" Shirou parroted in a half hearted surprise as he looked at the electronic clock next to his bed and saw that it was a little past one. "How? I've never slept in this late before. Working on Sakura did take a while, but I still should have gotten up before now."

The King of Knights closed her eyes calmly. "Sakura casted a spell on you to make you sleep longer after she had learned of what had happened and calmed herself down. She, as well as Rider and I, still believe that you are overworking yourself and need as much rest as possible. You may have dealt with Zouken and Sakura's condition last night; however, do recall that there is still a War occurring with all of its participants still around."

Finally returning to reality, Shirou managed to recall why he was in such a dazed state in the first place. "Sakura cast… never mind that. How is she, Saber? How did she handle…"

"The truth?" the blonde dryly finished his sentence, knowing exactly how bad things could potentially get. "As well as someone in her condition could. She is strong for one her age. Not many would have lasted as long as her in such deplorable conditions, let alone handle being released from them so suddenly. I believe she was still in a partial state of disbelief when she left. Do not fret though, Rider will ensure that nothing happens to her. I am more concerned about how she will behave once we inform her of our other goals. She is not foolish, Shirou. She knows that whatever you have set for yourself now is bigger than simply winning the War or releasing her from her family."

"If only it were that simple." The Emiya shook his head with a weak laugh. Closing his eyes he felt out the link he had with his other Servant. _"Rider, I'm up. Saber's filled me in on this morning. How are you and Sakura?"_

There was a brief pause before he got a response. _"We are well enough Shirou. We have just exited a nearby bakery and should be back soon. Sakura has made a complete physical recovery, however she is still a bit shaken despite the admirable strong front she has put up." _

"_Not many could go through what she has and come out sane."_ The Master smiled proudly.

"_I believe the fact that she had a specific someone with her for so long helped out a good deal." _Medusa's reply held a tinge of amusement to it.

"_The fact that I was with her for so long only means that I was useless for that period of time."_ Shirou's mirth fell as he recalled watching her go through her training. _"If I really was as great as everyone claims, I would have killed Zouken and dewormed Sakura years ago."_

"_Do not be so hard on yourself." _Rider's even tone became slightly gentler and dare he say… affectionate. _"The fact you bothered to save Sakura at all was more than what she could possibly have hoped for. You are her hero, Shirou."_

"… _Hero huh."_ He held back a dry snort. He didn't know why, but once more he felt as if he was hearing a bad joke. He knew that he should be proud or happy hearing such a thing, but it just seemed to serve to irritate him for some reason.

"_Shirou?"_

"_It's nothing," _he quickly consoled his other Servant as he cleared his head. He still had much to do. _"We'll wait for you here before going over our plans for the day."_

"_Understood… and Shirou?"_

"_Yes, Rider? Is something the matter?"_

There was a brief pause, as the Gorgon tried to think of what to say. _"… Thank you."_

Shirou blinked in confusion at her sudden thanks. _"Um… You're welcome?"_

He swore he felt something akin to amusement through their link before it was closed off on the opposite end.

Deciding to not dwell on the oddity of his other Servant, Shirou returned to the physical world, slowly picked himself up, popping all the stiff joints he had developed from sleeping in his clothes. Saber did not hold him back down this time, probably determining that he was well enough to move this much at least. "Mind if I go wash up? I not sure yet, but I'm certain that I must not smell that pleasant right now after all that's happened."

"So long as you inform me of your plans for tonight." Saber nodded as she backed away from the bed. "Our largest roadblock is dealt with. Sakura is no longer a risk. Should we start informing the other Masters about the Grail's condition now?"

Shirou shook his head with a grimace. "No Saber. Sakura's still in, and is, a danger. I took the worms out of her, but she is still for all intents and purposes a lesser Grail, just like Illya and Irisviel. The shards of the previous grail that Zouken implanted into her have completely fused with her. The worms we took out are simply not feeding her prana to them constantly anymore. The main problem is that should a Servant die when near her…"

"… We risk her losing control as Kiritsugu warned." Saber's expression matched his. "Another reason to keep her away from the fighting to come."

"And thankfully, something that is far more manageable than dealing with Zouken," Shirou pointed out, while keeping a few parts of his plan to himself. It was a cruel thing to do, but should Sakura accidentally absorb even one Heroic Spirit… "As for informing the other Masters, I intend to do that as soon as we deal with Caster."

"Caster?" The knight blinked in surprise. "I don't understand. If there was anyone that should have been dealt with before revealing this information, it should be Kirei Kotomine and Gilgamesh as they are already aware of it and wish for the Grail to be used."

"We can't risk her finding out about the Greater Grail's condition when she is currently right on top of it and trying to hack into its system," her Master explained. "With how much trouble she is giving everyone, I don't want to give her a hint as to how to get into the Grail should she somehow get a hold of one of our allies. All it would take is for her to get lucky and stab one of the other Servants with Rule Breaker and then order them to reveal our secrets. Should she get in too deep she might be an even bigger threat to everyone than Gilgamesh. All things considered I would prefer to try to convince Illya to team up with us first, but at the moment I have no way of getting to her. The grounds around Einzbern Castle are too protected to just waltz in, and forcing our way through is… well Illya's potential trust in me at the moment is not very comforting at the moment."

Saber frowned as she contemplated his words. Given what happened in Kiritsugu's visions, particularly the one where Archer betrayed Rin to go with Caster, the King of Knights would have to agree with Shirou's logic there, even if he didn't know who Archer was at the moment.

"Then what is our next move?" Saber asked once more. "I do not believe that either you or Sakura are in any condition to support Rider or I in battle for now."

The Magus Killer donned a small bitter smile as he made his way to the bathroom. "Don't worry Saber. We're not going to be doing any fighting tonight… actually for tonight I was planning we'd be doing something a bit more… intimate, if you gave me permission of course…"

Saber didn't know why, but she had a feeling she wouldn't like what Shirou meant when he said that…

o. o. o

In another hotel:

"_What are we getting this time mother?"_

"No clue in the slightest," Bazett mumbled out loud as she sat on her bed with her limbs crossed while looking at the book's worth of restaurant pamphlets in front of her in nothing but a pair of shorts and a tank top.

Normally when she came to Fuyuki to visit Shirou, she just crashed at his place and ate whatever her often misguided student made for her seeing as he cooked better food than any other place she could frequent on her budget. When she left, she left some money for the teen to reimburse him for the food. She doubted that it was truly enough to cover the costs, but knowing Shirou's personality it was for the best. If she overestimated the price Shirou would have a near heart attack about the surplus money and go out of his way to give her all of it back instead of begrudgingly accepting the money left behind.

Unfortunately the War had obviously prevented that convenient little setup from working, so the Enforcer had to make do with what she had.

Thankfully Fuyuki was a fairly mixed city so while most of the places nearby catered to the Japanese tastes, there was still a good variety of styles she could go to if she wanted to eat…

On a side note though, she would never make the mistake of going to that curry shop ever again. Nearly having everything relating to her mouth burnt off once was enough thank you very much.

"I know I'm taking a stab at the dark, but do you two have any preferences?" The woman looked at her legs. She knew she looked like a fool doing so, but she didn't really care at this point. Her legs were alive and she might as well do something to make them more cooperative since she was likely to be with them for the rest of her life.

The left leg laughed childishly. _"You're silly mommy. We're only a couple of days old. We've only had dinner last night with you since you went outside for lunch today and we couldn't eat in public. We don't know what we like in particular yet."_

"_She's right," _the slightly older sounding and more mature right leg added. _"The only thing I think I know is that I don't like greasy foods like the chicken you had left out."_

"_Oh yeah. I didn't like it either." The "younger" of the two added. "It made me feel funny. Like I was getting bigger in an uncomfortable way."_

Bazett pretended not to listen to her legs complain about her leftovers or that they just claimed that they were getting fatter. She'd never hear the end of it from Lancer if he ever found out about it. Thankfully she had sent out the Servant on guard duty above the Hotel due to him being a wiseass one too many times about an hour ago.

She was on a budget, so Italian and Sushi were out. Eating anything greasy would cause her legs to act up, so the standard Chinese takeout was out too. The only solid deli she knew of was on the other side of town, so that wasn't an option either, plus now that she thought about it, it was out of her price range too. Meat in general was more expensive in Japan than it was in the Western countries.

"_I'm starting to get hungry Mother," _the "elder" leg muttered into her head with a sheepish tone.

"I thought you two didn't get hungry when you were attached to me." The woman glanced at her new limbs with skepticism before her own stomach rumbled loudly.

"_Heheheh. Kinda. We don't get hungry unless you do, Mommy." _The "younger" giggled with some amusement.

"Ha ha ha. I'm glad you're so amused," the Master grumbled. "Why do I think that Solomon conveniently forgot to mention that?"

Her stomach rumbled again.

"Damn it!" The Enforcer gave up on making an educated decision and simply grabbed the brochure for a nearby udon shop and moved to put on her suit. "Simple it is then!"

"Oh darn." The King of Rats pouted as his head peaked in past the doorway, looking at her decision. "And here I was hoping you'd pick the nearby Pizza restaurant. I have good word that it is quite well done despite not being quite that accurate."

"How did you… never mind. Given how mediocre this hotel is, I'm betting that there's a hole in every room in the building that you could walk into." The Enforcer sighed.

"Half." The representative of the Church pridefully raised his nose to the air. "And for your information, I walked in through the front door. I have the extra to this room."

"Lovely." The woman frowned as her eyes met the rat's. "I take it you have learned something interesting since you left yesterday?"

"Hmm," the false human mused as he strode into the room with a contemplative expression on his face. "I suppose. Granted, anything regarding the other Masters and Servants in this war could be considered interesting in one way or another would it not? By that logic, one would consider that the standard for "interesting" would to the normal individual be considered "outstanding"."

Bazett's stern gaze didn't waver. She had dealt with these transcendent and otherworldly types before and she doubted it would be the last. "Fine then. Have there been any outstanding events of interest that I should…!?"

She flinched and looked down to her left hand to see the command seals on it flashing crimson. The symbols engraved on her flesh flashed for a good thirty seconds before returning to their dull blood red color.

Before it had calmed down though, all the watchers had determined what it meant. It was the way the moderator of the Church called the other Masters whenever he had something important to inform the others. By the general rules of the war, she was now advised to go to the Church in one way or another within the next hour.

"Ah." He looked amusedly at the woman as the command seal stopped glowing. "It looks like I've been beaten to the punch. I'll just keep to myself for the time being. I'm sure I have another tidbit or two to give you once your business is concluded."

o. o. o.

Kotomine Church:

"This certainly is a first." Gilgamesh smirked as he leaned against the doorway to the main altar. "It is not often that you make such public moves such as this."

"It is not often that I am given with the adequate material to manage such a performance," the priest evenly replied. "Besides, it would be quite embarrassing if I did nothing after Emiya's actions last night."

"Imagine. Someone with the nerve to use you to serve his needs." The King of Heroes' eyes flashed in mirth.

"I cannot be used if I know and accept what my purpose was and the results of my actions before going." The man walked past the reincarnated Servant. "At worst, I was merely an accomplice for doing my duties."

"Hm. Well then. He may be a Faker, but at least the mongrel has some adequate taste in capable collaborators."

"Come now. We both know that I merely played the role of a tool last night." The priest shook his head as he made his way to the altar.

"It must have been a nostalgic experience then." Gilgamesh chuckled, not bothering to follow the man's departure. "Now let's see how you perform once more as the orchestrator."

Kirei remained mute as he entered the main room of the building, built to seat at least a hundred odd individuals as they listened to the Lord's gospel, but now were simply housing seven pairs of eyes located all around the room. Much like the previous war, the Masters that answered the call knew better than to come in person lest they give themselves or their positions away, and in turn simply sent minor familiars in their stead. Noting the shortage of one pair of eyes, the moderator emotionlessly strode to the familiar stand from which he performed most of his preaching over the past decade and gave a more visible look around the room.

"Welcome and thank you all for responding to my summons," he spoke out loud, his neutral yet deep voice easily reaching every inch of the virtually empty room. "No doubt you are all curious as to why I have called you so suddenly."

Even if he didn't know that the amethyst owl sitting on the rafters was Rin's, the flash of impatience in its eyes that likely mirrored its creator's would have revealed its maker almost instantly.

"Last night I was informed of an outside party attempting to interfere with the War," the man answered everyone's curiosity without so much of a twitch on his face, prompting many of the eyes there to focus on him with renewed intensity for various reasons. "Indeed, as absurd as it sounds for an individual of this era to somehow pose a threat in a War comprising of legends from throughout history, that is exactly what was revealed to me last night by one of you."

As expected, several of the familiars glanced at one another skeptically and with suspicion, as if looking at the ambiguous representatives of their enemies would somehow point out the culprit to the others.

"While I have no doubt that all of you are well aware of the rules of our little competition, my eyes have been opened from last night's activities and recalling the events of the previous war. For those of you who are unaware of what I am referring to, the Caster of the Fourth War and his Master ignored their purpose and instead indulged themselves in the murder and mutilation of a large number of prepubescent mundane from this and neighboring cities. They then proceeded to unleash an uncontrollable demon that would have done untold damage to the city, revealed thaumaturgy to the public, and canceled the war for an indeterminable amount of time had it not been addressed by the combined might of the majority of the other participating Masters," Kirei continued his speech without hesitation, almost as though he was speaking to another Sunday mass.

"As such I have decided to provide an additional incentive for you to enforce the rules of this event." The man rolled back his right sleeve to reveal the half a dozen or so remaining Command Seals on his arm.

Of particular note, to those that were in the know, was that the Seal that he had given to Shirou was once more back in place and solid. It was a little known fact, but it took time for unused Seals to make their way to the moderator of the war, and as such it was not until the man had returned to the Church that the single crest that Zouken possessed for hundreds of years finally returned to him.

As expected, the intensity of the stares on him magnified considerably. "The Master who revealed the interloper's existence was rewarded with one additional command seal. The ones on my arm are merely the ones left unused from previous wars, minus a few more used for unique circumstances. One of my duties as moderator for the War is to safeguard them for any potential uses they may have in the future, or to pass them onto my successor."

Kirei let his words hang in the air for a few moments to ensure that the significance of his position and authority truly sunk into the heads of his audience. "While I personally doubt that there is another outside individual that posed as great of a threat to this holy event as the one dealt with recently, I will not take any additional chances. As of tonight I, Kirei Kotomine, moderator of the Fifth Fuyuki grail war decree these new rules for engagement. Any and all parties that are determined to be significant threats to the Holy Grail War by the observing Church, are considered priority threats above those that you are currently pitted against."

Familiars or not, Kirei was certain that at least one of the possessed creatures in front of him was drooling at the prospect of gaining an additional command seal.

"To clarify, the threat to the sanctity of the War may not necessarily be an outside force. Should one of you pose a large enough threat to the purpose of the event, you too shall be deemed a liability and your disposal will be rewarded."

The silence in the room was damning. Even though the familiars didn't make any noise since entering the building, the room seemed to destroy any noise that could possibly be made.

The man broke the silence and repositioned his sleeve to its original position. "Of course that does not mean that I will be strictly enforcing this personally."

"I have faith that all of you and your Servants will do more than an adequate job doing so."

o. o. o.

Ryudou Temple Steps:

"Well today certainly has been eventful," the Princess mused to her Master in an alleyway parallel to the forest bordering the forest. The Servant was standing in another ritualistic magic circle and focused in order to summon the fifth flaming bull into the vicinity.

"I'm beginning to see why Emiya is so unnerved about the priest." Luvia sighed as she leaned against one of the buildings that made the alley and pondered the recent declaration. "Even if Kotomine doesn't suspect what he's doing, what the man did will certainly push back his efforts. Any attempt Emiya will make to stop the War now will be met with suspicion and will carry the risk of other Masters betraying him for an additional Command Seal. And the worst part is that he can't argue against the setup if people bring up their suspicions since Kotomine has done absolutely nothing wrong."

"Hm. Yes. A shame for Emiya," the Servant agreed with little enthusiasm as the circle beneath her began to glow more intensely.

"I mean, it was played perfectly." Luvia continued on, barely noticing her Servant's lack of interest. "Had I not known what his goal was or the nature of the Grail, even I would have been completely fooled."

"Indeed. Once is more than enough for my tastes." The Princess's dry comment was not missed, but Luvia decided to ignore it. The resident of Colchis had been in a less than stellar mood ever since Shirou confessed his manipulations.

"It's clear that the man was somehow pressured into helping Emiya to dispatch of Zouken in some way." The blonde pieced together what Shirou had told her via letter with what the priest had announced. "Why he wanted Kotomine's help in dispatching Zouken I don't know, but it must have been important else he would not have even considered doing such a thing. However something tells me that the extra Command Seal was not a factor in his decision…"

"Ah. I see. Clever…" Luvia nodded as she seemed to come to a breakthrough. "He didn't think he was going to get an extra Seal in the first place. The Priest gave him one in order to pit the other Masters against him later on once he made the announcement. Few would want to team up with a Master with such a large advantage over the others, especially not when he already possesses such a strong Servant on his side. The announcement combined with his fourth seal would only compound the suspicions of the other Masters should he try to talk them out of the War."

She made a mental checklist of who else was in the war.

Sakura and Rider… no, there was no point in questioning what they would do. If even half of what Emiya claimed about the Makiri's past was true Sakura would probably follow him around like a lost puppy for the rest of the War if not her life.

Assassin from what she had heard was simply following the other Caster at the moment so there was little she could do to guess what he would do. Maybe once the Witch was dealt he would be of more help, but she didn't think so… especially if tonight turned out well.

The Witch… yeah she was a lost cause. Marjatta could kick and scream all she wanted, but Luvia was dragging her ass out of this war and putting her in her place once everything was settled.

Bazett and Lancer. They'd probably be skeptical of Shirou's claims… actually given from her previous experience with them, the two sides would probably duke it out and wreck whatever abandoned part of town before coming to a consensus. The Edelfelt didn't know the Enforcer that well, but she knew enough to know that she trusted Shirou like family when push came to shove.

Illyasviel and Berserker. They are going to be a problem. Even with her brother's manipulations, Illya had more reason to complete the War, or at least tearing apart Shirou's body to bloody pieces, than not. It would take a miracle to convince her of his story, let alone not kill everyone in sight.

Rin and by process of elimination, Archer. Another potentially troubling party.

Normally the Tohsaka would lend an ear whenever her Clocktower meal ticket tried to lay down the law, but the War was too important for her. As the current head of her family, she felt personally obligated to win the competition and was in a perpetual battle mode. She was suspicious of everyone and everything at the moment, and something as bizarre as Emiya's tale wouldn't convince her.

Given that he has been hiding his machinations of the War from her, which he has been preparing for several years… and factoring in her pride…

Yes, it certainly was not going to end well once her rival realized what was going on. Even if Shirou's plans all worked out in the end, Luvia held no doubts that Rin was going to hold the fact that he didn't tell her about the situation over his head for years to come.

Not that she cared of course. Given what Shirou did to her he deserved everything that happened to him… once he finished saving the world and stopping the War of course. She knew how to order her priorities after all…

A bright but fast flash of bright red light distracted the Edlefelt from her musings and had her focus on the fifth flaming bull in the rather narrow alleyway. She hadn't noticed it before, but with so many fire element phantasmal beasts in such a cramped area, the temperature had spiked considerably. Given that it was early February, the change should have been detected earlier.

"This is the last of them Master." The Princess sighed as she walked to the new bull, placed her hands on its head, somehow not suffering burns in the process, and began to chant quickly in the ancient language. An almost invisible film of prana gradually surrounded the beast before fully enclosing the creature and becoming unnoticeable unless one knew what to look for. "We are ready. Let us make haste. No doubt that Assassin and the Witch have sensed our activities already."

"Good." Luvia nodded, any extraneous thoughts to the current situation were instantly purged from her mind. "Let's get started. Time to see if Emiya's scheming will work for us for once."

"You make it sound as if you didn't put your own twist on tonight's activities." The Princess smiled slyly as she began to possess her summons.

"Don't be too sure." Luvia twirled one of her curls on a finger with a matching grin. "We still don't know if they'll join in on the festivities, even if they seemed interested…"

o. o. o.

With Assassin:

Kiritsugu silently looked down at the city from the branches of one of the trees near the walkway to the temple. He could tell that there was a Servant nearby, but he didn't know which one, and given from the fact that they seemed to be prepared for a frontal, and thus easily countered, assault he wasn't that impressed.

Preparing his sniper rifle, the Servant went over the past twenty four hours. After wrecking Zouken's hideout, surprisingly little happened from his end. Caster wouldn't let him back onto the mountain till dusk, during which he got a better feel for the city. He returned. Kept an eye out for enemy Servants, and then began to set up some traps once Tools of the Trade finally restocked. The sun came up. He set up some more traps, went out exploring the city, lifted some thug's wallet, ate some fast food, and spent the rest of the day browsing the internet for the latest events, weapons, and technology breakthroughs to see if there was anything in particular he could use for Tools of the Trade.

All in all, a pretty uneventful day.

Of course given from the impression he's made on three of the enemy Servants and Masters so far, that could easily mean that they were simply biding their time for their second run.

He held some regrets about harming Archer. As much as he attempted to kill off his emotions, doing any sort of damage to the remaining person that he had not done any harm to… intentionally at least… was chipping at the remaining tethers to his rationality.

Seeing Archer in person… what he had done to the boy he had rescued… he had never truly hated the desire to be a hero more than now. The fact that he was somehow one was probably the biggest karmic joke the universe could have possibly played on him.

He wasn't laughing.

Oh wait. He was summoned by Caster as Assassin too. Apparently bad afterlife karmic jokes came in sets.

Still it wasn't a worst case scenario just yet. True the war was already considerably different than those that he had foreseen, but from what he's gathered Shirou was doing quite well so far. Given what his "Master" had claimed, his son had already established his name among the magus populace as his legacy with several notable kills under his belt. Personally he didn't believe half of them were true, but it was enough to sate his concerns that he was summoned into a war where Shirou was not helpless and ignorant of the world around him.

And if Kiritsugu's luck really held out, E rank stat noted, the world he was summoned in was the one that he had prepared for the fifth war personally… meaning that his backup preparations should still be in place…

His invisible sulking was interrupted as he felt whoever was hiding behind the buildings in front of him spike their prana much higher than before. Apparently it seemed as if they were going to use their Noble Phantasm to try and rush past him…

The irony of the statement didn't elude him as he saw the five flaming bulls begin their charge up the steps of the long stairway.

Despite the fact that his heat vision scope was useless for aiming at the immolated monsters, his first shot had hit the leading beast dead center between the eyes before the small herd had even made it halfway across the street to the entrance. By all means that should have downed it instantly. However, it seems as if the enemy was wiser this time.

Despite being undetected, his bullet had been blocked by a powerful bounded field protecting the creature. The loud impact was matched by an unnatural red and blue rippling that traveled down the body of the target. At best the attack had simply given the Phantasmal Beast a minor headache and slowed it down for half a second before it doubled its efforts forward in a blind rage.

If he had any doubts about its shields holding up before, the fact that the bulls continued to charge forward despite triggering his buried bombs and being blasted from the underside point blank without any sign of slowing down did.

Assassin's eyes narrowed in minor irritation as he channeled some prana into his next round. "Break. Augment Accel."

If his first shot was supersonic, the second could be considered hypersonic, possessing enough power behind it to rival one of Berserker's unstoppable swings.

If the explosion of fire, prana, and brain matter was any indication, his modifications had been enough to do their job. He had half expected the bullet to simply blast through the creature's entire body before drilling into the concrete below, however it seemed as if its skull was hard and possessed enough prana to set off its broken nature to explode almost instantly after contact.

Unfortunately the other four bulls seemed to be smarter than he suspected as they had moved away from his initial target after the first shot. The body of his first victim of the night had done nothing to slow them down as they moved to either side of the stairs and were plowing down… the… trees…

Well this certainly was a surprise. He was facing a Magus with some knowledge of tactics for once. Their main goal wasn't to get past or even kill him, though it would certainly be a boon if that happened.

No, his opponents tonight were simply focused on destroying as much of his territory advantage as possible.

A wider path meant that he had a clearer view of his targets as they moved up, but it also meant a longer period of time before his attacks hit their marks and more time for them to react. It also gave them more room to dodge without interruption, less room for him to hide, and most importantly, less choke points for him to place his traps at efficiently.

Then again, the short term problem was that he was not built to fight with a roaring fire around him. He had a fire element true, but he was fairly certain that he wasn't good enough with his thaumaturgy to easily manage the blaze of these ancient creatures. At best he'd be able to charge through a small batch of the enchanted flames with some minor burns instead of being completely immolated.

It also didn't help his situation that the enemy Master and Servant were nowhere to be seen. He couldn't look for them with his scope with so much fire between him and the city.

The Servant grimaced and moved further into the forest as the remaining beasts roared in tandem and breathed out a small and unstoppable wave of flames up the path. They set ablaze almost everything that outlined the stairs up to the gate of the temple and only stopped thanks to the bounded fields that the Witch had set up to protect her new Workshop.

Kiritsugu didn't lose his composure as the air around him instantly became so oppressive and overwhelming that had he been human he was certain that he would have passed out. This was why he hated working in the same spot for long periods at a time. His tactics could only work for so long before something gave. Eventually someone developed a brain cell and did something that could counter his setup, regardless of how well founded it was.

Jumping back to a branch that was for the moment not on fire, the Servant moved quickly to at least make the situation a bit less against his favor. The forest was now working against him as opposed to before as the fire greatly restricted his options and places to hide. The faster he got rid of the fire starters the slower the flames would spread and the less he would have to deal with later.

"Break. Augment Accel," Assassin spoke a bit louder as he poured his prana into the next bullet in the rifle's cartridge and took aim once more. Unfortunately he did not augment the ammo for this weapon earlier, and due to the more powerful and volatile nature of its ammunition compared to his machine gun's, he couldn't risk rushing to boost them all at once, which meant a bigger delay between each shot.

The bulls seemed to be gaining steam as they rushed up the hill, destroying and burning any and all vegetation that was in their path be it on fire or not, while at the same time seemingly making an effort to spread the damage outward. Regardless of what happened, his summoner was not going to be pleased by the end of the night.

They were already halfway up the hill path when he downed the two bulls on the other side of the stairs as they were the easier shots. Unfortunately it did nothing to stop the quickly spreading flames, but there was technically nothing he could do about it save for calling Caster to deal with them… so he'd call her when the flames reached their peak.

Jumping to the other side of the path onto another branch that was for the moment safe, the man took aim at the rapidly approaching bulls and put them down. The time it took to boost each bullet individually took little more than a second and a half, but in a battle like this it could make all the difference as the fires continued to spread. Thankfully, disposing of the creature in front stalled the one behind it long enough for him to get a good alignment with its skull.

A brief look around told him that his opponent clearly knew what they were doing. The enchanted flames were spreading quickly and eating up any and every form of plant life it touched. By his estimate, he wouldn't be surprised if the path going up to the temple would at least increase by five times before Caster could manage to reign it all in.

He was snapped out of his observations when he felt the additional prana signatures rushing towards him from deeper in the woods, and the lights coming from their general directions.

The first strike was a distraction. The amount of forestry the enemy intended to destroy was vastly greater than he originally thought.

Kiritsugu was somewhat impressed. He didn't think that there would be another Master or Servant in the war that was willing to utilize such destructive yet effective tactics. Apparently there were some Magi that thought with something else than their pride after all…

"_We have a situation." _He mentally called out to the Witch. He would never consider her his Master. His earlier decision to put off calling her was scrapped in the face of this oncoming two pronged assault. _"I won't be able to defend against this alone without consequence."_

Had the enemy simply been charging through the forest, he probably would have been able to route and deal with them eventually…

But they weren't just blasting through the forest, they were setting it on fire too. The longer the fighting took the less area he would have to work with. Given that he wouldn't stand a chance in hell against another Servant in a direct battle, the fact that the locations he was able to retreat from was drastically decreasing was not a comforting thing to imagine. He contemplated putting away his rifle as he ran towards the glowing coming from his side of the forest. The weapon really wasn't meant for closer ranged combat, but he still needed to keep as much distance between himself and the fire starting annoyances as possible and his rifle was one of his strongest weapons.

It took him almost no time to see that the bulls had gotten far farther than he had originally thought, so he had to hurry his counterattack. Unlike the main rush, there were only three bulls this time, but the local foliage and the growing fire around him made the shots more uncertain and closer.

His first bullet struck home and took out the leading bull in a spray of fire, blood, and bone, but the white flames that burst out interrupted his shot for the following attempted assassination. He only managed to blow off the second target's right leg in the chaos as his shot absolutely destroyed the its shoulder.

The moment he saw that the screaming creature was about to faceplant into earth before it, Assassin had turned his attention to the only uninjured beast left. The target was disabled for now and that was enough for now. He'd end it once he dealt with the bigger threat.

Unlike the other bulls he had encountered and shot down, the third one in front of him seemed to notice his existence… no, not his in particular, but the existence of a threat that had murdered its herd and the general direction the attacks came from.

Regardless of what it was, the fact of the matter was that after firing his second shot, Assassin had to jump away to avoid being immolated by a large ball of fire that set the canopy above and around him ablaze.

The Servant grimaced at the fact that he had to take a longer route to get back to the stairs but it didn't distract him from his current priority. Landing on another tree branch without so much as a sound he swiftly took aim and shot the summon's head.

Using another bullet to euthanize the crippled beast he hit earlier, the Servant went over his options. He used a total of nine rounds so far, so he had three left in his clip. If he encountered a stronger enemy then having his rifle out would be a bad idea unless he reloaded, and then he'd have to bother to break and enchant the new clip.

"_You are unbelievable…" _Caster's chiding echoed through his head. Apparently she had finally bothered to make it outside. _"You have let things progress this far?"_

Kiritsugu didn't bother arguing with her. _"There are still some coming from the north side. Their primary goal is to burn the forest around the entrance of the temple."_

"_The forest? Why on earth would they attack in such a roundabout and pointless way?" _The other Servant grumbled angrily, clearly not recognizing its strategic value. _"My counterpart's Master must be more careless than I had estimated… foolish child…"_

The witch's ranting was interrupted as the sounds of multiple trees being set aflame and bowled over was heard in the direction that Assassin had pointed out earlier.

"_Fine then. I shall take care of the minor distractions. You resume your job, which you are currently failing spectacularly at."_ Had Kiritsugu not been in his battle mindset, he might have smirked at the woman's misfortune.

Instead of approaching the main entrance to the temple, Assassin ran all the way down the mountain to the city below, jumped between two of the taller buildings that lined up the asphalt, seven and nine stories tall, and landed on the roof of the taller with his rifle cocked and looking up the entire inferno that had been made in the span of three minutes. As a precaution, he boosted his next bullet as well in case he needed to make a quick shot.

After the previous fire that had been made several nights earlier that told virtually everyone where they were hiding, Caster had set up a large bounded field that essentially masked any other fires that would be made on the mountain from the rest of the city.

Clearly it was something that didn't go with the other Caster's plans, as it was no longer up.

Just as he expected, the fires on the mountain revealed from where the enemy had approached, with fire trailing up in straight lines to the entrance from the main path, and originating fifty meters to either side of it at the streets giving the inferno a split triangle appearance, only the edge on the left was stopped about three fourths of the way up and the other half.

BOOM!

An explosion of purple and red flared from near the top of the mountain a bit to the right where the entrance was.

"_You could have informed me that my counterpart had added an extra layer of protection to her summons, SERVANT," _the witch irritably growled into his skull.

Assassin didn't bother retorting as he continued to scan the burning forest in front of him. With the enchanted flames everywhere in front of him, he couldn't use his sense or his night vision scope to inspect the area in front of him. _"I don't see any other fires starting in the forest. The other Caster may be using it as cover…!"_

The Servant turned around and cocked his gun just as a new figure materialized on the other side of the building.

"Well now." Lancer grinned as he twirled his crimson spear in his hands. "Who woulda thunk? I came here to see who was having fun and what do you know, I come across the sneaky little bastard that blew me up." The spear stopped spinning. "Don't think we've been properly introduced. The name's Lancer. Pleased to meet ya."

Kiritsugu didn't bother to say anything as the newcomer's talking progressively resembled a predatory growl. He had realized his mistake too late as he took aim with his gun. While enchanting his bullets gave him extra firepower, they also gave off a fairly strong signal of prana, one that easily canceled out his Presence Concealment and made him detectable to the other Servants. Mentally he planned his next moves and called up a particular object from his arsenal…

Try as he might, he couldn't prevent the sensation of a certain unwanted someone watching through his eyes.

"_Oh? So Lancer is still alive…" _Caster's voice echoed through his mind. He could practically feel her predatory grin grating the inside of his skull. _"Well isn't this an interesting turn of events…" _

Lancer frowned momentarily as he looked at Assassin's face, or what wasn't covered by his hood. "That's an interesting look you have there. I never expected to come across a Heroic Spirit that's lost the will to live in this War. Almost embarrassing that you've been giving everyone else such a hard time really. You're making the rest of us look bad."

Assassin didn't say anything. He preferred to do productive things instead of talking to his enemy.

"Nothing to say?" The hero of Ireland chuckled menacingly as he took a stance, his muscles coiled up like a panther's body. "Well then there's no doubt that you're Assassin. No other Servant is as dull as-"

BANG!

Assassin's bullet, fast enough to visibly shatter the sound barrier several times before reaching its target only a few meters away, and charged with enough prana to leave a faint glowing trail behind it, hammered into Lancer's spear. As fast as the Irishman was, even he was incapable of getting out of the way of a Noble Phantasm bullet from that range when its velocity was enchanted to be twice as fast as it normally was. In fact he would not have even been able to defend against it in time had he not have his Protection of Arrows ability allowing him to track the projectile just before it would have made its mark.

"Ghhk?!" The target grunted as he held up as best as he could. Even if the Servant in front of him was causing everyone problems, Lancer was still having trouble believing that the attack as powerful as it was. "It's… broken?!"

The prana enriched metal attempted to drill a hole through the legendary Gae Bolg as it pushed its grimacing owner back to the edge of the building. The sound of metal scraping against metal tore through the night sky like a metal voice shrieking in pain conjoined with the explosion like shockwave of the bullet shattering the sound barrier.

As strong as Cu Chulainn was, even he was unable to hold ground against the powerful attack, pushing him almost easily to the edge of the building with his feet skidding beneath him as if he was skiing until he flipped back over the ledge. The sudden change in his body's position allowed him to deflect the bullet away at the last moment, causing it to graze his chest before blink away forgotten over the rest of the city.

Not bothering to waste any time, Assassin put away his rifle and began to take out his Calico machine gun when Lancer reappeared once more, shooting over the edge with a gleefully hungry look on his face and his lance practically glowing blood red.

"Oi oi! Where are you going eh!? Don't tell me you're gonna run away again so soon?! We're just getting started! We have so much to talk about!"

Assassin's reply consisted of a wide slew of bullets that sprayed from his new gun as he jumped off of the edge of the building. The unaltered nameless Noble Phantasm barely did anything to stagnate the blue man's advance as the Servant of Murder disappeared over the edge…

But it was enough to buy the owner enough time to get him out of the blast radius before activating the trigger device in his other hand…

BEEP BEEP BEEP!

Lancer grimaced as he turned to the source of the electronic sound and felt the rapidly spiking prana.

"What the-"

BOOM!

The entirety of the shrinking rooftop behind Assassin exploded violently as the charges he had planted there earlier went off, rocking and illuminating the world around him.

The Emiya didn't bother wasting a moment to pat himself on the back or watch out for Lancer as he went over his situation. The explosion no doubt would draw the attention of the other Caster. The fires made earlier had spread enough that the only reasonable direction left for him to go was up the stairs back up to the temple, which was a straight path with no place for him to hide or dodge. Given the fact that Lancer was probably-

"Get back here you mute bomb addicted little shit!"

-Definitely coming after his life with the single minded determination of one the bulls he slaughtered earlier, the odds of Assassin making it up the entire path all the way was very unlikely.

"_You look like you're having fun." _Caster chuckled into his head, clearly amused by his predicament. _"Any sign of his poor wounded Master by any chance?"_

Assassin instead focused on the torrent of flames that came from his right, no doubt the other Caster attempting to take advantage of his exposed state.

He was too far from the building to kick off of it, and he couldn't slow down and lessen the distance between him and Lancer, so his only option left was…

"Time alter. Double Accel."

The quiet Servant's dropping speed doubled instantly, giving him enough distance to put the flames between him and his pursuer.

"Gah! What the hell!? He's down there you bitch! Learn to aim!"

Assassin held his time enhancing spell throughout the entire drop down the side of the building until just before he reached the streets. "Root stagnate."

Even at moving a fraction of the speed he should have been moving once he reached the ground, the shock that went through his legs caused Kiritsugu to grit his teeth in minor pain before he canceled the spell. Had he bothered to notice or care, he would have noted the cracks made in the sidewalk from his landing, however he didn't have time for such useless observations.

He grimaced as he felt Gaia work against his body in redemption for his use of the two spells. While he was more proficient in using his magic as a Servant and his body was much sturdier than when he was alive, throwing in the fact that he was simply altering the speed his body was moving at instead of its internal functions, suffering from the aftereffects of what he just did was not a pleasant thing to go through in the slightest. Still it was nothing compared to what he had experienced when he was alive, so he simply filed away the pain for later. There were far more things to focus on.

Without wasting a single moment, he bolted to the stairs as fast as he could while reloading his Calico, breaking and enchanting the entire thing in the process. He had half a mind to bring out his rifle again for the extra fire power, but with only two bullets left in the clip it was better to use the gun with the bigger cartridge and have a free hand to lob grenades on the side.

"_Time magic? My my. You have been hiding something interesting from me after all." _Caster's casual voice once more echoed through his head with hint of amusement. _"A bit crude in application, but certainly not something one would expect from someone that uses such base tricks as your own."_

Just as he managed to step foot in between the two infernos and experience the sensation of being baked from two sides, Lancer had managed to land on the ground in a blind fury. The normally composed, if a bit cocky Heroic Spirit was covered in burns, cuts, bruises and other related injuries from his experiences not even a minute beforehand.

If anyone normal saw him, they would compare his image to that of a feral beast that had just fought his way through a pack of creatures just like him.

Had it been any other Servant, save Berserker, their performance would certainly have suffered from being in such a state. Unfortunately, Lancer's skills all but ensured him to be the most durable (sane) Servant in the War. Nothing short of having his head, heart, or entire body being absolutely thrashed would be enough to put him down, let alone slow him.

All in all, his absurd durability almost made up for his abysmal Luck.

"I'm going to shove those bombs up your ass and pull the pin you little bastard," the absolutely murderous Servant growled savagely before covering the distance between the two at a speed that made him appear to be more of a blur than a human.

The Servant of Murder responded by turning around and firing his machine gun in his pursuer's general direction while continuing his retreat. The enhanced bullets, while still powerful, and capable of punching through the buildings in front of him in their entirety before rupturing on the structure behind them, were instead deflected against Lancer's cursed spear in every and all directions.

The rapid heavy hammering of metal on metal sounded more like cannonfire impacting a metal pillar, with each impact strong enough to be distinctly felt by the nearby hidden party. It almost mockingly resembling the sounds made if Lancer had been fighting against a more traditional Servant. It was enough to at least stall the stronger Servant's rampage as he was now only clearly approaching Assassin instead of nearly teleporting towards him.

Tink tink.

"Lancer! Stop! Get away from the stairs!"

The Servant that was nearly blind with rage was barely snapped out of his rush to the base of the stairs by a familiar voice to notice the lazily bouncing metal canisters coming down the stairs right in front of him.

Not even bothering to try to understand what they were, the wielder of Gae Bolg jumped back as fast as possible on sheer instinct while still deflecting Assassin's bullets, chaining more swears under his breath in his native language.

In mid bounce the two fragmentation grenades went off, spraying supersonic shards of metal in every direction. The bottom of the stairs, the sidewalk, some of the street, and any trees that had somehow remained standing after being hammered by the first wave of fire breathing bulls didn't stand a chance as the explosives did what they did best. Lancer, being only a bit further away, was merely pelted with the burning metal that he could not deflect with his spear. His Protection from Arrows helped somewhat to mitigate the bulk of the damage, but by the time he had landed there was barely a portion of his body that was not cut up or burnt in some way.

"That cowardly…" The Hound of Ireland bared his teeth as blood dribbled from his mouth. As bad as he looked, much of the damage he sustained was thankfully superficial and cosmetic. However, it still left a good number of injuries that had gotten a bit deeper and hurt a bit more than he liked. "I thought you said that he'd be easier to deal with once his playground was burned to the ground!"

"I did. You almost got him didn't you?" Bazett frowned as she exited out of an alleyway far enough from the stairs that she wasn't at risk of being sniped by Assassin. "It's not my fault you've run into everything he's thrown at you face first."

"Pardon me for the interruption…" Luvia walked out from the shadows of another break in the buildings on the other side of the stairs with her Servant by her side. "But might I ask why you are here? From the way you spoke, it is almost as if you knew what I would be doing tonight."

"A giant rat told us," Lancer snorted, looking at the two females with barely any recognition. "You did a good job here, ladies. A shame that torching forests isn't a contest in this War."

"That's one thing to call the boy…" The Princess muttered under her breath as she leered at the sole male there. "The same could be said for being shot and exploded Lancer. You would have likely won the War by now if that was the case."

"Enough!" Bazett snapped, stopping the fight before it even began. "We are all here to kill Assassin and Caster unless you have forgotten. We can deal with one another later."

Luvia crossed her arms and looked at the path up the mountain. "Had no one come I had planned on simply leaving and waited for someone else to take advantage of the altered landscape… however I suppose I can make do with your aid. Your Lancer is a suitable foil, if not distraction, for Assassin while we make our approach."

"Glad to see that I amount to so much in your eyes Princess," the Irishman grunted irritably.

"If you could see yourself in a mirror you would not question our impression." The real Princess smirked.

"Focus," the enforcer spoke up with a frosty tone. It was one she often had to had to use whenever she was teaching Shirou when he was younger. "Let's figure out how to get up there without a bullet in our skulls or blown up with a spell."

o. o. o.

Assassin looked down the sights of his reloaded rifle while sitting on top of the temple gate, and tried to see any non-fire related movement at the base of the mountain.

"Hmmm," Caster mused as she looked around at the inferno that was the forest below them and played with something in her robes. "I do believe that this is the first time that someone else has done more collateral damage than you in a fight since you've been summoned."

The weakest Servant narrowed his eyes as he attempted to extend his senses. "… They aren't coming up the stairs."

"I can see that," his summoner snorted sarcastically. "My you are a wonder at conversation and observation."

Assassin began to turn his attention to the flames and focused prana to his eyes to reduce the glare and try to see through the light. "That's not what I meant."

As if on cue, a massive section of the flames in front of them seemed to come alive and contort its existence to consume them and everything nearby.

"I see," the Witch muttered before speaking a few incomprehensible words to suffocate not only the offending blaze, but any fire within a thirty meter radius of them. "Well if nothing else you are at least adept at reading our targets' moves better than most."

Before Assassin could say anything, not that he would have, a spike in prana caught their attention.

"AEETES!"

A massive prana fueled fireball charged straight towards the pair, far more intense than the previous attack and thus more difficult to counter with mere spellcraft.

Without bothering to signal one another, the two Servants jumped off of the top of the gates in separate directions.

Unfortunately for Assassin, he had headed straight towards a massive charging flaming bull that had burst out of the nearby inferno.

"Tch!" He attempted to point his rifle at the oncoming beast, but it was moving too fast and his gun was too large to get a good shot in. His bullet had barely managed to shred apart a good part of its flank, but it had been a solid enough hit to cause the beast to lean to the side and only deal him a glancing blow instead of hit him square on.

Still, getting hit by a flaming bull hurt regardless of whether it was a glancing or direct connection, and the strength behind it was more than enough to total his gun and left arm in the process. Even if it wasn't a big deal and would heal by the end of the night, the injury would still drastically reduce his capabilities for the rest of the fight.

Thankfully it appeared as if his previous blow was enough to cause the creature forget the fact that it could breathe fire and it instead continued its limping charge to circle around for another pass. The time it took for it to do so gave Assassin the opportunity to look and see his controller holding off Lancer while flying in the sky with her massive blasts of pure prana.

Even though they were technically outside of her workshop, the Witch was close enough that she could still abuse the hell out of her base of operations and whatever twisted contraption she had turned her current Master into, giving her a near limitless source of prana that more than enabled her to wreck most competition and the mountainside that they were battling on.

He was annoyed with the fact that the fool in blue couldn't even tell that she was simply stalling for time. If he knew any better, he would take his master and leave before it was too late…

Turning his attention to the bull again he went over his options. He didn't have enough time to enchant any of his weapons. His opportunist skill was useless now. He had no traps nearby that he could use. He didn't know if the bull's protective enchantments were still in place, and even if he could get to his rifle and enchanted his bullets, he couldn't use it with one arm, and there was no guarantee that this was the only beast left…

That only left…

The bull thundered onto his position with flaming wrath in its eyes, bellowing its literally burning rage at the tiny creature that had hurt it and killed so many of its heard mates. It was trapped. It was weak. It was injured…

It was taking out a new weapon and pointing it at it.

"Contender." Assassin stated emptily, firing the single bullet inside the gun straight at the skull of the beast.

The large bullet fired, even bigger than that of the ones shot by his rifle, wasn't even slowed down by the protective enchantment that surrounded the creature…

No, it wasn't that it wasn't slowed down. The bullet just didn't recognize the mystical defensive protection. It simply pierced through the veil as easily as the air it had previously traveled through, and drilled itself into the target's head, killing it instantly.

"… I was right after all." Assassin muttered as he looked at the killed bull. Had he guessed wrong, that without a doubt would have been his last shot fired in the War.

He had initially been somewhat surprised that his Contender had been turned into a Noble Phantasm in itself when he had first been summoned, and one with such an unreliable ability at that, but it did have its uses…

He barely let the knowledge of what he had done go through his head before he focused on his surroundings once more and noticed the three females at the edge of the flames nearest to him. Instantly he had taken a position ready to move as soon as possible with his non crippled hand already in his coat for one of his remaining weapons. He was slightly perplexed by the tallest woman's expression of absolute shock and confusion though. If he recalled correctly, she was Lancer's Master.

"… No…" He heard her whisper as if in a daze, her gaze upon him was wide, unblinking, and quite frankly unsettling. "That couldn't be… you couldn't be… it's impossible…"

Kiritsugu took out his Calico and pointed it at the three females. He didn't fire it though. It was the only weapon of distinct use in his current situation. He had decided not to use his hand gun for this day in exchange for more ammo and explosives, he still had five more clips for the Calico and eleven grenades of various types left over, but he couldn't use much of anything in his current condition. True he was using his broken left arm to grab some ammo while everyone was distracted, but it was not something he could do frequently or quickly for that matter.

"Run."

"Oh? He can speak after all." The blonde Master put on a proud demeanor that screamed standard blind Magus nobility. Clearly whatever was disturbing the other Master had eluded her completely, and the false sense of victory had rendered her immune to her partner's ramblings. Next to her, the other Caster seemed ready to conjure up whatever spell she had in mind for either defense or offence. "And why would we do that when we are so close to defeating you and your partner?"

"…T-trap." The Servant grimaced as he struggled against the control Caster had over him. He didn't attempt to warn them earlier as Caster was in his head at the time, and Lancer didn't seem like the type to pay attention to him anyways. Despite his hatred for the woman, he could not deny that she was a powerful Master. "Lancer…"

"Lancer?" Caster looked at the other fight where her counterpart and Lancer were still tearing up the landscape with no regards for their surroundings. While the land bound Irishman didn't seem to be able to land a blow to his opponent, he didn't seem to be able to have much trouble getting out of the way of the woman's rain of flashy attacks either. "He doesn't seem to be in much danger…"

"No…" Assassin gasp as his arm began to tremble. Going against the Witch's orders even by this much was doing a number to his focus and body. "Not… Legs…"

"Legs?" The Princess frowned as she briefly glanced at the ground below them for some sort of spell or trap, not noticing the other Master finally snapping out of her delirium and turning an unhealthy shade of white.

"Oh no…" The maroon haired woman whispered as she realized what Assassin was referring to and turned to the enemy spellcaster with a look of pure dread. "I shouldn't have come. I have to get out of here…" She paused for a moment and looked at the stressed gun wielding Servant square in the eyes. "… I have to warn Shirou…"

Assassin's eyes widened momentarily in surprise. He instantly understood what the woman was hinting at, but the fact that she managed to figure it out was something that even he didn't expect or anticipate. Before he could say anything else though…

"Servant!"

… He had to turn his attention to Lancer, who had decided to change objectives and focus on him instead. Despite Caster trying to rain hell upon him in the form of A ranked blasts of prana, the blue Servant seemed to pay them no mind as he focused on ending the weakest Heroic Spirit in the War.

Assassin wasted no time turning performing his trademark maneuver of turning his gun on his attacker while retreating at the same time, however he was just a moment too slow as Lancer managed to close in the distance between them and with his long spear managed to slash his target from shoulder to hip just before having to retreat from one of Caster's spells and regrouping with his Master.

"Ghk!" The weakest Servant grimaced as he landed on a knee and clutched his wound with his good hand while keeping his attention on the enemy. The blow had been severe and painful, but thankfully still shallow enough to not be lethal to a Servant. Had Lancer managed to close in just a bit further, Assassin surmised that he wouldn't be able to escape from the Witch's attack in time.

Panting heavily, he grabbed his torn cloak and began to press it against the wound. While he technically was not at risk of bleeding out as a Heroic Spirit, his blood still contained prana, which he needed as much of as possible if he wanted any hope of healing in time.

"Hmm." The Witch frowned as she floated over the group, more curious and amused by her slave's situation than anything. "It seems as if your luck was just a bit in your favor Servant. You might just live after all."

"Lancer. We have to run. NOW." Bazett hissed to her Servant frantically.

"Hah?" The knight frowned as he glanced at his Master. "Unless you haven't noticed, we're winning at the moment. Even if Assassin can still fight, we're still on the better end of this two on two…"

"What are you so worried about?" Luvia leered at the Enforcer. "Why do you need to leave so quickly?"

"Ohohoh." Caster chuckled as if she was a cat that got away with the canary as she turned to the offending party and reached into her robes. "Ah Lancer. I'm afraid you are mistaken. As it stands right now, the fight is not two on two…"

Luvia's only warning that something was amiss was when she noticed Bazett's body go completely ridged for an instant…

And in the next she had thrown a blindingly fast punch at the girl with enough force to crush her skull.

Had it not been for the Princess's fast spell work that pulled the girl back far enough to only catch a glancing blow, the Edelfelt line would have certainly been short at least one heir.

"What the hell?!" Lancer swore as he tried to make heads or tails out of what his Master was doing before turning his attention to the most likely culprit. "Oi what's going on you old hag?!"

"My my Lancer. It's very rude to speak to your new Master like that. You know, you and that woman you are with should be very careful where you leave your valuables." The Witch's merry tone grew even more sadistic as she took out what appeared to be a crude doll made out of bone, hair, and other indistinguishable materials.

The sinking feeling in the Irishman's stomach fell drastically as he instantly identified what that little toy was made of.

"You never know who could pick them up, or what they could do with them."

They should have assumed the worst case scenario.

"On a side note, I must express my compliments on your Master's new legs. They look quite convincing. I never would have suspected anyone from this weak era could come up with reliable replacements so quickly."

They should have guessed that the Witch of Colchis had found and made use of Bazett's forgotten legs after they had barely escaped alive the first time they had attempted the mountain.

"As I was explaining before, our little fight tonight was never two on two. It was always three on one. I simply humored you to allow myself some amusement and to remind my Servant where his place was."

"Caster!" Luvia shouted frantically as she attempted to retreat from the stronger and more experienced Enforcer while shooting off her Fin curses as fast as possible. "Cancel out her curse or crippler her or whatever! Just stop her!"

"Assassin," the Witch's sick grin commanded, causing her counterpart's heart drop as she turned to the otherwise negligible Servant holding up his machine gun at her, the visible part of his face contorted to show how much he was trying not to go against his orders but failing miserably in the process.

Once more the enchanted bullets flew like rain, attempting to strike down the Princess of Colchis who could only put up a bounded field to protect herself to hold off the assault, leaving her Master to unfortunately fend for herself.

"Damn it!" Lancer swore as he rushed to Bazett, whether to knock her out or drag her away was anyone's guess. It didn't matter though, as he collapsed to his knees thanks to a gravity spell that the Witch uttered when his back was turned. "BITCH!"

"Hohohoho! My how exquisitely wonderful!" Caster laughed in victory. "Two new slaves and my counterpart dealt with in the same night! I dare say that even that girl with Heracles will not pose a significant threat anymore! Ohohohoho!"

She was cut off as a metallic arrow rammed into the bounded fields around her, clearly aimed for her no longer laughing skull. The sudden attack from nowhere caused everyone to pause in confusion. Even the seemingly brainwashed Bazett paused to take note of the unexpected attack from nowhere as the weapon lost its momentum and shattered into prana.

"What?" Lancer blinked in confusion as he attempted to see past the flames that the projectile had originated from.

Luvia on the other hand took the opportunity to run away from her attacker and get back to her Servant, holding her chest in the process. She had been on the defensive for not even half a minute, but she could already tell that at least three of her ribs were broken trying to keep herself alive. Even so, she couldn't help but have a dry smile on. "… So she bothered to come after all…"

"Do it." A young female voice ordered coldly from the flames.

"… My body is made of blades…"

A shiver ran through the spines of the humans there despite the fact that half the world around them was set ablaze. It as if they had suddenly been dunked into a pool of ice water. Both Bazett and Luvia knew those words, though they had rarely if ever heard them actually used in battle.

"… Iron is my blood and glass is my heart…"

But what was most unnerving to them was that the voice speaking those words was not familiar to them. It sounded deeper. Older…

"… I have survived through countless battles…"

"What?" Luvia frowned as she tried to find the source of the voice. If memory served her correctly, that was not how Shirou's personal Aria, the one that enabled him to manifest an untold number of his projections, went.

"… Not once retreating…"

In fact, since when could someone else use that Aria in the first place?

"… Nor once being understood…"

"Humph. How absurd." Caster frowned as she attempted to locate the newcomers. "Trying to use meager thaumaturgy against someone from the age of gods? I'm tempted to let you finish your spell simply to give you the honor of watching me dismantle it. With the power of this temple behind me, there is no Mystery that I cannot surpass!"

"… Always alone…"

"No…" Assassin grimaced as he struggled against his body, ignored by everyone, as he reached to replace his Calico with the only tool he had that would enable him to serve his purpose to Caster. "… Stop…"

"… Intoxicated with victory on the hill of swords…"

"… Impossible…" Even in her possessed state, Bazett managed to utter that single word of disbelief and realization as she figured out exactly what was happening and what it meant.

"… Thus my life has no meaning…"

Something about the world around them twitched in a way. It was felt by Servant and Master alike. Only those that had managed to identify the speaker and were aware of his nature knew what was about to happen next.

"Oi what the hell is this?" Lancer frowned as he looked around. He didn't know why, but he couldn't help but think that his old bat of a teacher had run him through something like this before and that he should be able to recognize it. That alone set of major warning signals in his head.

"That is enough! I have lost my patience!" Caster glared at the flames in front of her, rising slowly higher and manifesting more orbs of pure concentrated prana. It appeared that even she had realized that something was amiss and it was best to address the enemy before they finished whatever mystery they were enacting.

But it was too late.

"… This body is truly… made of blades."

Everyone was caught off guard when the flames to the right of where the arrow had nearly hit Caster moved out in a massive wave and engulfed them. They were somewhat surprised that they didn't generate heat for once given that virtually everyone had been more or less baked at some point in the night. Regardless, the odd phenomena passed them by after a few moments, enabling them to once more take in their surroundings.

"What… what on earth…" Luvia managed to stammer out as she tried to process exactly what she was looking at.

Swords.

Countless weapons littered the dry, lifeless ground for as far as the eye could see and likely beyond the murky smog that hid the distant sky and world around them. Even though it had clearly been night just moments before, it was not some time of day now, though it was impossible to see where the sun was with all the thick smog blocking the sky, slowly leaking up from the dead earth accompanied by scant crimson sparks.

What made the sight even more absurd was the presence of the titanic black gears the size of mountains gyrating in the sky without anything to support them. Whether they were interlocked with one another or hovering by themselves did not matter as they aimlessly spun in place, ignorant and unaffected by the people there or the swords below them.

"… Reality Marble…" the Princess whispered in disbelief, snapping her Master out of her confusion. "Hephaestus himself would be humbled by this land…"

Luvia turned to look to where her Servant was looking, and saw the culprits of the new turn of events…

They were standing on top of the only distinguishable landmass in this absurd world, two figures stood on top looking down upon everyone else there.

The first and more noticeable was the red and black Servant with a head concealing helmet standing taller than anything else there, his hawk like eyes glaring down at his targets with unnatural clarity through the wide visor in front of his face. There was no doubt in anyone's mind that he was the one responsible for the change in landscape, as his very body seemed to… fit, for lack of better term, with everything there.

The second was the teenage girl that was his Master. Unlike her stoic partner, the human, while still keeping up a strong front, was clearly unnerved about something as her attention was constantly shifting between the world around her, her intended targets, and her partner himself.

"I-Impossible…" The Witch shivered as she looked around, finding herself with Assassin, Lancer, and Bazett with her counterpart and her Master a good distance away. It only took her a glance to realize that many of the swords around her were Noble Phantasms. "His Noble Phantasm… makes other Noble Phantasms?"

"Oi! What gives!?" Lancer yelled at Archer. "You actually think that we are with this crazy bitch?!"

The owner of the new world leered at Lancer momentarily. "We are at war aren't we? Isn't it natural to take out as many opponents as possible when given the chance?"

"Coward! Don't you have any honor?!" the Princess shouted angrily.

The Servant looked down at her with little to no emotion. "Hmph. Honor and pride are useless. What's the worst that can happen, we insult the name of our true selves on the Throne? You can always wash away disgrace with results."

"Tohsaka!" Luvia yelled at her rival. "Control your Servant! The Fraga was helping me with the Witch until she did something to Lancer's Master!"

"…Shirou…" The teen blinked as she looked at her summon as if seeing him for the first time. This wasn't the Shirou Emiya she knew. There was no hint of warmth or concern to those that he truly cared about in his voice. There was an unnatural coldness to his tone.

His intent to take out Lancer and Bazett were real. True she had made him use Unlimited Blade works to take out many of the Servants at once, but it was really to trap Assassin in the world so that once Caster was dealt with he wouldn't be able to run away and be dealt with in short order. She wasn't exactly the paragon of fair play herself, but Rin had assumed that given his past relationship with Bazett, Archer would at least put off his fight with her until she wasn't possessed.

She had only heard about Shirou's inner world a few times in passing before, but she was certain that this was not what he described. There was no Moon. No setting Sun. The sky was not even visible with all the smoke leaking up from the dry dead earth.

Wrong.

That growing feeling she had been getting about her Servant since she had summoned him came back in full force. There was no mistake about it. There was something horrifically wrong and skewed about him, even more than he would have to be in order to fully manifest his Reality Marble in the first place.

"… What happened to you? This isn't you… this isn't your world… this can't be…"

Archer didn't bother to look at his Master as he levitated the swords that littered the ground above everyone with but a thought. "I am the boy that Kiritsugu Emiya saved from the inferno at the end of the fourth grail war. And I was the fool that blindly accepted the dreams of that man, and followed them until the very end. No more. No less."

Assassin didn't bother to acknowledge what Archer had said. He knew full well what this version of his son had said and what they had led to. The irony of being struck down by what he had inadvertently produced was not lost on him.

Countless blades were pointed at them now. It reminded him of how Gilgamesh fought during the fourth war, and for good reason. From this angle he could easily see why his son was one of the few people that could defeat the terrifying King of Heroes.

Slowly his wrecked left arm moved to reload his new weapon. He was not concerned though. Archer would strike him down long before he'd be able to fire it off.

He didn't bother to hide his smile now.

_Die._

He was somewhat disappointed that Lancer and his Master were among the casualties, and that he couldn't have ensured that Shirou see Rule Breaker, but all things considered there were worse outcomes. They were unfortunate casualties in the grand scheme of things.

He didn't bother to pay attention to Lancer taking a protective position in front of his Master, nor his summoner attempting to conjure anything that could protect her from the oncoming bladed massacre that was his son.

_They were going to die._

Kill one to save ten. Ten for a hundred. A hundred for a thousand. The bitter and cursed logic behind all Emiya that strove to become heroes once more took hold.

On some unseen signal, the weapons fell upon them like metal rain.

_Die die die die die die die die die die die die die…_

And this time, today's sacrifices would the Witch of Colchis, the Hound of Ireland, the Magus Killer, and the cursed Enforcer…

… Whose legs were glowing?

"MOMMY!"

_Die die die die die die die die die die die d-_

"▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅!"

What could only be described as the purest definition of white noise pervaded not just everyone's ears, but their very beings in a wave of undefinable phenomena that could only be loosely described as sound. In fact if he wasn't sure that the new offensive force wasn't affecting his mind, he would have sworn that the new world around him had contorted under its wrath as well.

It was only after a few moments after trying to comprehend what had without a doubt have destroyed his eardrums that Assassin realized that he somehow wasn't dead yet. Confused and disoriented yes, but not dead.

Grunting in pain and slowly picking himself up, he looked around. They were still in the Reality Marble. He noticed that there were a good number of swords around the intended targets and little girls… wait, little girls?

Indeed, in front of Lancer's Master, who was lying on the ground, were two small children, roughly around Illya's physical age, clearly crying and glaring at Archer.

"Don't hurt Mommy Shirou! She doesn't want to fight you!" the younger one with short hair half yelled half shrieked at the Servant. It was only by the unnatural tone in her voice that made him realize that the children there were likely not human. He wasn't exactly sure what she could be though, as he tended to focus on quelling human issues and the occasional Apostle. His nonhuman lore was a bit lacking.

"Shirou?!" Luvia gasped from her half sitting position as she looked at the somewhat surprised Servant in disbelief before looking at the world around her. "Impossible… you mean all this time…"

"Again?!" The Princess swore, looking as if she was biting on a sour lemon. "You could not be sure of the machinations you have already enacted?! You had to use us even to this degree?!"

While everyone else was focused on the women yelling at the momentarily stunned Archer, Assassin had once again begun to move against his will…

"Banshees?" The Witch laughed in faint disbelief. "She had managed to replace her limbs with Banshees of all creatures? Here? Hahaha. How absurd."

"Run!" The younger one yelled to Archer with a hint of hysteria to her voice. "Mommy says that Archer and Caster have to run away before it's too late!"

"What?" Rin blinked in confusion as she tried to repair her ears. "Why? We have all but won here!"

"Him!" The elder one pointed to Assassin, who had managed to pick himself up and just finished reloading the weapon in his right hand…

Even at that distance, with her reinforced eyes Rin had managed to get a good look at the gun… and her face went ash white.

"… No…"

"Rin?" Archer frowned, feeling Rin's sudden feeling of dread through their mental link. "What's the matter? What is so special about that gun?"

"Assassin… he… he's…" The Tohsaka stumbled back, her limbs shaking as they reacted to their controller's mental state.

Rin was not tech savvy. She was half as knowledgeable when it came to guns. But the one she saw at that very moment was one that she would never forget for the rest of her life… because she had used that very same one two years ago in her fight against a Dead Apostle Ancestor… and it was the only gun that she could say that she was genuinely terrified of without question.

She had thought that the war was as good as hers. She had thought that she knew her Servant like no other and advanced knowledge on everyone else. She had thought that none of the other Servants could ever have anything to counter a Reality Marble possessing an unlimited number of Noble Phantasms…

She was now staring at one of the few, if only weapon in existence that could shatter those assumptions with a single flick of the finger…

"SHIROU!" The mysterious Servant roared as he flicked back his right arm to finish reloading his gun, knocking back his hood to reveal his strained face to the world of blades. Everyone had been taken aback from the sudden outburst, as no one had ever expected the borderline mute Assassin to ever raise his voice to such levels. "RUN!"

"?!" The normally stoic Archer was completely caught off guard by Assassin's identity, so much so that the idea of actually escaping or using the world around him to counter whatever his father was trying to do crossed his mind.

Luvia's eyes widened in absolute shock as she recognized the face of the man she had been researching for years. Even though she had been shown pictures of what he looked like when he was living with Shirou, his current self resembled that of images taken during his most active years. At most he actually looked to be a few years older than she was.

"Kiritsugu… Emiya?"

The identity of Assassin echoed within the Princess as it dislodged the little information she knew about the Heroic Spirit and looked at his unhidden features for the first time. "… The Hero of Sacrifice…"

In slow motion, everyone watched as the Magus Killer's right arm descended. Despite the fact that he was facing Archer, his limb did not stop moving until the weapon it held was facing the dry, lifeless ground below.

BANG!

o. o. o.

"You are a cruel person Master," the King of Rats mused as he watched the events on the mountain unfold from atop the King of the Sky. While Archer's Reality Marble had shrouded a good deal of the battle from them, the end results would none the less be what he had anticipated. "You knew what the Witch had in store for Ms. MacRemitz should she ever come again and yet you still lured her there."

The Twentieth Apostle Ancestor did not show the slightest sign of regret as he sat next to his companion. "We merely informed her of what was taking place tonight. It was her decision to partake in the festivities without thinking things through."

The Rat turned to his Master with a slightly disapproving look. "Be that as it may, even I find it distasteful to risk the children so soon after giving them life. You are normally more restrained when bestowing your gifts onto others."

"Do not worry." Merem didn't blink. "The Witch is no fool. She will keep them and Miss Bazett alive for now. They are all too valuable for her to waste just yet."

The fake human leered at his master as if attempting to decipher a puzzle before sighing again and turning back to the events below. "I suppose. Still I doubt that Lord Emiya would share such sentimentalities should he ever find out you are in part responsible for this and what is to come."

"We shall discuss it when the time comes." The vampire looked down away from the Mountain where until recently another Master and Servant had been silently waiting and watching for their prey to arrive. As intense as the night's battle was, it had been clear that the one they had been looking for was not coming that night.

"As unfortunate as it is, sometimes friends must do distasteful things to one another in order to ensure their growth and survival in the future…"

o. o. o.

A/N:

And Done! My last chapter made before I move to a location that will not perpetually keep my penis at half its size. So the next chapter of… anything really, will be made from Jacksonville Florida. Yay.

You guys didn't think I'd make the war so easy for Shirou to deal with, did you? Heheheh. Oh no. I'm dragging this cluster fsk of a war out for a long while, and after a certain point it won't even resemble what it was supposed to be in the first place. Make of that what you will, I'm not saying any more on the subject until it happens.

Yes. The Thompson Contender is its own Noble Phantasm. I know people are gonna gripe about that.

Too bad.

I'll reveal more about it when Shirou sees it, and yes he WILL see it, but in essence, if Assassin had been summoned anywhere else in Japan, or in New York City, the Contender would have had different, less potent abilities, and if he had been summoned anywhere else period, the Contender would have simply just been another gun for him to shoot with. Basically being summoned in Fuyuki gave him the best boost he could get in terms of abilities and firepower.

As it stands in this war, it's a mediocre NP at best in terms of power. Its real strength though is, like I mentioned before in the fic, more… finicky, and a bit unreliable to use in a fast paced battle with little info. More so than his Origin Bullets actually.

I wanted to actually go a bit further before stopping, but the fight took way longer for me to finish than I had thought for some reason.

Also, this chapter re-introduces everyone's favorite character in his full glory: Trollmine. Screwing up grail wars and families since the nineteen eighties.

Caster used Bazett's blown off legs to make a cursed doll to control her through her item construction ability. I've been hinting at it for ages. Call it a cop out or a poorly written plot twist. Come on. I DARE you.

As for the Banshee kids and being able to deflect Archer's sword rain, yes. It happened. They, Caster, Bazett, and Lancer were about to die via multiple high powered NPs, so… that was a lot of potential and almost assured death heading their way, hence their wonder twin powers activated with much screaming. Like I mentioned before, they have great potential, but they are just kids and can't really use it that well yet.

And finally, yes, Rin will finally get more plot as she realizes that something is really fucked up with EMIYA. Honestly, I'm just trying to write her character as if she isn't trying to babysit a clueless suicidal idiot for the entirety of the story, and that she's known him for long enough that she is used to a good part of his behavior most of the time. Hence, more tsun than normal. Her dere showed in her, until recently, blind trust in EMIYA.

Oh, also, the new fate anime coming out is going to be a different route from the VN. Who wants to bet it's the Illya route or the EMIYA route? Or maybe the route that leads to F/HA?

That's… about it. Gotta finish packing now.

Oh, and I don't really care who wins the super bowl. I'm not much of a sports fan. I'm more in the celebrations for the parties and the commercials…

…

… Go Sea Hawks.

SO REVIEW! WORSHIP THE LOG! HELP ME COME UP WITH KOTOMINE'S PUBLIC EXCUSE FOR THE DAMAGE DONE IN THIS FIGHT! AND REVIEW AGAIN!


	34. Chapter 34

Chapter 34: Bypass

I do not own Fate/Stay Night and stuffs:

o. o. o.

Tohsaka Residence:

In the kitchen of her home, Rin remained quiet as she poured tea for Luvia and herself. She wasn't in the mood to talk just yet. She would inevitably need to address the events which had happened no less than an hour ago, but the magus wanted her head as cleared as possible before embarking on that particular endeavor. Undoubtedly her rival was of a similar mindset as Luvia had not uttered a single word since they had silently entered the mansion.

There were no witty comments. No thinly veiled insults. Not even a glare between them.

Behind Luvia, Caster mutely glowered in spiritual form. While she had somehow managed to sustain little damage, she had utilized a good deal of her prana during that night and was a bit exhausted. Her mood didn't help things either…

As for Archer…

o. o. o.

Flashback:

Everyone stood in confusion as they found themselves back at the main entrance to the Ryudou Temple, albeit slightly displaced to mimic their previous setup inside the Reality Marble. The Witch, Bazett, Lancer, and the identified Assassin were standing in front of the main gates while Rin, Luvia, Archer and the Princess were located before the flames to their side.

"What the…" the Edelfelt muttered in confusion as she looked and saw the small distorted piece of stone where Assassin was pointing his gun at. "The Reality Marble is gone? Tohsaka?"

Everyone turned to the Master of Archer to see her panting with wide eyes and holding her hand out. The mark on the back of it showed that one of her Command Seals had been used up.

"We have to run. Now."

Luvia had known Rin for months now, and due to the frequency they clashed and spent time within each other's company, she could confidently say that she knew the girl better than most. They had similar personalities, temperaments, hell even their mysteries were similar.

However, not once did she ever hear her rival speak with so much fear in her voice.

Assassin, no, Kiritsugu Emiya, was in terrible shape. One of his arms was burnt in addition to pointing in an odd direction, and the large gash that Lancer gave him that spanned from shoulder to hip didn't look like it was going to go anytime soon.

Lancer, still more than able to fight despite looking as if he had just been through a war already, was more preoccupied with keeping his possessed Master alive. Said Master happened to be lying on the ground without legs behind those two odd girls, who, if the Witch could be believed, were actually Banshees.

On the other hand, the mentioned Servant was still in prime condition and the biggest problem at the moment. Rin had been confident that once Unlimited Blade Works was fully deployed the Witch would be easy to take down even with the absurd number of high level spells that was thrown about, but now…

The red and black Servant had made no allies with his attempted stunt. Even if he cared about that, he was clearly in no mental condition to keep on fighting, as his disbelieving gaze had not left his now identified father. Furthermore, utilizing his Reality Marble even for a short amount of time had consumed a significant amount of prana, leaving him in an even worse situation.

The Princess was not much better. True, she was not as stunned as everyone else about Assassin's identity, but she was still far from happy with the current circumstances. On top of that, she had exhausted more prana than anyone else in the battle with the numerous bulls she had summoned and enchanted.

"You…" Archer whispered, ignorant of everything else around him to focus on the Servant that had been giving virtually everyone in the War a headache since he had appeared his appearance. "You actually…"

Whatever he was going to say was cut off as the Witch burst out laughing hysterically. "Hahahahahahahaha! How absurd! How magnificently absurd! Never would I have expected to come across such a trove in a night! Another Servant, two fae, and I find that my original slave is not so worthless after all!"

FWWWWWOOOOOOSSSSHHH!

The sound of the woman's hysterics was drowned out as a wall of fire engulfed the area between the two parties. Its sudden appearance snapped both sides out of whatever shock they were experiencing.

"MOVE!" the Princess shouted as she grabbed her Master's waist and shouted some unpronounceable spell to launch both of them away from the temple at speeds that even Lancer would be hard pressed to catch.

Archer, finally snapping out of his delirium, got with the program and mimicked Caster's actions a moment later, grabbing Rin and tossing her over his shoulder before bolting. Unfortunately, he was limited to the path down the stairs with the fire that the Princess had made earlier still going strong. This fact soon became more than apparent as the Witch began to launch a salvo of prana blasts down upon them from behind.

As fast as a Servant was, EMIYA was still boxed in when the first few beams of light reached his position. Keeping his senses as open as possible he managed to avoid the first few attacks before realizing he could not keep Rin safe simply by dodging in this limited space.

Acting fast as another beam closed down upon them, the Servant conjured up a sloppy broken copy of Kanchou in his free hand and tossed it into the way of the attack. The unstable weapon barely even touched the oncoming blast before it exploded, setting off the offending concentration of raw power in the process.

"Gah!" Rin winced on top of her Servant's shoulder as she attempted to shield her head from the flying prana.

Realizing that his Master was not going to make it if he kept on going in a straight line, Archer decided to take a gamble and withdrew White Hilt from his Reality Marble.

One of the thirteen treasures of Britain from the fifteenth century, White Hilt was otherwise known as the sword of Rydderch Hael. The sword would set aflame anyone unworthy that grabbed it. On the other hand, it would not only alight when held by a worthy owner, but also protect the user from fire based Thaumaturgy up to B rank.

Since he wasn't on fire, it was safe to assume that the weapon didn't have any problems being in his proximity.

He wasn't sure if it would protect anyone the user was carrying, but at the moment he didn't have many options. Just as the next blinding light fell upon them, the Servant quickly changed directions and ran straight into the burning inferno to his right much to Rin's surprise.

It was a unique sensation, running through an immense blaze yet not feeling any heat. The intense shifting of air pressure pushed against his body as firmly as any person could. True, it was consuming all the oxygen around them, but he wasn't human anymore and at the rate he was going, Rin would only suffer from some minor smoke inhalation and oxygen deprivation before they escaped, so long as she didn't burn.

Given that her body was quivering and curled up as if she was suffocating instead of thrashing about as if she was on fire, he was guessing that his gambit had paid off.

Normally the light given off by the flames would be too intense for people to navigate accurately; however, EMIYA had long since mastered his reinforcement ability enough to negate such a minor hazard. Even so, it was a rather peculiar sight to once more witness an inferno from the inside. The sight was so unnatural in many ways that it could almost be compared to a Reality Marble. The trees that were still somehow standing were pitch black when compared to the bright flames, making them appear almost corrupted in this oppressive new world.

It helped in that he had less to distract him from the Witch's more erratic beams of death heading in his general direction. Apparently she possessed sufficient sensory abilities to determine his general location.

Thankfully, he didn't need outstanding sensory abilities to determine the trajectories of those massive beacons of destructive energy.

Just as quickly as they had dove into the sea of flames, the crimson Master and Servant burst back into the natural world of Gaia once more and wasted no time rushing to the nearest alleyway to hide their escape.

Four blocks into the City, the Princess and Luvia cut them off.

"While we may be enemies, I don't believe now would be the best time for us to fight, Caster." EMIYA frowned as he made note of his current situation. He was still in reasonable enough condition to fight, but he had been shaken up with Assassin's identity. Another issue was that unlike his foe, his Master was still preoccupied with regaining use of her lungs if her rampant coughing behind his back was any indication.

"We didn't come for you, scum." The Princess looked down upon him with disdain, although it paled in comparison with what the Counter Guardian knew Gilgamesh could do. "We wish to speak to your Master. It is more than evident that we cannot trust the word of one of you."

Archer's eyes narrowed in minor irritation, but he did not say anything. Arguing would be pointless, and all things considered he was damn well interested in having some questions answered as well.

Slowly so as to not arise any suspicion, the Servant lowered his Master to the ground, but did not let up his guard around her. He was after all responsible for keeping her alive during the War.

"You can take off that helmet, Emiya," Luvia ordered as she stepped forward. "We know it's you."

"Your Servant is next to you, Edlefelt," EMIYA dryly replied. "I don't follow your orders."

"Shirou!" Rin hacked out his name as she leaned up against a nearby building and took in several strained deep breaths. "Shut up. I'm in no mood for your sarcasm now."

"It appears that Emiya has developed an uncouth personality in the time between now and his demise," Luvia observed distastefully. "Then again, given what I have learned recently, perhaps that was simply his disposition in the first place."

"If there is a point to this, get to it," the Counter Guardian grunted, losing what little patience he had left. Normally such small talk didn't affect him in the slightest, but after seeing Assassin… "We have better things to do than to listen to you complain about what I apparently have or haven't done."

"Boy or Man, you are still an infuriating individual." The Princess glared at him loathingly.

"If you must know, I wish to speak to Tohsaka about the situation of the War." Luvia glanced at the two with a disapproving leer. "This includes the current condition of the Grail."

"Current condition?" Rin blinked in confusion before coughing a few more times. "What on earth are you talking about?"

"Hoh? How odd. I'm surprised you don't know, seeing as the one that informed us of it was none other than Emiya himself." The Princess' eyes shot a triumphant glance at the other Servant, who was glaring at her accusingly. "You mean to tell us that you aren't aware that the Greater Grail has been corrupted since the third War? Or that the Archer from the previous War is still very much alive? Certainly letting her know that the King of Heroes still being here would be something in your best interest if you desired to keep her alive."

"King of Heroes?" Rin's eyes dilated as she recognized the moniker of her Father's Servant before turning to Archer accusingly.

He didn't say anything, and his body posture didn't defy anything either. Unfortunately for him there had been far too many slip ups for his Master to allow him to convince anyone of being ignorant.

"Let me guess, you didn't remember," the Tohsaka dryly stated.

"Rin, I…"

"Forget it." Rin's patience with him had reached its limit, but she was so tired after what happened that she couldn't muster anymore energy into her voice. "Unless you have something important to say or I ask something, don't say anything anymore. I'll use a Command Seal if I have to."

o. o. o.

Luvia didn't express her surprise at just how fast Rin had isolated her Servant; however, if this version of Shirou had been anywhere as frustrating as the human one they had been dealing with lately, then it probably wasn't as hard to believe as it should.

Regardless, as it stood, it was for the best for everyone if the shunned Servant was kept outside on guard duty on the Tohsaka roof while they talked. He didn't seem to be in the mood to talk either considering he seemed as surprised as everyone else by Assassin's identity.

"So Emiya has a Reality Marble," Luvia mused as she drank some tea. Archer had not prepared it, but no one seemed to care by this point. "That certainly explains a few things."

"Apparently not as much as I had thought," Rin snorted as she drank from her own cup.

"So you knew of it then. I'm surprised he managed to hide it from the Queen all this time," the blonde stated.

"Everyone here knows of it. El Melloi and the old drunk too." Rin rolled her eyes. "That bitch vampire practically shouted it so loud the entire city heard it when she bit him. The only person that doesn't know it here is the priest and even that's debatable."

"He was bitten?" Luvia blinked in surprise. "The Louvre incident. But… he's not turned, is he?"

""My body is made of blades." Remember?" Rin's cup went down on the table softly. "Her teeth barely made it past the skin before her mouth was torn apart."

"I see… so he's been working on it for some time…" Luvia's mind went back to her conversation with Shirou and his mentioning of his possible means of defeating Gilgamesh. "… Why did you use a Seal to cancel the Reality Marble?"

The Tohsaka's mouth twitched in bitter amusement. "… I see that despite your constant badgering, Shirou still didn't trust you with some things about Kiritsugu. Not that I blame him."

"If you don't mind, we would prefer it if you didn't beat around the bush," the Princess evenly demanded as she materialized once more. Without EMIYA or Shirou around, her temper was much more manageable. Still, she was not in the most ideal of moods at the moment.

Rin glanced at the spirit before sighing. "Early in his career, Kiritsugu Emiya had the top rib on either side of his chest extracted, powdered into dust, and put into sixty six bullets. That gun you saw him shoot at the end of the fight was his main means of firing them off, and his only personal mystic code. I've actually used it myself during the Louvre incident. The gun itself is modified to naturally be much stronger than most if not all single hand guns. I'm not familiar with firearms, but I'm fairly certain that most hand guns don't have enough power to shatter multiple bones in my wrist by just firing it. Needless to say, it has enough punch behind its normal bullets to blast through most on the spot modern spells and has been used frequently to do just that."

That much was obvious to the two Masters, given the fact that the gun itself was classified as an anti-unit and anti-barrier Noble Phantasm…

"The bullets with his bone in them though, the Origin Bullets…"

Luvia and Caster looked at one another warily as they noticed the Japanese shiver in discomfort. They had a sneaking suspicion that they were related to the sword that they had inspected for the Einzbern Master. "Go on."

Rin licked her lips dryly. "Kiritsugu Emiya had a dual origin. Severing and Binding. They were actually what he was named after if you look at the Kanji in his first name. Combined they could represent irreversible change. Long story short if they hit an opponent's mystery, the bullet would cut up and then tie together the user's circuits, ruining and short circuiting them in the process. The stronger the mystery used at the time, the more power they put behind it… the more damage their circuits would deal them from the inside. Had one of those bullets hit the Reality Marble…"

"It would have killed Archer instantly." Luvia's eyes widened in surprise and horror. She had heard of some targets of Kiritsugu having wrecked circuits, but the general assumption by everyone was that they had overstepped their magecraft in an attempt to stay alive against their killer. To realize that he had such a weapon in his arsenal all that time and no one knew the better…

"Thankfully he doesn't have an unlimited number of them." The Tohsaka laughed in bitter relief and went over the information granted to her as a Master and what she had gained from being familiar with the Servant's weapon. "He was only summoned with six bullets. One for each enemy Servant, or Master, in a normal War. Technically, that's all he should need at most, given his style."

"So given that he likely used one tonight, he only has five left at most," Caster reasoned.

"Forgive me if I do not cry tears of joy, Caster," Luvia dryly muttered before drinking some more tea. "Some people don't rely on the ancient language to enact their mysteries and thus are immune to the bullets."

"You called him the Hero of Sacrifice." Rin glanced at the Servant. "I wasn't aware that he was significant enough to possess such a title, fitting as it is."

The Princess frowned and closed her eyes. "He's obviously among the lesser known spirits that have made it to the Throne, especially in this point in time. So much so that he is just shy of being a wraith. However his legend is rather unusual compared to the standard. Willingly sacrificing loved ones for one reason or another is not uncommon, but rarely have any of us ever undergone it so frequently for the betterment of others without outside influences such as religion, culture, occupation, money, or gods." She looked at Rin. "You said that his Origin represented irreversible change. What could reflect that more than the action of ultimate sacrifice itself?"

"And yet he still cared about humanity and those he let near him, even though he knew he risked harming them as well in his futile quest to change, to irreversibly change the world…" Luvia mused as she echoed what Shirou had told her about the man, looking at her reflection in her drink.

She wasn't surprised that she couldn't tell what expression her image was making. She wasn't sure exactly what she felt herself.

"What a pitiful person. To fight fate to such an extent when humanity is so weak in this era… one could even interpret his true goal to say that it was to alter the very nature of Alaya." The Servant shook her head. "Still to manage to make it to the Throne under such conditions is just as absurd."

"Correct me if I'm wrong, but if memory serves that pitiful person has wrecked at least half of the Servants in this war so far, by himself I might add, and would have killed them had he not clearly wished to do so. Including you." Rin mildly leered at the eldest female there. "Taking the moral high ground on his past sounds nice, but I doubt it will do anything with dealing with him in the future."

Medea had enough sense to not argue against the enemy Master and embarrass herself further.

"Honestly. And here I thought that with his Reality Marble I had the War set." Rin laughed bitterly. "Really. Why on earth I let a limitless number of Noble Phantasms get to my head…"

"So he really can replicate any Noble Phantasm he sees." Luvia frowned, recalling how easily he conjured up a copy of Rule Breaker in front of her when he admitted his guilt. "With a power like that he can pose a genuine threat to Servants if they don't pay any attention to him unlike other Masters."

"He's certainly suicidal enough to try it if he thinks it would work," Rin muttered under her breath dryly. "He wouldn't have it if he wasn't."

"Suicidal?" The other human in the room blinked in surprise. "I know that one has to have an altered perception of reality to have such a power, but suicidal?"

"I believe she is merely stating that his alteration results in self destructive habits." Caster summarized.

"That's close enough of an explanation as any to describe it when he does something stupid." Rin sighed as she drank some more tea and recalled the sight of him holding his sword to his neck those years ago. "The word we use most often to nail down his mental state is distorted. His priorities in life or death situations are completely messed up."

"Given that you are so familiar with his thought process, I'm surprised that you had so much trouble controlling him earlier tonight," Caster mused.

The Tohsaka frowned as she looked at her off color reflection in her drink. "… To be honest, I'm as surprised by his actions as you are. Seeing him actually use his Reality Marble and targeting Bazett was one of the last things I'd ever see him do, even if she was an enemy in the War."

"Well clearly you didn't know him as well as you did," Luvia snorted dryly.

"I know him enough to know that his Reality Marble now doesn't look anything like what we saw." Rin frowned. "He hasn't actualized it, but he's close enough to know what it looks like. Save for the hill and the swords everywhere, it was completely different from what he's told everyone in the know on multiple occasions."

Rin's declaration gave the other two there pause. "It was different?" Caster hesitantly repeated. "The difference was that significant?"

"He has not once mentioned smog, massive gears, or that stagnant air." The Japanese shivered as she recalled the oppressive atmosphere. It was not a world that she had any part of, and certainly not one that she could potentially serve as a sheathe. "Just the opposite. The sky was clear with both the moon and sun visible on the horizon, and stars in the sky."

She closed her eyes. "When Archer used Unlimited Blade Works, it was almost as if I was looking at the world of someone else entirely…"

"But he was no doubt Shirou." Luvia had to confirm her suspicions.

"His whiting hair and tanning skin was a result of constant use of tracing," Rin elaborated. "He's still wearing the Shroud of Martin. His face matches up. He impulsively does housework without me asking. He knows my habits and my kitchen. He's familiar with the area and people we know at school… if Archer's an imitator I'd be willing to use a command seal to find out how he pulled it off."

"I sense a "but" coming." The blonde frowned.

"He… he's made odd comments, and he's forgotten things that should be obvious. Recently he made a comment about Sakura's brother, who has been dead for two years. Hard to control or not, that's not something even he would do on purpose. He claims he doesn't remember what happened around the time of the War and blames it on a failsafe the founders built into the system, but I can tell he hasn't been entirely truthful," Rin admitted reluctantly. "I've asked him about the other Servants before, and I've had mixed reactions depending on who he was talking about, and that was only after he encountered them. I had to push him to tell me about Saber and Lancer. He claimed ignorance on Rider. But he honestly seemed a bit confused when he learned that there were two Casters and more so when it came to Assassin… and well… you saw his reaction when we saw who he was."

Luvia and Caster looked at one another warily. Indeed, Archer's reaction to his father was without a doubt not faked or staged in any way. This was quite both concerning and disconcerting, as it indicated that this future Shirou Emiya for some reason did not know that Kiritsugu had been summoned as Assassin. Given how their Shirou had proven himself to be the most informed Master in the war, and that his Servant self was clearly far older than his current self, the possibility of him not finding out about Assassin's identity was unrealistically low.

Then there was the fact that, from what Shirou admitted to Luvia, he seemed to be unaware of both Assassin's and Archer's identities, with the former being someone completely different than who he had been expecting. Had they been a part of his grand plan, everyone would not be having such a difficult time dealing with the Witch on the Mountain…

And if Luvia were to be honest with herself, she would admit that the idea of Shirou willingly allowing his father to be controlled by the wild Servant was incredibly outlandish, current situation pending.

Not to mention suicidal. Despite every advantage she pointed out that Shirou had over Kiritsugu, the former firmly believed that he would lose against the latter had they been tasked to kill one another.

Given how badly Assassin had been routing all of the other Servants in the War so far, including a future version of Shirou, she was more than willing to take his side on the argument.

The question at hand now wasn't who Archer was. Despite the inconsistencies, he was without a doubt Shirou Emiya.

It was: could this altered version of him be trusted?

"Sounds like I'm not the only one that's been having a rough time with Emiya." Luvia sighed as she leaned back in her seat, feeling the impending headache coming and knowing that it would only get worse from there.

Rin eyed the other master skeptically. "Yes, I was wondering about that recently. You have been acting rather peculiar. Why would he be talking to you about the War? I thought he was only allied with Sakura. Teaming up with any more Masters is just begging to get stabbed in the back at one point or another."

"Who said he was the one being stabbed?" Caster frowned. "We heard it just a few hours ago, did we not? That a Master addressed a threat to the war?"

Rin's stomach dropped as she quickly pieced together what she had suspected ever since Kirei called her the previous night. "… So it's true then. Shirou actually managed to kill Zouken."

"All things considered, I doubt that anyone will shed tears for him. Not if even half of what Emiya said is true." Luvia mused with a look of discontent on her face.

The host remained quiet as she digested the information with a grain of salt. If Shirou wanted to kill Zouken so badly, then the only reason why he waited so long to do so was because he needed something to do so… meaning that it came with the War… and the only things he could get were either Servants or their Noble Phantasms…

But there lay the absurd question of how he knew what would be available. Other than his own Servant, he should have no control over what Servants would be summoned, and his Servant was King Arthur as Saber. A powerful Servant to be sure, but not one with the technical abilities that would no doubt be needed to permanently put down Zouken for good.

"What aren't you telling me Edelfelt?" She looked up at her rival dangerously. Rin disliked many things, but not knowing something everyone else did was among the top of her list.

The blonde remained quiet as she contemplated what to say. She did not want to admit that she had been used before the war had even begun. That her sister had betrayed her. That Shirou had been training for the war since the start of his Magus life. That he had information about the war from alternate potential futures. That he had essentially been using everyone, and had been attempting to manipulate the entire War to save the world three times over and keep his loved ones alive…

And that he had… more or less… actually been pulling it off successfully.

Then again, he couldn't hide it forever. And it was only going to be so long until he messed up. And who knows? Maybe by the time Rin actually got her hands on Shirou her anger would have abated enough that she wouldn't kill him in the end…

Then again, her Servant was a future version of Shirou. She couldn't rule out a chance that Rin would murder him instead.

… Screw it. Shirou would suffer in one way or another by the end of the War. She might as well be the cause of some of it.

o. o. o.

Ryudou Temple:

The Witch hummed contently to herself as she inspected the container which held her Master.

The night had been a bit more than hectic, what with having virtually the entire front of the mountain set ablaze to such intensity that there was no feasible way that she could regrow it without gaining unneeded ire from the Church. Nonetheless, the night had been extremely productive.

She had gained control over both Lancer and his Master, and unexpectedly two powerful Fae as a bonus.

The little Banshees, possibly the greatest prize of the night under better conditions, unfortunately wouldn't follow her direct orders. They had already been imprinted to their "mother" and no amount of prana or archaic thaumaturgy would change that… safely at least. Even during her time, the Fae were unknown entities of unsurpassed power and mystery. The Servant was skilled and knowledgeable in her craft, but even she knew that there were things which were better off not messed with, and the inner workings of the Fae was one of them.

That at least had not changed over the centuries. Medea did not know if any of the others there had seen what the adolescent girls had actually done in order to prevent everyone from being skewered by the rain of Noble Phantasms, but she certainly did. For a moment.

No doubt everyone else there would suspect that the girls merely created a shockwave that deflected the oncoming attack… idiots. As if a mere disruption of air pressure could stop such an onslaught.

No, what the children had really done was something far more unique and valuable… a pity both of them were needed to enact the mystery. Had it not been the case, she would have no doubt turned one into a personal mystic code by now.

She couldn't mess with how their powers worked directly, but she was good enough to harness it in another way if needed…

Then again, turning Lancer's Master into a code was an enticing idea as well. Who would have suspected that one with such a useful and potent lineage still existed in this day and age? Why the thought of turning the bound girl into a device that produced an endless supply of that useful Noble Phantasm was almost too good to pass up…

… However the Witch had to stay her hand from that path as well at the moment. The Fae children were dependent on the Fraga to survive and were proving to be a large annoyance whenever she got too close to the woman. She didn't want to have to go through the trouble of healing her ear drums again after the last time she tried to do something. Plus, she needed to get close to the woman in order to use Rule Breaker if she wanted to gain direct command over Lancer…

… Which was another reason why she didn't go through with that course of action. She had enough of a headache with her mental connection to Assassin. She didn't want the loud dog barking in her skull to add onto that misery.

So she did the next best thing. She'd use Lancer and his puppet Master to enact her will across town and gather more information for her during the day, and add to her defenses during the night.

As for Assassin, who was currently in spiritual form and recovering from the thrashing he had received during the night… she would let him be for the time being.

Kiritsugu Emiya. The Hero of Sacrifice working under the Witch of Betrayal. It was almost fitting in an ironic way… oh she certainly knew of him. Actually she knew of his legend better than most Heroic Spirits.

Among the theoretically infinite number of beings that made it to the Throne of Heroes, the Witch of Betrayal had spent her timeless existence, among other things, looking at the tales of those that she believed had experienced the true nature of the world that had suffered like she had.

It wasn't that surprising really, since looking up the legends of other spirits was one of the few things that Heroic Spirits could freely and consciously do while in the Throne of Heroes when they weren't influencing events down on earth.

Oh she had heard of the more notable legends like King Arthur and the like. It was hard not to. However, the stories of Anti-heroes and villains in general appealed to her more…

It was much like going to a library for eternity. True, at some point a person could have read through all the contents, and subsequently forget all of it at some time as well, but people tended to have favorite sections that they recalled the contents of easier than others.

Kiritsugu Emiya, as an anti-hero, was one of the ones that stuck out the most to her.

Throughout her life, Medea had been betrayed more times than she dared to count. Every instance she had achieved what she had originally wanted, a nice, happy quiet domestic life with a man she thought she could trust, she had been betrayed and rejected in one way or another. The Argonauts. Jason. Heracles.

Kiritsugu Emiya's story was, to her at least, an interesting inversion of her own tale.

Oh he may be the culprit of all his misdeeds, and he put saving others ahead of wanting a happy life, but once those minor details were put aside the parallels between their tales were rather high. Every time the man attempted to be happy, he was forced into a situation sooner or later where he had to choose between the loved one and a large number of innocents.

His father vs. the research that doomed an island.

His adopted mother vs. the plane full of ghouls about to land into one of the most populated cities on the planet.

His wife vs. a wish that could possibly grant world peace.

His daughter vs. the realization that the aforementioned object would bring naught but destruction.

His son vs. his dream…

Oh she would be lying if she said that she actually liked Assassin. There was no love lost between them. Regardless, Medea couldn't help but feel a certain connection to him. A kinship of sorts. It was not often that she could communicate with another who had been as tormented in life as she was for such similar reasons.

"You know Assassin…" she mused out loud as she slowly tapped the concentrated prana around her motionless Master. "While the two of us clearly do not see eye to eye, I find it rather ironic that we have ended up with one another… now that I finally know who you are at least."

The spiritual existence behind her didn't bother to say anything. She didn't expect him to.

"We should at least make more of an effort to cooperate. We aren't that different after all." She continued as she tweaked a few factors in her enchantments to ensure that there was no risk of anything destabilizing. "Fate has not been kind to either of us, nor our kin. We both abhor the standard heroes that the world worships the names of, blinding the world to the reality that pervades realms that their idols could not fathom to understand. Both of us have experienced great loss for unjust causes…"

"Hmhm." The woman's speech was interrupted by a brief dry laugh. Not one of amusement, but of pity.

The Witch frowned and glanced back at her Servant, not at all caring that this was as close to a conversation as they had ever had. "And why don't you believe so? Your legend has done you a disservice. I know enough of your story to know now that the Grail in this War is not what it seems. Now that I have more information, it is only a matter of time before I emerge victorious and my wish is granted. Actually the alteration to the prize only makes it even more enticing to me. Do you not desire to possibly have your own wishes fulfilled as well?"

Kiritsugu remained emotionless. "If you know my story as well as you say, then you already know the answer to that."

"Humph." The Witch turned back to her work. "How dull. A self sacrificing anti-hero even after death." They remained quiet for a few more moments. "What of your son? Certainly you must hold some feelings for him? Unless you wish to pawn him off for some greater deed like all the others you've mingled with."

A hint of killing intent coalesced behind her. Ah, so there was a person behind that façade after all.

"Ironic, coming from the woman who slaughtered her own."

The room echoed with Prana as the woman turned around with several balls of raw power thrumming above her. "Careful, Assassin. My need for your services is not as dire as it once was."

"Then kill me or let me go," Assassin continued emotionlessly, knowing that she would not do either. He had proven himself too good at his task for her to put down just yet.

"Humph. We both know that the time for that has yet to come." The woman snorted in dry amusement. "So eager to approach your son again even after you almost killed him? Or perhaps you wish to ensure that your daughter follows her mother's steps?"

Another subtle wave of killing intent filled the room. "How annoying. You are desperate for someone as pathetic as you are."

Caster's previous good mood was quickly ebbing away. "Desperate? I have been called many unsightly things, but that is certainly a new one. I find myself not partial to it."

"Few are when faced with the truth. Humans have a tendency of not liking what they see in the mirror after all. They also have a habit of pretending that they are not related to things they are against."

"True words. However they do not apply to me. I am fully aware of what looks back in my reflections. I have done too much to ignore that." The Witch frowned. "If we are so different, then tell me who I am most like? Tell me, Servant."

Assassin paused for a moment as he fought the urge of the Command Seal. "… Saber…"

The woman blinked in surprise, not expecting her main target to be the answer. "Her? The proud, elegant, noble woman? Do explain. I am eager how you concocted that comparison."

"I am talking about the Saber I summoned as a Master." Kiritsugu's head rose, staring at her with empty eyes. "… You both accepted the roles the world set out for you blindly. You both became what humanity believed you to be and threw your past selves away. Like puppets you played your parts. Hero. Villain. King. Witch. Such positions were needed, and by happenstance you found yourselves with one foot in them. Yet when faced with the decision to back away, both of you blindly put the other foot in without thinking of the consequences for one reason or another."

The Witch said nothing as she listened to her Servant speak more than the rest of the time they had "conversed" combined. Whether it was because she was interested in hearing what he had to say, because his words struck something unnaturally sensitive inside of her, or because she was mute with increasing anger was anyone's guess.

"People like you annoy me. You possess the ability to influence so many lives so easily, yet you don't even bother seeing what is truly wrong about the nature of the roles you play to the fullest. You have given yourselves in the unrealistic parts you play to the point that it is impossible to see you apart from those inhuman expectations. Sooner or later, your tales always end up the same. Humans in general do not tolerate that which it cannot see as its own, especially when it possesses power that mankind generally does not. Eventually they will always react poorly to it. You and Saber are no exception to the rule. You both gave up on yourselves without even knowing it… and as a result the world sooner or later acted in kind with neither of you accurately comprehending why it came to be."

"You have the gall to claim that I chose to live like I have?" the Witch growled, very much considering the idea of killing him there in retaliation for his sharp words. She liked him better when he was a mute. "Do you think that I did not know that I had been forced to love that imbecile Jason? He spoke pretty words and was an adequate errand boy, but the fool rarely had a thought that was truly his own, and was not much of a lover either, always trying to brute force everything. He would not have even made it to my home had it not been for the competency of the Argonauts, even if most of them shunned me in the end."

"_Not without good reason_,_" _Assassin thought dryly as he let the woman continue with her rant.

"At least the idiot stuck with me for that, not that it lasted much longer than that once we were in Coronith. The gods made me a tool for him to use at his whim, blind with emotion and adoration for the witless oaf, but not so much that I was unaware of my situation. Alone. A kinslayer. Unaware of the world outside of the land that my blood held. A practitioner of the mystic arts, both dark and light mind you. Of course I clung onto the only individual that valued my words and life. Anyone in my position would have. Death and slavery were my only other options, and that was if I was lucky enough to not starve or be tortured for my heritage in the process."

"I highly doubt that all the actions you have done in your life were spurred by Aphrodite's influence." Assassin spoke offhandedly, subtly spurring her to continue talking. Past or present, it seemed to be a universal rule that women with egos loved to talk about themselves.

He had no sympathy for her. Regardless of how sad her past was, it didn't change what she was doing now without regrets.

"Of course not. Her influence ended the moment Jason and my children abandoned me for that trollop Glauce," Caster snorted before glancing at her trapped Master. "Truth be told, she resembled this dear girl here. Fortunately, I had the fortune to be summoned by the slightly more competent of the two."

A slight tilt of Kiritsugu's head caught her attention.

"Oh?" she sarcastically drawled. "Did that not make it into my story? How shocking. Surely you knew that I had six children in my decade in Coronith? Five young healthy boys and my darling little girl. Mermeros, Pheres, and Thessalus were all rather sharp for their ages, as they should have. They all took after me you see, though Thessalus was just three when things fell apart. Eriopes was just as smart and had the potential to be even greater than me at my craft."

Despite being hooded, Kiritsugu saw Caster look into space with a look that he often saw on Iri's face when she was thinking of Illya. Whatever blight on earth this woman was, he could say for a fact that she was still a mother at heart.

Also she seemed to be a gloater at heart as well, so he didn't say anything. The more she talked, the more he could use against her if given an opportunity.

"… In fact they helped me brainstorm my little revenge on Jason's wedding. Mermeros and Pheres had even concocted up this ingenious little scheme to send over a poisoned crown and dress to the tart, which were enchanted to compel any blood relative nearby to help them in distress? At nine and seven they came up with such a plan. How could I not be proud of my brilliant children?"

A sick and twisted mother true, but still a mother. It's not like he could complain given how Illya's life turned out.

"Still, in the end I felt a more direct approach was in order to prove to my former husband that I could operate in a more direct manner if I so desired. As for my infamous slaying of Tisander and Alcimines?" Her mood dropped and she snorted. "Those two always took after their father. Greedy little cretins, the both of them. Always bullying others and trying to get their way. I tried to put some sense into them on multiple occasions, but they never listened. When they heard that their father was going to marry royalty and live in the castle, they were ecstatic. They didn't care that their mother would be exiled. All they wanted was more food, toys, servants…"

She spat to the side in disgust. "Those two were the ones that informed the locals of what I had done and where the rest of their siblings and I were hiding. The villagers had waited for me to leave to get more ingredients before they stormed my home and murdered Mermeros and Pheres. In fact[,] those little blights even helped kill their own siblings simply because they were on my side. After that, Tisander and Alcimines took little Thessalus away, as he was just a boy and even the civilians weren't daft enough to place blame on an infant. They said that Thessalus "escaped" from me. Feh. I _saved_ him from those two degenerates, or at least from their corpses when I had finally caught up with those brats. Unfortunately I could not take care of him and escape with my life, so I gave him as many enchantments and protections as I could before leaving him the care of one of the few villagers that knew better than to believe what the masses had claimed. As for Eriopes…"

The temperature in the prana rich room fell by a few dozen degrees. "… Well, when I finally did find my darling little girl, there was only one thing I could give her at that point. If anything, my deed that night should have been hailed as an action of love, not scorn."

"My condolences." Kiritsugu certainly didn't sound apologetic, but the fact that he said anything at all was worth noting.

"Humph. As if they are worth anything." The woman shook her head. "As for what happened after that, well, there was that short amount of time I spent with Heracles. Not much of a talker that one, and he had a bit of a temper, but anyone that talked to him for more than a few sentences could tell that there was more than muscle in that head of his. We got along quite well actually despite our differences and past with the other Argonauts. Plus we both had a bit of a grudge with that hag Hera. We got along too well in fact. We knew almost instantly that we'd end up killing one another if we spent any more time together than we already did." She sighed whimsically. "I don't know what's more depressing. That I'll have to kill him, or that that wretched girl of yours has reduced him to such a pathetic state."

The father let the comment slide. Even he would admit that keeping Heracles of all Servants on such a tight leash in that state was a rather inhuman thing to do from multiple perspectives.

"Then of course, everyone knows about my time with Aegeus in Athens. How I tried to kill my stepson Theseus so that my darling boy Medus could inherit his father's throne. He was such a good boy. He wasn't overly imaginative or skilled with the mystic arts like his siblings were, but he was the sort that you could not be angry at for long. He inherited it from his father. Trusting and kind… though not so much that he was foolish enough to throw himself over a cliff in a fit of misled despair."

Kiritsugu took a moment to recall that Aegeus died not by Medea's hands, but several years after she left. Actually his demise was rather infamous for being dark ending to Theseus' encounter with the Minotaur of Crete. Theseus, in his eager to get back home, had forgotten to change the sails on his boat from black to white. Black sails meant his failure while white his victory. Aegeus had been so distraught over his firstborn's supposed end that he had drowned himself in what would later be known as the Aegean Sea.

"I'm surprised you didn't kill him yourself when he sent you away." He mused out loud.

"Humph. The thought had crossed my mind. However I decided against it." Caster whimsically brushed his comment aside. "Aegeus was a good man despite what had happened. I had made the first move after all, so the fault of the incident could be blamed on me."

Kiritsugu stared at her emotionlessly, clearly expressing his disbelief that she had let go of her nature so easily.

A dry smirk made its way onto her face. "Well… there was that, and I may have scried the man's future at some point before I had left. Then I may or may not have cast a small spell on Theseus to make him somewhat… forgetful about a few specific things should he have survived his ordeal in Crete… but his demise occurred years after I had departed."

There we go.

"As for after that, well…" She took out Rule Breaker and played with it fondly. "I finally decided to go back home and beg my father for forgiveness you see. I had grown weary of men, the world, and travelling, and with little Medus with me I thought I might have the best opportunity to mend bridges with the only living adult male that I still trusted with my life. When I arrived though, I found that my uncle Perses had imprisoned my father to take over my home. Soon after that he managed to find out about my son and imprisoned him too out of fear that his position would be usurped. So, still in hiding, I did what any mother would do…"

"That's the dagger you used to kill Perses with while disguised as a priestess." Kiritsugu eyed the Noble Phantasm with some interest. "You claimed that a plague was coming and asked for your son as a human sacrifice to appease the gods and keep it away. Then you killed your uncle when his guard was down. Your son became King after that."

"Indeed." Medea beamed as she looked over the dagger some more. "My father was a master of the mystic arts. Almost as good as I in my prime. He could not be killed so easily. However my uncle was also of grandfather Helios' blood, and had inherited a more… physical representation of his lineage. Normal weapons would not do against such a body, so my ever so useful Rule Breaker was made to get past his protections.

"The enchantments were supposed to be temporary; however, grandfather's blood was potent in uncle. The combination of my deeds and magic, with my uncle's blood twisted the knife into what you see here. It was only later that I remembered that I had used this very same blade to exact my revenge on the blights that I had once called my children. The fact that it had stayed with me for all this time was merely a pleasant coincidence."

Kiritsugu remained quiet. All things considered, the Witch in front of him was more of a mixed bag as far as Servants were concerned. She was certainly saner and more reasonable than the fourth War's Caster; however, her priorities weren't hard to discern. If you got in the way of her desires, primarily the stability of her life, she would end you in one way or another.

Still, given her behavior, what he knew from his visions, and what she had said, it was difficult to determine what her current wish was. Had she fallen in love again, it would no doubt have been to spend more time with said infatuation, but even he had his limits. Without an individual for her to focus her desires onto though…

"Hmm." The Witch turned around and lazily gazed upon her Master's prone form. "I suppose when one looks upon my actions, after that fool Jason at least, the image of me willingly falling into my role does not seem rather profound. Family does make one do irrational things after all. Then again, you are the ideal exception to that rule, aren't you, Kiritsugu Emiya?"

The Servant didn't say anything; however, his thoughts on the matter were sarcastic enough to be clearly seen through his emotionless gaze.

"Tell me. Were your final days like mine?" she mused as she turned to her work again. "Working tirelessly for your son's future regardless of how the world saw or didn't see you? Long? Care free? Seemingly endless until the world cut you off at the knees when you weren't looking?"

Assassin paused for a moment. Medea's various legends tend to get vague after her son reaches the throne. In some accounts, Helios spirits her off somewhere on a chariot driven by dragons. In others she had actually moved with Medos to the Middle East. None of them say specifically how she died.

"Of course you wouldn't know," she sighed, already accurately understanding what he was thinking. "Why should you, when the story of my over glorified filicide is so much more interesting to record for the masses? It is far more worth recalling compared to the slow uneventful ending with no blind heroes to trick or deal with because the gods were too lazy to do it themselves. Unless you die in a mighty blaze of glory, the world tends to ignore you once your roles and adventures are over."

Kiritsugu had to agree with her on that. Heroic spirits didn't frequently make it to the Throne with boring stories. It was difficult to have your tale passed around the world when no one could stay awake to the end.

"No one cares or remembers that the mother of the King spent the next decade or so working in the shadows to protect him. Slaying his unimportant conspirators and leading him through political traps, one by one, day in and day out, as they attempted to subvert his rule for petty reasons. Listening to politics of mortal men is far less interesting when there are no tremendous battles or bastards of gods coming in and out every year or so."

Caster casually played with a strand of hair that wasn't covered from her rather large hood. "Well… not that I minded doing all of that. My home was a pleasant place to live, but rather boring without anything… productive to do once my child had grown enough. So I killed two birds with one stone and aided him from less visible positions."

Kiritsugu was fairly certain that Medea would have made a solid Assassin given the opportunity. Then again from the sounds of things, she could have been a powerful Rider as well. Having a chariot driven by Dragons of all things would have even put the previous Rider's mount to shame.

"He even conquered a nearby meaningless land and named it after me." Caster went on, not bothering to notice or care that Assassin wasn't paying attention. She was too lost in her memories to care. "Such a loving boy my Medos was…"

A pity he was restricted by her orders, else he would have shot her right then and there.

"Then of course, a few months after the victory celebrations, I was sacrificed by that very son in order to placate the angry plebeians who had been led to believe that I was the cause of the rather poor crops the land had been growing recently. Her son betrayed her for his people. For peace."

She snorted dryly, glaring at the intangible man behind her, not missing the irony. "At very least he regretted what happened of me, unlike all those other pieces of trash that threw me away to suit their needs. Oh how he wept and grieved as my own dagger was used to stab my heart. How could I not forgive a face like that?"

She turned around completely to face the man in front of her. "While we are on the subject, I have always been curious as to what my youngest was feeling at the time in detail. I have forsaken others for my own sake on many occasions, but never for others and never those that still held a place in my heart. Tell me Assassin, what does it actually feel like to sacrifice one close to you for the sake of many? How did it feel to murder your mother in cold blood, knowing that countless others would never know or appreciate what you had done? Did you feel as if you had made any progress in the slightest once the dust had settled?"

The Servant glared at her with dead eyes. Once more he was compelled to answer her question against his will. The best he could do was put his twist on it. "What I felt was irrelevant."

"Hmm. I suppose I asked too much of you." Her amused smirk seemed to glow through the shadows her hood made. "Then again, knowing how our kind behave, it was probably the point that initially pushed you over the edge. Overcome with so much emotion of murdering your loved one for your goals that you had no choice but to shut down."

Almost lovingly, the woman reached forward and allowed her magic to tap into the conduit that her Master had become.

"Yes, that sounds fitting enough. Our experiences and memories are after all what shape us in the end."

The prana in the room grew immensely as the chamber holding the girl hummed with power. Inside the devise, the semiconscious girl writhed slowly in obvious discomfort. The fact that she had not moved at all since he had laid eyes on her could only mean that the girl was in far more pain than what she could express in her current condition.

"They shape our dreams. Our goals. Our lives…"

A sick grin made its way onto the woman's face.

"Our wishes…"

o. o. o.

With Shirou:

"And that's the last of it." The Emiya sighed as he moved in the last of the boxes related to the information that Kiritsugu had given him to the safe he had hidden into the floor of his workshop, more specifically right under the circle that he had used to summon Saber with.

It had taken them nearly all night to do so despite the seemingly small number of boxes there. Most of the time had been spent looking for anything that might hint of his future knowledge that his father had given him. "Thanks for your help everyone."

"It was only proper for me to aid you in your tasks, Shirou," Saber dutifully stated.

"After everything you've done for me, how could I not help out as well?" Sakura smiled genuinely. While her body was still a bit unstable from the operations, she had been adamant on supporting Shirou in any way she could.

And she had certainly expressed that decision for the majority of the previous day.

"A question," Rider spoke up, wearing jeans and a black sweater that they had picked out for her earlier that day so she could move in the open, at least during the evening. She still got stares due to the fact that she retained Breaker Gorgon, but the explanation of her "eye condition" was enough to deter most people. At least the ones that were around at that part of the day. "Why are you going through such an effort to hide your information now?"

Shirou sighed and brushed his hands on his pants. "I'm going to be more active after tonight. Just in case I have to change locations again, I don't want anyone to get in here and find out what I know just yet. It could lead to too many problems if that kind of information was revealed. Thankfully I memorized most of it so there shouldn't be much need to take it out in the future unless I need to make references."

"So we are going after Caster tonight." Saber nodded in understanding, recalling the massive fire that had been on the news all day with each station grasping at straws, trying to find out what had caused the blaze. The last they had checked, the flames had still yet to be put out. In addition to that, all the schools in the city had been closed until further notice. All in all, the entire city was completely on edge after this latest snafu caused by the War. "I assume we are attacking earlier than normal."

"Tools of the Trade won't restock until midnight, and Luvia started her attack a bit after one last night." Shirou nodded. "With most of his traps and explosives gone, he'll be forced to rely on just his guns and grenades in a wide open space where he can't route the enemy. It's the worst type of battlefield for him. At the very worst, he'll try to hold up by the temple arch, and doing that will make it easy to defend from his attacks as we would know where he is fighting from."

"He could still hide on the buildings and try to snipe us," Sakura noted. "Remember, he has no issues with placing his traps on them."

"Maybe if he was working under better conditions or under another Master, but I doubt that's the case." Shirou shook his head. "Caster's tasked him to prevent anyone from entering her workshop. While sniping the enemy from behind is a solid strategy, it's not ideal for defending a target that's in the opposite direction. Should there be multiple enemies heading to the temple like when Rider and Archer tried to go in, he would be hard pressed to get them both before at least one got inside and possibly take out Caster."

"I see." Saber mused as she went over the facts. "Caster is not foolish enough to look this over, and values her safety over his. She will most likely have him at the entrance again despite it not being to his strength this time. Still, I believe it would be best to make sure that he has not set up any traps in the city to be safe. Any surprises by those two in particular could instantly mean our defeat should we not prepare."

Shirou nodded while making his eyes flash silver in the process. "I never said I was not going to do so. Better safe than dead after all."

"Are you sure that's safe?" Sakura asked with concern. "You told us that if you accidentally take in too much information it could knock you out or worse, and with a wide view like on top of a building…"

"I'll be fine." He smiled genuinely. "I'm good enough that so long as I have no distractions, there should be no problems when I use my eyes."

"That's a big if." The youngest one there crossed her arms sternly.

"Don't make it sound like I don't know what I'm doing, Sakura. This isn't the first time I've done something like this you know." Shirou shook his head.

"Shirou's guidance has done us well so far." Saber pointed out factually. "It would lead us nowhere to start questioning it now over such small trivialities."

"… Fine," the girl relented reluctantly.

"I take it you have a plan of attack," Rider spoke up.

Shirou nodded as he walked across the yard. "Several, but I want to make sure of something first."

"And what's that?" Saber asked curiously before absently catching a shinai that her Master had tossed her.

"When we've sparred so far, we have been fine tuning my technique and style more than anything else," Shirou stated calmly as he materialized shorter versions of the practice weapons in his own hands. "But now that I don't have to pour all of my prana between both you and Rider, I can take things up a notch and show you how I fight with my magic. This time, Saber, I'm going to go at you with everything I have in terms of physical augmentation. I doubt I'll be able to even hit you, but I want to know what your impression is regardless. My plans for tonight depend on how you rate my ability."

The blonde hesitated for a moment before her face fell into its usual impassive state. "If that is what you wish. It is fortunate that you have Avalon inside of you, else you may not have recovered in time to enact your plans for tonight."

The teen winced and laughed dryly as he adopted his stance. "Ouch. Cut me some slack, Saber. I'm not that helpless."

A faint twitch was seen on Saber's lips as she readied her guard. "Your sword work says otherwise."

"That so?" He sighed as two guns in his skull cocked their hammers.

_Trace. On._

The first one slammed down, filling the imperfections within his body with prana. His self reinforcement was as close to being classified as "perfect" as he could get it under ideal circumstances, but he wasn't aiming for that. Instead, he was improving his body in a more rushed manner, much like how he would do so in a fierce fight.

Even so, his body was tough enough now to take a fairly serious beating without worry of anything serious happening. He had seen the proof during one Apostle hunt when he had been thrown through a solid rock wall. It only resulted in a few broken bones and a minor concussion.

The Apostle on the other hand, wound up with a severe case of sword arrows in the head after all its limbs were cut off.

And with his tougher body…

_Time alter…_

He could push a few other things to higher levels as well…

_Square Accel._

Faster than most humans could follow, Shirou bolted at Saber with everything he had. His skills in self reinforcement were already higher than most magi could accomplish, but with his crest multiplying his already heightened state by four…

Fwip! Swoosh! Swoosh! Crack! Swoosh! Crack! Pow!

He still got his ass handed to him by Saber and was sent flying in the opposite direction in less than five seconds.

The Emiya crashed back to the earth with a heavy thud and a loud gasp from the feedback of his mysteries compounded with the swift but heavy beating that his Servant had delivered to him. Thankfully his body was still reinforced, so the worst of Gaia's correcting influences didn't quite tear him apart from the inside. However it was still a painful experience. Had he not had Avalon in his body, he probably would be lying on the ground for a few minutes or so before feeling comfortable enough to try standing again.

"Shirou!" Sakura ran to his side. "Are you ok? Saber didn't go overboard did she?"

"Oooowww," the only male there intelligently answered as he held his chest in obvious discomfort.

"Please do not underestimate my control, Sakura," Saber stated with what was similar to a pout but certainly was not. Kings did not pout after all. "While my counter may have appeared excessive, I assure you that it was well within Shirou's range of tolerance."

Truth be told, she had gone slightly overboard with her counterattack. To be sure, she had expected Shirou to come at her with heightened abilities, but she may have slightly underestimated how fast he would be. No need to let anyone know about that though.

"Considering the fact that she's been painting the floor of my dojo with my blood, sweat, and tears whenever we spar, I wouldn't put her estimation into question. It's safer that way." Shirou coughed feebly as he felt Avalon work its magic. While his body was already in better shape, he couldn't shake off the ghost pains of what he went through just yet. "So what did you think?"

"It was impressive… for a human," Rider stated with a twitch of amusement on her lips. "Certainly not something expected from one of this era."

"I agree." Saber nodded. "Your technique is still unrefined, but you did move just now with the speed of a Servant, albeit the slowest ones. From what we've seen though, it would not be worth much in a battle against another one of us by itself. Should you do that during a conflict or against another Servant, you would likely manage to catch them off guard to hide yourself or gather reinforcements."

"But good enough to get out of the way if another Servant tries to focus on me as a distraction, right?" he asked as he picked himself up with some help.

The two Servants looked at one another skeptically before nodding. "So long as there is enough space between you two, you should be able to buy enough time running for us to reengage the enemy," Rider supplied.

"Good." The Emiya smiled earnestly. "Then as it stands I can act as a solid support for you two now in fights… well, most of them anyways. I won't be able to keep up if things wind up like at the Matou residence again."

"Is that really necessary?" Sakura frowned. "Masters should be focusing on fighting Masters, not other Servants. Your Reality Marble is powerful and useful in this war, Shirou, but wouldn't it be of more use against enemies you can fight on more even ground?"

Sakura did have a point. Under most circumstances, the best a Master could do for their Servant in a fight was heal their injuries, provide prana, cast supporting spells, or take out the enemy Master. Most magi in this era did not have the capability or means to harm other Servants effectively without significant preparation, so they forwent that path of attack altogether in most cases.

Unfortunately, those simpler means of support were complicated by the situation at hand…

"In this case, it is. Sorry," Shirou relented with a guilty smile. "Don't worry. I'll be keeping my distance from the enemy and attacking from afar to help Saber and Rider out. With any luck they shouldn't have much issue. But… in the mean time, I'm going to need you to do a favor for me."

The last Makiri tilted her head to the side in confusion. "A favor? Sure, but what could I possibly help you out with in this war? You've been on top of everything and practically steering the entire war since the very beginning fairly well on your own so far."

The other Master grimaced at her statement, knowing its veracity despite the admitted unpleasantness. This made him feel like Kirei every time he considered it. "That may have been the case before, but with Luvia forcing my hand and the priest knowing I'm up to something, I'm going to have to kick things up a notch in order to keep it that way. I'm not so foolish to believe I can do all of this alone, no matter how much trouble everyone says I get myself into."

"Irregular events such as this occur that often around you? I suspected no such thing," Saber lazily leered at her Master. "Rider. Do you believe this outlandish tale?"

Rider's lips twitched again in amusement. "It is not my place to judge Saber. I will simply provide my aid in any way I can."

"Ha ha. Very funny you two. Laugh it up," the Emiya deadpanned before regaining composure and turning to Sakura. "To be blunt Sakura, you're really not going to like it, and that's understating it. Unfortunately I really can't think of anyone else better for the job than you and I need your help on this one."

The Matou frowned for a moment before letting out a brief laugh of amusement. "Shirou, after all you've just done for me. After everything you've put yourself through for my sake, do you really think that I would deny aiding you with this War?"

"You shouldn't have had to go through with it in the first place Sakura. All I did was-"

"Save me when no one else would," she interrupted him with a firmer tone. "Like it or not, Shirou Emiya, you deserve more than you give yourself credit for, and as the one you have saved I am obligated to determine how much you may or may not deserve as the delivering party. Is that understood?"

"Yes ma'am." Shirou shivered and nodded his head. He could never win against Rin or Sakura in arguments like this whenever they put their feet down. With other people he was always able to muster up at least some steel in his spine to put up a strong argument, but never with those two.

"_It's hard to tell who our real Master is at times." _Both Rider and Saber mused as they watched the pair interact.

"Now then. Since we have come to an agreement, please continue on with what you require of me." Sakura smiled proudly at her victory.

Shirou sobered instantly, and looked away with a grimace. "Don't say I didn't warn you... while the rest of us are fighting tonight, you are going to…"

Brrring. Brrring.

The instructions were interrupted by the cell phone that was in Shirou's pocket. The device was only recently starting to become mainstream due to its relatively high prices and relatively poor reception (not that he had to deal with the latter thanks to Sirius' modifications), but the one Shirou had was strictly for "work" purposes. Only people he trusted with his "work" knew its number.

The problem was that the only people that knew said number also knew he was fighting in the War. That being the case, no one should be calling it unless it was damn important and related to what he was doing.

Grimacing at the unknown factor, but knowing that it could be something extremely important, the teen took the device out of his pocket and put it to his ear. "Hello?"

"I take it you've seen my work on the news," Luvia's voice casually asked from the other side.

Sighing in relief, Shirou allowed himself to relax. If he had been called up by Barthomelloi for another job now of all times he would have had a panic attack. "You underestimate yourself, Luvia. I saw the fire and smoke from here just fine. If anything I'd like to say you two overdid it, but given our targets I can't say that for certain."

"Humph. Even after all the effort I went through last night for your sake you are still uncertain of your plans? How you managed to last this long as Barthomelloi's dog I will never know," the foreigner mocked with a hint of pity.

"No plan survives the enemy, Luvia." The Emiya sighed, still seeing that his former friend was still in a poor mood.

"Well you certainly fooled me with the way this War has been going." He could practically feel her sarcasm.

There was a brief pause as Shirou gathered his thoughts and pretended to ignore the eyes on him. "… Why did you call me? It wasn't to simply confirm the obvious. Whatever your feelings for me are right now, you know I'm not sloppy or careless when it comes to things like this."

There was a brief pause on the other side. "… Why haven't you brought Tohsaka into this debacle of yours? Or at least that Enforcer woman? I know you are trying to maintain your illusion of abiding by the rules, but even you can't deny that the Priest is aware that you are up to something now after his announcement last night.

"If you delay any further, that irrational girl may do something foolish out of spite. You know better than I what she is like when people withhold too much from her without a suitable reason. Even worse, what would happen if she suspects that you are up to something on her own. She would no doubt act on her partial assumptions and disrupt everything you've worked on."

Shirou grimaced at Luvia's question and admitted she had a point. Keeping secrets from Rin was one of the fastest ways to get on her shit list, and boy was he ever holding back from her this time.

"You don't have to remind me of that. Remember, until recently I had to keep this from everyone until Zouken was dealt with. You got involved out of sheer happenstance, and even then I had to take precautions to ensure that no one suspected it. As for right now, I don't want to risk prompting everyone to move against me at once, or you for that matter. Two Servants working together at once is believable, but three for an extended period of time will raise red flags everywhere. That's why I didn't participate in last night's events. It would have drawn unwanted extra attention to the both of us."

Luvia conceded to that. A formation of Saber, Rider, and her Caster would certainly cause most if not all of the other participants in the War to focus on them in particular. Their varied skills combined would make them horrifically effective at all ranges of combat, and would no doubt cause others to act in ways that would not benefit anyone in the long run. True they may have been able to take out the pair on the mountain that way, but then they would be stuck dealing with everyone else being wary of them and slowing down their attempts to team up for the real enemy.

He sighed and ran his free hand through his hair. "But you're right about Rin and Bazett-nee. I really should tell them about this before things have a chance to get out of hand again. I'll do it tomorrow regardless of what happens. Hopefully Rin won't curse the hell out of me if I speak fast enough."

"Somehow I doubt that's possible," Luvia dryly retorted, recalling how close she was to doing that exact action when she found out about the Emiya's machinations, before she paused to think of something. "You really don't trust her Servant do you?"

"He's the biggest unknown to me in this War other than Assassin," Shirou blankly stated. "I've gathered enough info to confirm he's the one that dad foresaw, and I think that he's told Saber who he is in the letter he made for her. Unfortunately for some reason, she won't say anything yet, but I can tell she's as wary of him as I am."

"Your Servant knows who Archer is but she hasn't told you?" the blonde asked incredulously.

"Yeah. Don't ask why cause I don't. Even she isn't too sure what to do about it. What dad said though, about him being my greatest ally or enemy really has me spooked. He wouldn't say something like that unless he was certain about it, and that means that Archer's either very powerful or he's better at getting what he wants than most think. Regardless, at this point I don't want to deal with any unknown factors if I have the option to avoid them. Not when there's so little time to work with…"

"So you really are going tonight," the blonde on the other end stated almost gravely.

"I promised you I would. It is my fault that things have come to this after all," he said simply. "It's only natural that I fix the problems that I made."

There was a brief sound made that he couldn't make out exactly before Luvia spoke again. "… Idiot. Just make sure that Marjatta gets back alive. In one piece is debatable, since she is as much to blame as you for not reigning in that annoyance of a Servant."

Shirou couldn't help but laugh dryly at her statement. "I'll see what I can do. I'm still a bit inexperienced to the whole rescue business if you haven't noticed."

"Be that as it may, your track record is so far one for one. Do keep that impeccable efficiency, will you?"

"Yes ma'am. If that's all…"

"… Shirou." Luvia spoke up just as he was about to turn the phone off.

"Hm? Yes? What is it?"

There was a moment of hesitation before the European decided on what to say. "… Be careful. There was some commotion on the Mountain that wasn't caused by my Caster last night. Assassin didn't blow up the top of another building last night because of me. There haven't been any reports of any of the other Servant's dying, and if Assassin was supposedly in such a dire position as you claim he should be after I set fire to the mountain…"

Other than being the moderator of the War and masking any evidence of it, the Moderator had several other responsibilities as well. One of which was to announce the demise of any of the Servants to the other participants within a reasonable timeframe to prevent unnecessary collateral from taking place. The Tohsaka family had to rebuild their house after the second war due to that overlooked mistake. Normally such information would be declared by the following morning of the event.

As of the moment, it was close to noon.

"… I thought things were going too well," Shirou spoke in a significantly colder tone, piecing together why Luvia brought up his lack of communication with the other Masters. "Any idea who it was?"

"I left when I thought enough damage had been done. With you and me out of the way, that only leaves Archer, Lancer or Berserker as the culprits." The blonde replied. "It could have been any one of the three… four if you count that leftover from the last war that you are so terrified of."

"Not Berserker," the Emiya stated right off the bat. "He's too wild and powerful to go there without someone getting killed, especially after you cleaned up the battlefield. Assassin's good, but his style wouldn't delay Berserker long enough to let Caster use Rule Breaker on him or Illya. Gilgamesh would be the same. That just leaves Archer and Lancer…"

"There is a chance that whoever attacked escaped afterwards." It was possible after all. They were talking about Servants after all, and the battleground was far from ideal for anyone to fight in save for the Princess and maybe Berserker.

"Maybe… but in order to stage a solid attack on either Assassin or Caster after the fire started, they would have to at least get to the entrance itself if not inside Caster's workshop. If that's the case, the likelihood of both sides coming out alive afterwards is not good, but that's what apparently happened…" The situation was starting to get grimmer from the Emiya's perspective. "I don't like this. Have you heard from Rin or Bazett-nee today?"

"Oh certainly." Luvia's sarcastic tone was not comforting. "Why what else would I do with my enemies in this sham of a war in between battles other than casually talk about ambiguous topics?"

"A simple no would have sufficed." Shirou pinched the bridge of his nose, feeling a headache come to join the aching his body still had from Saber trashing it. "Damn it. Lancer's good enough to fight on par with Saber if he goes all out, and Archer's still a wild card…"

"Having second thoughts about tonight already?" Luvia skeptically asked.

"No. If anything, tonight might be the best shot we have to turn the situation. I'll try to see if I can find them and in the mean time plan for a worst case scenario. How good is the Princess' sensory capabilities?"

"Good enough that we might as well have had a front row seat of your encounter with Berserker," Luvia dryly answered. "Unfortunately her counterpart has already erected a bounded field that prevents my Servant from looking into her operations."

"I thought as much. I need you on hand when I make my move. I made a mistake of assuming that no one would try to capitalize on the opening you made before me. I need to make sure that doesn't happen again tonight and get the drop on everyone."

"I suppose I could do you with this one last favor." Luvia sighed aridly as if she was the one with the power.

"Thank you. Please let me know if anything comes up. I'll call tonight before we start."

"Of course you will. It is only sensible considering the circumstances," the blonde mused, though Shirou could tell that it was a half hearted comment at best. "… Do try not to get yourself killed, Emiya. I'm not the only one you have to answer to when everything is set and done."

"Hmph. No need to tell me that. My brilliant plans have always ended with me in a seiza begging everyone for forgiveness," Shirou laughed dryly.

"Oh I think you'll have to do better than that this time Emiya." Luvia's tone regained some of the mirth it had been missing ever since Shirou had revealed his machinations. "Until then."

Shirou looked at the disconnected phone with a dry smile as he took it away from his head. Even though he had not known Luvia as long as Rin or Sakura, he still liked to believe that they could trust one another. Hopefully when everything was set and done they could return to the way things were, but a feeling in his stomach made him feel that it wasn't likely.

"I take it things will not go as smoothly as we had hoped," Saber dryly stated, her face an emotionless mask much like Rider's.

"And thus it should be completely within our expectations." Her Master turned around, his face even and calm. "Our approach will be different, but ultimately the same."

"So my supposed task has not changed then." Sakura frowned slightly.

"If anything, its significance has only become greater." Shirou held out his hand and instantly pulled out a piece from his ever growing library. "And this is the tool that will help you survive it."

o. o. o.

Edlefelt Mannor:

"So then, I suppose that is enough suitable proof to support my claims." The European sighed as she put away the phone in front of Rin.

"I still find it hard to believe that he managed to hide this from everyone." The Tohsaka scowled as she contemplated what she just learned. "This is the same Shirou that can't lie his way out of a paper bag for heaven's sake."

"One does not have to lie about a subject so long as it does not come up in the first place," Caster pointed out the obvious. "It was not as though either of you were aware of the War's coming for long."

"Yes, but he did. And he didn't even bother asking us for help!" Rin snapped. "We could have avoided so much if he just bothered to let something slip conveniently!"

"A fool's errand." Luvia would have rolled her eyes, but her self-control prevented it at the last moment. "I had laid eyes on Zouken but once, and that was enough to determine that raising his suspicions would be akin to suicide. Gaining the priest's attention would fare just as poorly."

"Humph. Out of all the things you've told me, Kirei's part in everything is the thing I have the least trouble believing."

"For once I cannot disagree with you." Luvia stared at her decorated ceiling, clearly comprehending something else. "He certainly is a fool."

"That's what I've been telling you since we met," Rin snorted. "Only Shirou would try to do something as absurd like this by himself."

"He won't take Assassin's identity very well."

"Which is why we conveniently didn't tell him. It would make him be too soft handed if he knew beforehand. Shirou knows enough about how he fights that our oversight won't impact how he approaches things, and hopefully by then the Witch will be dealt with. Assassin is injured regardless, so the bitch will be forced to come out and handle things herself."

"And the Origin Bullets?" Luvia frowned.

Rin paused at that before shaking her head. "He'd use normal guns against Shirou. The Origin Bullets are best used against opponents using as much power at once and with big targets. Shirou can't use his Reality Marble completely, so it would be hard to force him to do something that would be an easy target when the normal guns are faster and more efficient."

Slam!

Luvia hammered a hand onto the table in frustration. "Are you even concerned at all about what is going to happen!? What this war has dissolved into and what should become of everyone should Emiya not succeed tonight?!"

Rin's frowned but did not lose her composure. "Of course I am. I'm pissed as hell that he's doing all of this behind my back, but I at least understand his reasons and why he's being an idiot about it. I've known him long enough to figure out how his mind works to a certain extent. I also know firsthand how capable he can be if his anger is triggered. No. I'm certain he will survive, even if you didn't slip that Lancer is now under Caster's command in your conversation."

Luvia didn't bother to point out that her sister's life was on the line. Despite her grievances, she was not so foolish as to risk her family's life on some petty grudge.

An image of a man impaled by countless weapons on a hill flashed through Rin's mind. His small but genuinely happy smile nearly caused her stomach to rebel on itself.

"When he does survive, and he tells me everything himself, I will go to his house. I will knock on his door. I will make him confirm everything he has said to my face. And then I will beat the living shit out of him until he will swear to me that he will NEVER do something so asinine like this without my help EVER AGAIN."

Caster silently contemplated the ferocity of the girl's statement. She was certainly angry yes, but the Servant couldn't help but notice a spark of fear in her speech as well. She was clearly afraid of something regarding the boy. Whether it was fear of him, or fear of what he could do she was not certain, but the Princess did not dwell on it. It was not her issue.

"And what of your own Servant?" Luvia mused. "What of the Shirou that we have on hand already? If Kiritsugu did indeed witness the Heroic Spirit Shirou Emiya summoned by you, that begs the question, why the warnings? Certainly having a more experienced version of himself would be a boon to clearing up this debacle…"

"However the Senior clearly stated that he would be the boy's potential greatest ally or enemy." Caster closed her eyes in thought. "Perhaps Archer had performed some action in the past that he desires his former self to not accomplish?"

"If that was the case, why not simply tell us?" Rin rubbed her temples in frustration. "It has to be more serious than that or Kiritsugu would not have put so much effort into the warning."

Luvia turned to her Servant. "Caster. What can you tell us about Emiya's legend? Perhaps we can get a clue from that."

The Greek sighed and was about to speak… before she paused and frowned.

"Well?" Rin rose an eyebrow. "I am aware that he is not the most appealing individual to us at the moment…"

"That's not it." Caster narrowed her eyes in concentration. "I… I don't seem to recall ever coming across Emiya's legend in the Throne."

Luvia blinked in confusion. "Never coming across his legend? But how? Even if you've forgotten his exploits, all Servants should at least be familiar with the names of all other Heroic spirits. It would be all but impossible for a Servant to be unidentifiable once their name is known."

"It is as I claim Master." Caster sorted through the countless names that she knew had made it to the Throne. "Shirou Emiya… does not possess a legend."

"Of course it wouldn't be that easy," Rin muttered under her breath before thinking of another approach. "Ok then. What about Kiritsugu's? You confirmed that he does have a legend, right? Then what does it say about his son?"

The Servant paused before reciting what was generally known about the Magus Killer. "After his painful ordeals and realizing the ultimate folly of his path, the Hero of Sacrifice was left broken in both mind and body. His only saving grace was the broken boy he had both damned and rescued from his greatest mistake…"

Luvia pretended that she was not leaning forward in interest. "Go on."

"The boy he took in had significant potential to do a great many things, or be nothing at all. Despite what his savior had done though, the boy had agreed to inherit the man's dreams on his deathbed." The Servant paused hesitantly. "In doing so, unknowingly condemning the selfless child to his impossible ideal of providing salvation to as many as possible… travelling farther down the road of self damnation in the guise of martyrdom than even his father dared to go… which he adhered to even beyond death…"

Luvia barely noted her own unnerved appearance as she took in the unstable appearance of her Servant and Rin. "Caster? What is it? What did you figure out?"

"A heroic spirit with no Legend, and eternally works for the salvation of as many as possible…" Caster gravely mused as she realized what Archer was. "Even after all he has done, even I would not condemn him to such a fate…"

"No…" Rin held her arms as she too figured out what her Servant was. The gentle smile of a dead man echoed fiercely in her skull. "No. No. No. No. No. No. He can't be. He shouldn't be. I… I should have been able to stop him… I swore that I would keep him down before he would do something that ridiculous… but… but this?! He went that far?! How?! How did it happen?!"

Two words rang through Rin's head. Two words that identified and condemned her Servant. Two words that would no doubt haunt her mind long after the talking would finish.

Counter Guardian.

o. o. o.

Omake:

Kirei's various excuses for the fire on the Mountain:

Shirou walked into the living room and yawned. "Man, and here I thought Sakura would be less in heat after the worms were gone."

Walking to the couch, he picked up the remote. "Well, lets see how Luvia did…"

Bzzt.

"We are still waiting for more information about the rogue meteor that hit Mount Enzou…"

Bzzt.

"No terrorist cell has yet to take credit for the tremendous fire that-"

Bzzt.

"Authorities believe that a massive natural gas pocket-"

Bzzt.

"Who would cross the bridge of death must answer me these questions three. Dare the other side he see."

"Uh oh."

"What is your name?"

Bzzt.

"Hope Saber didn't see that."

"We believe that the fire was started by an undetonated bomb from World War Two…"

Bzzt.

"We believe the cause of the fire was a discarded bag of Mapou Tofu…"

"The hell?"

Bzzt.

"Ninjas."

Bzzt.

"A mad streaking pyromaniac has been sighted…"

Bzzt.

"It's a war man! With like, heroes summoned from the dead that would totally *beep* us all if they wanted to!"

"Didn't think the priest also used refuge in audacity."

"And this has been the morning news on Fox."

"… Damn he's good. Wait, since when did Fox cover local Japanese news?"

"I see that Caster has done as you have requested." Rider spoke from behind Shirou, having snuck… walked, yes, walked over there when he was focused on the television.

"Gah!" The Emiya jumped around to face his other servant. "Rider! Don't do that!"

The beautiful servant looked around her Master to see the television. "May I?"

The incarnation blinked in confusion a few times before realizing what she was asking. "Oh uh… sure. Go ahead."

Bzzt.

"What is the average high speed velocity of a swallow?"

"… You did that on purpose."

o. o. o.

A/N:

I'm ALIIIIIVVVVEEEE!

So a brief list of what I've been through since the last chapter:

I've moved to florida.

Started my job.

Looked for apartments.

Looked at more apartments.

Moved again.

Put my two dollar bedframe together.

Raged because one of the main parts of the bedframe among the things lost by the moving company.

Studied my ass off.

Did midterms (and homework).

Had my car shipped here.

Got lost several times around Jacksonville (Largest city in terms of land space in the U.S.)

Met up with CodenameBolt, who ensured that I would get less lost here. Cool guy.

Had half my stuff shipped here.

Still looking for the other half of my stuff that the moving company lost… Assholes.

Got my games.

Saw the Lego Movie.

Got bravely default.

Got Dark Souls 2.

AND typed this chapter, which I might add has been fighting me the entire way.

So yeah. Kinda tired.

Thanks Wayfarer for editing and putting up with this thing.

There were a ton of ways this chapter could have turned out given how the last one ended. The problem was that since Rin lived and was bombarded with new information, writing out ANY scene with her was going to be a PAIN since she is SMART, and as such could figure out a good deal more from what she had learned.

The problem was that she had learned SO much that deciding on what to focus on in conversation without making the story repeat on itself for the hundredth time is damn near impossible, so I had to be careful with her scenes.

I'm just saying it now. I don't like this chapter. It leads to many things that I am VERY eager to get to, but this chapter in particular is like that disliked family member that pops up at reunions to me. You have to tolerate him.

I'm definitely going to be faster with the next chap since I know exactly (for the most part) what's going to happen, and it shall be glorious.

What else… oh yeah. SOPA.

So here's the thing. Normally, I just sit back on things like this. Sure they are a big deal to us, and I do add my name, but in the end I try to avoid political subjects in RL. Too many people are sensitive, and my views are… well I tend to insult a lot of people when it comes to these things with the blunt way I talk. I'm not exactly politically correct on a lot of things.

Reasonable? Yes. Logical? Yes. Good at explaining it in a fluid and soft on the ego manner? Fuck. No.

Back to SOPA though. Like I said, normally I'd just sign it and be done, but since I've gotten so many PM's begging me to add my voice to the damn thing I'll just say it.

SOPA bad. Congress retarded. Fanfic writers unite. Sign the petition. Don't do drugs. Canada was right after all.

About what I don't know, but you know they were right about something important.

So that's it folks. I'm gonna play… and die… some more on Dark Souls 2.

SO REVIEW! WORSHIP THE LOG! RAGE AGAINST THOSE BASTARDS THAT CAN BEAT THE FIRST DARK SOULS IN UNDER AN HOUR! AND REVIEW AGAIN!


	35. Chapter 35

Chapter 35: Conflicts of Interest

I do not own Fate/Stay Night and stuffs.

o. o. o.

The sun had long past set before they had decided to move.

Shirou stood in front of his house calmly dressed in his fieldwork clothes. Dark tan pants. Under armor made from the same material Sirius had made his bow with underneath a blue and black shirt. Combat boots. A belt. Gloves. The Shroud of Martin wrapped around his face. And finally his personal trench coat containing various items that he may find useful during operations that he cannot simply trace.

Virtually every article he was wearing was modified in some way to provide him a solid degree of defense against a physical or mystery based attack, more so to be reinforced by his magic for far greater effect. There had been many cases where his life had been saved during an Apostle or Sealing Designee hunt because of them.

Virtually none of that would be particularly useful should a Servant manage to land even one solid hit on him at half strength. He'd still likely die from such a blow.

In front of him, Saber, Rider, and Sakura were standing at the ready, all geared for what was to come tonight. Sakura, in particular, was wearing a rather dark ensemble consisting of a black short skirt with dark leggings and a deep purple sweater, and even her hair was tied up into a ponytail.

What was most eye-catching about her though, was the backpack she wore…

None of them showed any form of anxiety for what they were going to do. Admittedly, Shirou had somewhat expected Sakura to be a bit uncomfortable. However he guessed that after everything she had been through under Zouken's… care, and more so after what had occurred the last few days, she had become accustomed to the eerie silence before the battle.

They all stared at one another firmly, yet at the same time somehow able to read one another well enough to seemingly hold small silent conversations at the same time.

Shirou was the first to move, turning away from the group as he pulled out his cell phone and hit the speed dial button. The phone rang twice before someone on the other side picked up.

"Hello?" The female voice on the other side asked casually.

"… We're ready on our side." The Emiya's even voice sent minor shivers through Saber's spine. The pitch and accent was different, but it was almost as if she was listening to Kiritsugu speak instead of his son.

There was a brief pause.

"How convenient. Caster had finished crafting her spell not too long ago as well." The individual on the other side mused as if he was the one doing her the favor.

"And the locations I specified?" Shirou didn't bother with small talking. It would break his focus if he did.

"Absolutely nothing of interest from what we can tell." The accompanied sigh was clearly faked. There was no way the owner of the voice would truly be that bored during such an important operation.

"Good." Shirou proceeded to hook the phone up to his belt and connect it to a wire that led to a transceiver on his belt. He then looped a small plastic device onto his ear and tapped the microphone that it held to his mouth. "Testing. Testing."

"I hear you, Emiya." The Edelfelt's voice carried a hint of annoyance. She knew why he was using modern hardware for communication instead of using thaumaturgy. Any form of magical communication near the mountain might as well be flashing in the night sky as far as Caster was concerned. It still didn't mean that she had to be comfortable with it.

The leader of the group flipped a switch on the transmitter. "Sakura?"

"I hear you." The remaining practitioner of the Makiri arts replied through the device that was hanging off of her own ear.

"Are you still on Luvia?"

"As much as I ever will with these cumbersome devices." The blonde sighed.

"Keep verbal communication to a minimum once we are within range. We can't risk any distractions," the only male ordered calmly before turning to Sakura again and held up his open left hand and wiggled his fingers questionably. Around the glove, the Servants could see a small and fragile transparent ring on each finger.

Sakura nodded as she held up her own left hand and revealed that she too had a ring on each finger. "Don't worry, I remember each one."

Shirou gave a shallow nod before turning away from the group… and paused.

"… The moon's almost full tonight…" he muttered out loud, captivated by the orb in the sky. From what he could determine there would barely be any clouds in the way to block it. He gave it another day or two before it reached its full magnificence.

"I didn't know you were such a romantic." Luvia's dry retort was ignored. She was the only one who heard him that didn't know the significance of the statement.

"Shirou… will it be a problem?" Saber frowned, having dealt with Dead Apostles before in her time and knowing how dangerous his condition was.

The only thing heard for almost a full minute was the sound of the nocturnal insects going about their business before the afflicted human shook his head. "No…"

The Shroud of Martin, ever present on his person, slowly moved and altered under its owner's wishes, down on his body before it disappeared under his cloak. His unexpectedly peacefully smiling face revealed for all to see.

"Actually I quite welcome it tonight…"

o. o. o.

"They are going," the King of Rats reported to his master dutifully. "All of them."

"Yes, it does seem about the time they should," Crown mused as he sat on the park bench, staring aimlessly at the moon in the sky and swaying his legs like the child he appeared to be. "… You are uncomfortable."

"Forgive me for being such a disturbance, Master." The Rat may be a part of his host; nonetheless, he was still a separate entity, and furthermore Merem Solomon was a Dead Apostle over a thousand years old. Entities at such rank and power never appreciated being distracted from the moon, especially when it was as close to being full as tonight.

The vampire brushed aside his apologies. "You are my trusted arm. I value your input as it was my own… although I believe I can hazard a guess as to the specifics of your struggle…"

The fake old man nodded. His master truly did know him well. "… Lord Emiya will not succeed in his endeavors tonight."

It was a fact that they both knew to be true. Despite their comrade's impressive efforts and planning, the fact of the matter was that there was far too much that he was not aware of. Had these unknown factors been decreased by even a small margin, the odds of his success would have been comprehensible enough to fall in the realm of possibility…

If he had brought along the Edelfelt girl and her Servant, the situation would be far less grim for their friend, regrettably this was not so.

"No, he won't." Merem nodded. "A shame. He had been doing so well managing the war up until this point."

"The fallout from tonight's events could prove to be concerning," the priest continued. "Far too many players will be participating. Too many… undesired events could occur. Ones that may prove to be irreparable."

"We have already interfered enough as it is," the vampire stated factually. "Any more and we risk drawing too much attention to ourselves, which can easily result in more unwanted attention."

The other Ancestors.

Merem wasn't exactly on good terms with most of them given that he works for the Church in destroying his kind. Even if that wasn't the case, simply hearing rumors that one of the Twenty Seven was interested in the Grail War would turn a good number of heads…

Type Moon forbid they ever learn that the Ash of Miracles was involved as well… even if it would be rather amusing to see his fellow Apostles looking around blindly for a mystery person who doesn't even know his own identity.

No. One powderkeg event at a time, Solomon. We don't want to overextend ourselves before the Dark Six ritual in a few years…

"I was not thinking of interfering Master," the royal rodent argued. "Merely that we provide a form of... damage control... as it were. The situation regarding the younger Edelfelt is after all rather… volatile."

"Hmmmm." The childish Ancestor's pout would be quite amusing to those that didn't know what he was and what he was thinking about. "You make a fair point. We can't risk the girl's condition given what it is."

The one armed boy got off the bench and brushed off the dust on his clothes. "Very well. You best hurry to where you believe you should be. It won't be long before Shirou makes it to the temple."

The priest's stature relaxed greatly, as if a great worry had been relieved from his shoulders. "By your leave then, Master."

Crown did not once look away from the moon as his animate limb transformed into a small white rat that vanished into the darkness. His left arm was a rather predictable little demon to those who knew him well. The little rat was unquestionably loyal to those who had earned his trust and friendship…

Counting Merem and Shirou… he now had two people that fell into that category. Ah… no, four if you included those rather innocent Banshee girls…

It was because of that that Merem didn't even have to say anything to guide his most useful appendage to where he was heading now.

"It is a rather good moon out…" the child like immortal mused out loud. "… I suppose that is one positive thing that came out of tonight…"

o. o. o.

Luvia, Rin, and Caster sat comfortably in the observation room that had been set up by both Casters before the betrayal. The Masters were sitting in the obviously expensive and comfortable chairs that Luvia had set up in it earlier while the Servant hovered over her creation. She occasionally muttered an ancient word or two in order to adjust the projected image of Shirou's group making their way through the city and of the temple grounds themselves.

Rin would have made a comment about Luvia's need to stuff the room with "overpriced mistakes", but she knew better than to start a fight now. Tempers were still running high in the room, and things promised to become even more energetic soon enough.

"He seems to be taking his sweet time." The blonde frowned, glaring at the prematurely greying teen even though it would yield no results.

"Let it go." Rin drank from the complimentary cup of tea that her rival's butler had given her. Enemies or not, there were still certain procedures one went through when hosting guests. True it was a pale imitation of what Shirou could prepare, but it was good nonetheless. "He has plenty of time before midnight."

"Of course you'd be calm. You're not the one who's…" Luvia's counter died in her throat as she turned around to focus on Rin, only to notice that the hand holding the cup was shaking erratically. Not enough to spill the hot liquid it held but more than enough to be noticeable.

The Tohsaka's discovery that her Servant was a Counter Guardian had not left her in a calm state. In fact it had taken Luvia the better part of the afternoon to snap her out of being genuinely hysterical. She had absolutely never seen Rin act in such a way like this to anything before, and it honestly scared her more than she would ever care to admit.

Clearly, there was more to Shirou's apparent… distortion, than she had originally thought.

Archer had obviously felt his Master's distressed state and had rushed over to help her. From his perspective, it wouldn't have been hard to believe that Luvia and Caster had possibly done something to her while he was away…

But no one had really expected Rin to go nearly catatonic the moment he had entered the room and the pair laid eyes on one another.

It had taken a great deal of screaming, pushing, arguing, and threats possibly involving noble phantasms before Luvia finally managed to convince the stubborn Servant that his presence wasn't the best thing for his Master at the moment, and that no, she and Caster wouldn't take the easy way out and kill Rin when he was gone… this time.

She was a Magus. She could only extend her kindness only so far.

At the moment, the lone Servant was sitting on top of the mansion, keeping an eye out for any potential enemies that might come by. The fact that he was extremely confused and frustrated about his situation only seemed to bring a grim satisfaction to Caster and Luvia, who thought it was almost poetic justice for the Emiya, (or at least the agreed upon more annoying version of Emiya) to finally get a taste of his own medicine.

Rin's eyes were swollen and her face was a few shades paler than her normal complexion allowed. However, the Tohsaka either didn't seem to notice it or was doing an admirable job of pretending that she didn't look like a wreck. Regardless it didn't change the fact that she had not once taken her eyes off of the projection screen the moment Shirou's image had appeared.

"… You know, I believe this is the first time I'll be seeing it," Rin mused out loud, breaking the uncomfortable silence in the room.

"The first time seeing what?" Caster allowed her confusion to be seen by the others. They were on the job now. Hiding emotions could cause miscommunication at the worst times in a situation like this.

"Shirou when he's on the job." Rin didn't blink as she drank from her unstable tea cup. "I've trained and taught him a good portion of what he knows over the years, but I have never seen him move with that much confidence before. The closest to this was the night we dealt with Louvre, and we were all pretty much nervous wrecks for a good number of reasons when we left. Now though…"

"It was the opposite for me." Luvia watched Shirou's image casually walking down the road to the temple, his eyes darting left and right, no doubt structurally grasping everything he saw. No matter how many times she saw him do it, she was honestly astounded by how fast he could analyze virtually anything he laid his eyes on. Swords of course were a given; however, she had on occasion seen him completely determine the nature and mechanics mysteries of several magi before they could finish their first aria.

Granted, this applied mostly to mysteries that required physical conduits to perform the bulk of their tasks; nonetheless, it was still an exceptional feat to claim.

"When I first met him in the Clocktower, he was all business. No doubt that was your work. I doubt that McGinty and Lord El Melloi would have managed to do that much on their own." Luvia continued. "Imagine my surprise when I first saw him gushing over cook books in his spare time."

"Something tells me the biggest shock was when you first found out he can cook like a pro." Rin snorted. "… That or that he's actually a decent human being unlike every other magus on the planet."

"The latter so far is up for debate given recent circumstances." Luvia's counterargument was not unwarranted given how much trouble anyone bearing the Emiya name has given them… and pretty much everyone else in the war really, themselves included.

Rin's dry scoff was the only response her host received before they returned to focus on the projection. No, she was too absorbed into what was in front of her to simply be focused…

"_She's trying to distract herself__,__" _Caster communicated with her Master telepathically. _"I believe she is looking for something in tonight's events that will contradict what we know about Archer."_

Luvia couldn't help but be disappointed in Rin. She had expected the girl she had unofficially decided to be her rival in all things to be strong enough to ever fall into such a state. However she apparently had been mistaken. _"Just leave her be Caster. While we may have overestimated her, she is still at least competent enough to be of some use."_

"I still don't get it…" Rin muttered, distracting the pair from their musings.

"What don't you understand?" The other master frowned. Anything regarding Archer was out the window since even looking at him caused the Tohsaka to completely lose any stability she had, so the only other relevant subject the girl was concentrating on was the image in front of her.

"Sakura." The native's eyes took in her sister's image with scrutiny, her hands stabilizing as its owner's mind honed in on a mystery that didn't unnerve her. "There's no point in her coming if all they're going to do is fight. Her powers are affective against spirits and Servants, but she's not strong enough to actually be of any use against any of them. She'd be close enough to supply Rider with more prana, but at risk of exposing herself to danger… Shirou..." She momentarily flinched. "He would never allow her to come if it was for such a simple reason as that…"

"He's going to use her for something." Caster frowned, already seeing that the Makiri's purpose was going to be irregular in tonight's events.

"It appears not even Sakura is untouched by the Magus Killer's machinations." Luvia eyed Sakura's backpack, speculating the contents…

… When the group stopped moving.

"Luvia. Caster." Shirou spoke through his mouthpiece, transmitting his voice to the speaker set up in the room. "We should be near the range of the Witch's sensory capabilities, correct?"

The pair in the building blinked in confusion for but a moment, before recalling that Shirou wanted to know before he was within the enemy's range. The group was still nearly four miles away from the temple, but for a servant like Caster sensing another Servant over such a distance was well within the range of believable.

It took only a brief moment for the Princess to confirm the Magus Killer's question. "Yes. That is correct Emiya."

Shirou nodded to the Servant more than ten miles away from him before turning to Sakura and Rider. Without any further instructions, the Servant instantly became intangible while the Master looked worriedly at her lover, hesitating for a good few moments before rushing a quick kiss on his cheek.

"Be careful," she all but whispered to him before quickly turning around and running down an adjacent street away from Shirou and Saber.

The Emiya momentarily looked surprised by the action. However, his expression grew darker the further the girl's image became. "Idiot. I'm the one that should be worried…"

"Is there anything you might want to tell us lovely viewers?" Luvia's mocking voice asked over the ear piece.

Shirou remained silent as Sakura vanished into the darkness, blocked off by both people that didn't have the sense to stay inside, and the random vehicles that occupied the roads. "… Nothing that you probably didn't suspect of me already, Luvia."

There was a moment of silence between the two parties before Luvia broke it again. "We won't be able to come and help you if you get into trouble."

"So long as you keep an eye out for me, I won't ask anything else from you." Shirou began to resume his walk to the temple, followed shortly by Saber. "I don't have any right to ask you of anything else."

"Be that as it may, you are not the only one with important assets at stake tonight." The blonde hummed as if she did not fall into that category. "In case you had not been successful, I did happen to hear from Tohsaka earlier. She is as annoying as normal. However, both she and her Servant are around, regrettably."

"Keep talking Edelfelt," Rin growled. "It'll just make kicking you off of my land feel so much sweeter when this is all done."

"Is that so?" Shirou allowed himself to breathe out in relief. "I couldn't get into contact with her earlier…" There was a pause as his expression darkened significantly. "… Actually I couldn't get into contact with Bazett-nee either…"

"You were rather close to her…" She didn't bother to be careful with her words. Even if she knew that Caster was controlling the woman via her magic, the odds of the Fraga still being alive now were not pleasant. Given what she knew of the Witch, it was probably better for everyone if the Enforcer was dead.

"She's like a sister to me," he admitted without shame. "There's no proof that she is dead yet. She's strong, and Caster is anything if not resourceful and greedy. She'd probably keep Bazett-nee alive to try and reproduce Fragarach if at all possible."

"The disturbing thing is that he has a point," the Princess agreed with his theory, silently commending how quickly he came to that conclusion.

On the other hand, Rin knew that it was simply how his mind worked. Unless he was given blunt information that someone he was latched onto was truly gone or without hope, he would instinctively reach out for other potential routes the enemy could have taken as if grasping at straws. He'd still acknowledge the _possibility_ of the situation being lost, but he would outwardly deny it until he had irrefutable proof that it was so.

"Ignoring your unusual attraction towards female siblings and their stand-in's, this does increase the odds of you encountering Lancer tonight," Luvia pointed out, knowing damn well that said odds were essentially a hundred percent at the moment.

"… Better one than both at least." The Emiya's logic was sound despite the nature of the subject. "As it stands, if we are just battling with Servants, it shouldn't interfere with everything too much…"

The two girls and the Servant looked at one another skeptically. Did Shirou honestly just claim that going up against a _third _Servant was not a big deal?

"You truly are one absurd individual Emiya." Luvia shook her head with a dry smile on her face.

"I work for Barthomelloi hunting down Apostles, by myself in some cases." Shirou chuckled, no doubt trying to calm down from learning of Bazett's current situation. "And now I'm trying to manipulate a secret war while preventing at least three different cataclysms from occurring. I believe most people would have a good deal more to say about me by this point."

"I said my fair share a while ago." Luvia's voice echoed through the speaker, sounding far more tired than a girl her age should have. "Bring her back, Shirou."

The Emiya didn't say anything as he muted the line. He told Luvia that he would bring Marjatta back, and he intended to do so…

… But he was not an idiot. He knew that given Caster's personality, it may be better for everyone if he delivered a body back instead. He recalled some of the "bad ends" that his father had recorded involving Caster… and sincerely hoped that he would not encounter such a case tonight.

"You're a good man," Saber stated, knowing full well what Shirou was thinking.

"So was dad." Shirou's response held significant weight for the both of them, both in its meaning and in the reason behind it.

"… By my judgment, you hold a significant position over him." Saber held her head up high as she made her declaration and crossed her arms. "Unlike you, I could not tolerate working with Kiritsugu."

The Emiya couldn't help but snort in amusement. Even he didn't expect Saber to lighten up the mood in such a way. "Well then. I hope I can redeem your faith in working with the Assassins of Emiya."

His partner gave him a wry look. "At the very least, no one can deny your competency."

"I'm honored." Shirou's grin widened, allowing his Servant's passive insult go with ease. "I must be the first Assassin that the King of Knights has ever praised without misgivings."

"Keep persisting making light of my statements and I will be more than glad to show you how I normally treat your ilk in my presence."

The pair continued to trade vague insults back and forth as such until they were a half a mile from the temple…

Because Saber couldn't go spiritual, she would essentially be a walking beacon for any Servant with a high sensitivity. Stealth was near pointless against this sort of opponent with this setup, so he had Rider and Sakura split up from them before they got within range.

Saber would be the shining light of war and destruction on the battlefield, and he would be the ominous shadow in her silhouette.

Just like everyone expected…

Just like he wanted…

o. o. o.

It took her a good forty five minutes to get to position.

Half an hour to get to the building. Another fifteen to get to the bloody top.

"Hah. Hah. Man, couldn't they have made the elevator go to the roof?"

The service elevator did. Unfortunately only maintenance had the means to use it, so she had to climb the last ten flights on foot with her heavy load on her back.

Thankfully this was an office building, so she didn't encounter anyone there. As for any locked doors she encountered… well her special brand of "magic" could get her through most of them pretty easily.

She opened the door to the roof and winced as the high elevation cross breezes whipped at her face. She hated this feeling.

"Ugh. Why does it have to be so cold up here?"

Her complaints were drowned in the wind, not as if she had expected anyone to hear her. She had left her group down in the streets after all. They had their jobs and she had hers.

She took off her backpack and unloaded the contents. Heavy metal objects quickly fitted together in her hands, the results of being familiar with the process and a good deal of practice. One of the last things she set up was a convenient folding camping chair, the kind found in any department store if anyone bothered to look. Odds were likely she'd be here for a while, so she might as well be somewhat comfortable.

She nearly lost it when the wind gusted, almost tossing the light plastic furniture over the edge.

This secret war that had been tearing up the area was doing nothing but giving her headaches. Property damage. Murders. And enough fires to make people think that there was a pyromaniac convention in the city.

She knew tonight was a big night. It would be the deciding factor for a good many things that she could barely follow, and so she was aware that her part in everything could be essential to a reasonable conclusion for this.

"I've put my faith into you for this long, Shirou." She muttered as she set herself up while trying to retain her body heat. "Let's see what you can really do."

Several seconds passed as she sat on the roof and stared at the mountainside.

"… Damn it. I forgot to bring the coffee thermos again."

o. o. o.

Caster frowned as she felt Saber approach the temple. She had encountered the Servant of the Sword only once in person, but she would never forget the feel of such a unique existence. To her only Berserker's monstrous presence stood out more.

"She isn't even trying to hide herself…" the Witch muttered as she extended her senses. Come to think of it, there had yet been a moment when Saber had actually astrialized in all the time she had been spying upon her enemies. Was it a personal preference, or perhaps a desire of her Master? Regardless it was a rather reckless decision that wasted prana and a means of concealment. Had she not done such a foolish thing, Caster would have taken far longer to detect the oncoming Servant.

Speaking of annoying individuals, Saber's Master seemed to be travelling with her. Neither seeming to be making much haste towards their location.

"How conceited." She wasn't fooled by this ruse. The boy must think of her to be a fool if he believed that she would fall such a simple slight.

Expanding her gaze further, the descendant of Helios scanned the nearby city until she found what she was looking for. "Ah, there you are my friend…"

Approaching the mountain from the south, Rider in her spiritual form was making far greater time than her allies. Her efforts on remaining undetectable were commendable. However, she was no Assassin, and Caster had the greatest sensory capabilities of all the seven classes.

"So the boy wishes for Saber to be the distraction…" Caster mused as she looked further for any additional Servants, only to find none. She did not bother with the Masters. Save for Lancer's and Saber's Masters, the rest were inconsequential and posed no threat to her. Rider's and Berserker's were without a doubt _interesting_, but her focus now rested on the oncoming threats. Saber was the greatest threat to her out of all the Servants save Berserker, and Rider was if anything a tricky opponent if pushed too far.

Besides, Saber was the greatest potential prize out of all of them regardless.

Initially, the idea of sending out both Servants under her control to deal with the opposition was the correct one, but then the Witch almost instantly discarded it. Both of her Servants had every reason to have her killed, and she wouldn't be surprised if they let one or both of the oncoming threats through to the temple, where she would essentially be boxed in. Plus, Assassin's Tools of the Trade had yet to reset, not to mention that he was still recovering a great deal from the previous night's battle, so sending out to direct combat was the same as simply throwing him away without getting anything in return…

As powerful as she was here in her Temple, even she had to admit that facing down either Saber or Rider alone, with their high ranking Magic Resistance, was not a pleasant idea.

Luring them all in was also a poor decision. As stated before, nearly every other Servant there wanted her gone for one reason or another. True she had her… insurance, should the enemy gain too much ground, but she would prefer to keep that card hidden unless absolutely needed. Additionally, it would be far too easy for one of her "allies" to have an "accident" resulting in her death in such a commotion.

She could already hear Lancer claiming that him stabbing her in the heart with Gae Bolg's activated ability was a simple mistake. Annoying dog. As for Assassin… oh who was she kidding? He'd shoot her in the back the first opportunity he'd get if he could overcome her orders.

So then, her most reasonable option was for Lancer to provide the front guard while Assassin provided support from the entrance so the Irishman wouldn't get overwhelmed. Should one of the intruders manage to get within the Temple, then Lancer would be able to hold off one and she would face the other with support. With one enemy to focus on, she could keep a closer eye on her difficult to manage Servant. Much better odds all things considered…

Unless of course… the enemy had already had been counting on it.

o. o. o.

Saber stood at the ready in front of her Master, who had one eye closed as he finished his spell. The pair was standing behind a building just before the mountain so that Assassin couldn't just snipe either of them from the get go.

Save for one nearby building that had some explosives littering its top, Shirou had verified that there had been no traps in the urban bordering. From the brief scans he made of the mountain, the few traps that had survived the inferno would pose no issue to his Servant as they were in awkward positions that he didn't see any Servant battle taking pace in.

"Done." Shirou nodded as he stepped back from his partner. _"Rider, are you in position?"_

"_I await your order, Master__,__" _Medusa replied, missing the fact that she had referred to Shirou as her Master without any hesitation.

The Second Magus Killer pressed a button on his transceiver. "Sakura. Are you ready?"

"… All I need is your signal," the girl's soft but firm voice rasped from the electronic device after a few moments. Shirou didn't give it any mind. The girl wasn't as bad as Rin, but she was still a bit clumsy when it came to learning how to use new gadgets.

"Good. From here on out we go silent. Don't do anything until you get the go," he ordered sternly.

The lack of a response caused him to momentarily smirk. Sakura, like Rin, caught onto things damn fast when they wanted to.

"Luvia. Anything?" he asked, pressing another button.

"Nothing major has changed in the general areas. However we can tell that one Servant is waiting halfway up the entrance," the Edelfelt replied.

"It seems as though you've inherited Kiritsugu's eye for reading the enemy," Saber dryly stated.

"Was that another compliment, oh mighty King of Knights?" Shirou smirked.

"Watch your tongue knave." The King didn't bother to hide her amusement as she approached the edge of the building, invisible sword in hand. "You have yet to earn such the right to wave it so carelessly in my presence."

The Magus Killer shook his head, chuckling for a few moments as he leaned against the office building with his eyes closed.

"… Start."

Saber shot out from the city to the Mountain like a silver and blue bullet, easily moving faster than the human eye could follow. Within less than two seconds of the command she had already started up the incline to the Temple, ignoring the devastation of the previous night consisting of tons of ash and corpses of trees to either side of her. Despite the flames finally being quelled early that afternoon, there were a good number of trails of smoke lazily escaping the battlegrounds like apathetic serpents. The scent of burnt wood had pervaded miles into the city, so the only real difference in smell was the intensity of the sensation once she reached the origin, which was strong enough that she might as well have stuck her head into a recently used fireplace. Every powerful step she made kicked up small clouds of ash, temporarily making it look as if it was snowing black.

In all reality, she could barely make out the stairs that she was climbing at record speeds, having been coated in so much soot that they were nearly indistinguishable from the rest of her surroundings. Only the occasional cleared out sections used by the firefighting teams earlier that day to battle the blaze, some yellow tape, the general outline of the path, and the distant arch at the top of the mountain indicated otherwise.

Swoosh. CLANG! Thump thump.

Well those, and the fact that Lancer had been standing dead center of the path and not hiding his presence at all.

"One…" Shirou muttered to himself.

"Yo Saber." The Irishman grinned as if nothing was wrong, twirling his cursed spear playfully as both Servants stared one another down on the flat stone walkway between flights. "Fancy meeting you here."

"Lancer…" Her jade eyes narrowed as she gave the demigod a glare before glancing at her surroundings. "Assassin?"

"Who knows?" He shrugged casually. "The Cowardly Bitch made it a point to keep me and Master out of the loop, so that annoying tricky bastard could be anywhere by now. I haven't even been on the inside of the temple yet."

"_So she kept her alive after all…" _Shirou whispered in his Servant's head with the barest hint of relief. _"Caster must be holding her hostage somehow. From the way he worded it, Assassin must be with Caster as well."_

There was a brief pause before Saber made a reply. _"… I'm more surprised and worried that Lancer can do subtle."_

It had been just as he had predicted. Caster may be powerful in her Temple on one of the city's major leylines, but she was a coward and would always go for the extra insurance. Ryudou Temple's natural defenses did serve as an excellent bottleneck to prevent other Servants from coming in, but someone as paranoid as the Witch, not that he could blame her given her situation and opponents, would attempt to play it as safe as possible.

Lancer tightened the bottleneck, while she and Assassin set up shop inside to make fighting in the Temple a living hell for anyone dumb enough to get inside.

FFFP! Swoosh! Clang! Clang! FFFPP!

Before Shirou could even tell what happened, Lancer had charged forward, forcing Saber to engage with him in a battle of weapons that the mere human Master couldn't hope to follow. Lancer's raw and ferocious speed was countered by Saber's skill and prana enhanced physical abilities. This was the second time they had fought, but neither of them were putting in nearly as much effort this time. Lancer was a battle junkie to be sure; however, as brash as he was, even he could pick up on subtleties when needed. His opponent was powerful yes, but she wasn't focused on him, which could only mean that something else was up and she was conserving her strength.

Shirou was still certain that he would be murdered without effort if he got involved in such a clash, but a small part of him was proud in the fact that he could actually follow and read the fight now.

A powerful swing from Saber blocked by the spearman caused him to slide back with a grunt and put a minor lull in the fight, the trail his feet made clearly visible in the ash around them.

"What of Caster's and Assassin's Masters?" Saber frowned, her grip tightening on her blade.

"Beats me. Haven't seen a hair on the annoying kid that summoned her since we first fought at the beginning of the war," the Hound replied as a way of distracting himself from the jolt his arms underwent. Even holding back, Saber's attacks were just unreal. "From what I can tell, the gloomy bastard was summoned by the shrew herself. Command Seals and everything."

"_Damn." _Shirou frowned as he pressed a button. Given what he knew of the younger Edelfelt, it was highly unlikely that she wouldn't appear to gloat like the standard Magus after a major victory such as controlling another Master and Servant. "Sakura, odds are high that something's happened to Marjatta. Be careful."

"Understood."

Lancer charged forward again, swinging his spear that was well over twice the length of Saber's invisible blade like a bat in a crimson arc, carrying with it enough raw force to crush any modern man made weapon like tinfoil…

WHAM!

However what it hit had not been forged by man in the slightest. The Sword of Promised Victory repelled the ferocious attack with as much power as it had encountered without the slightest sign of resistance, causing sparks to fly everywhere, blowing a good deal of soot away in virtually every direction, and knocking Lancer off balance. No matter how fast Lancer was, Saber was simply too strong and skilled for him to defeat without sacrifice or trickery. From his standpoint is was almost akin to trying to find a weak point in a fortress.

Not that he wasn't equipped for the job, but it was still one hell of an endeavor.

Clang! Clang! Clang!

Saber pressed on the attack, forcing her target back with each blow and unable to retreat properly. Lancer was too good to have simply lost his footing and position like this. He had done it on purpose. Both he and Saber were aware of this. Thus the only reasons why he would do such a painfully obvious thing were to either trick someone else there, or to…

Clang! Clang! BANG! Clang!

Give an opening for someone else to move in on.

In the middle of her assault, Saber had instantly sensed the moment Assassin had prepared to snipe her from the entrance of the temple, her Instincts warning her of a setup the moment Lancer put on that purposefully poor show of combat skills.

The sniper round hit her blade with a healthy deal of force before it could bore through her skull as intended. Its power rivaled that of Lancer's previous attack, the shock of the impact echoing through her arms, before being deflected to the side and plowing through several charred logs. It had been nowhere near sufficient to take her down, but it had done more than enough to give the "unbalanced" Lancer enough time to regain his footing and fight on even ground against his opponent again.

"… Two…" Shirou frowned. _"Rider. Go."_

Medusa did not even bother to respond as she instantly materialized and bolted across the mountainside with unmatched speed. Her dark clothes blending into her surroundings so well that the only thing that most could possibly make out was the purple streak of her hair as she blurred by.

Lancer glared back at where Assassin had attacked from. "I know that neither of us are really in the mood to fight one another, but I still fucking hate it when rude assholes interrupt a good…?!"

WHAM!

The Servant of the Spear barely managed to turn and defend in time before Rider seemingly teleported out of nowhere from his side like a rocket and hammered him with her leg, powered by all the momentum she had been carrying at full speed.

As strong and skilled as Lancer was, Rider's attack was just too powerful to defend against on the fly. The end result of the brief engagement was a swearing blue Irish blur that was blown across the mountainside at speeds that would kill any normal human with ease.

Luckily for Lancer, he was built to be far superior to any normal human. He easily had the highest endurance capabilities out of all the Servants in the Fifth war next to Berserker.

BANG!

CLANG!

Another shot from the Temple was made, only to be deflected from its intended target, Rider's skull, by Saber's blade.

"_Make it a battle of speed. Give everyone a show." _Shirou's instructions were understood instantly. Within a split-second, the Gorgon Queen pursued the displaced Lancer at full throttle, once more barely appearing to be nothing more than a blur that kicked up all the ash in its path and leaving Saber alone on the pathway up the mountain.

The lone, path that only had an injured Assassin in its way…

It didn't take much to tell that the Servant had bailed from his position the instant Saber had made it clear she was heading to his direction. In reality it was the only reasonable move he could make, and from the way he had been fighting the war so far, Assassin might as well have been considered a genius in tactics compared to the rest of the Servants.

Keeping mindful of any of the now infamous traps that Assassin was known for utilizing, Saber continued her initial charge up the long staircase up the mountainside like a silver and blue bull. Looking up she saw the arch style entranceway into the temple, the only true way in or out for any Spiritual existence into the estate…

… Without outside assistance at least.

She was past the gates. Her entrance had been completely unobstructed, and within moments the King of Kings had slowed to a stop in front of the main entrance of the temple grounds. It was a wide open garden-like field surrounded on the other side by the Temple itself and the needed buildings to house and sustain the monks that resided there. It wasn't as large as a sports field, but sufficient enough for the night's activities without too much collateral.

All around her stood a small army of human like skeletons, all over two meters tall and wielding crude weapons of some sort. Their movements were slow and mechanical, and despite their numbers, Saber could tell that she could literally charge right through them in her current state with minimal interference. Unfortunately in this situation that minimal interference was not something that she could afford at this time.

… And there, floating on a large staff in front of the main temple, was the Witch of Betrayal.

"Three." Shirou muttered to himself as he slowly pushed himself off of the building he was leaning on and made his way to the edge of the alleyway. He only kept one eye open as he moved, scanning his surroundings, the mountain, the blindingly fast paced battle between Rider and Lancer, and the Temple at the peak. All he could make out of the two was the blue and purple streaks that irregularly streaked across the landscape, causing brief flashes and sparks to fly every time they collided.

He grimaced for a moment, wondering if forcing Rider and Lancer to battle this way was the smartest decision before moving on. There was no point in second guessing himself this late in the game.

With the smallest flare of prana, he shattered the quartz ring he had on his smallest finger into dust.

Sakura's role had just started.

"Welcome to my humble dwelling, Saber." Caster smiled confidently as she sat on her floating perch. "I apologize for not providing you more suitable accommodations. Your arrival was a bit abrupt after all."

Despite the host's seemingly pleasant demeanor, Saber had not abandoned her guard. She had felt the sensation coming up the Mountain, but now there was no mistaking the thousands of souls that coagulated in the air in the Temple, fueling the Witch's mysteries.

"_Keep her talking." _Shirou whispered in her mind.

"I am afraid that your choice in decor leaves much to be desired, Caster." Saber observed. "Even if you had no time to prepare, the fact that this is how you prefer your living conditions does not do you any favors."

The spellcaster sighed whimsically. "You do make a fair point, and I wish I had the opportunity to prove you wrong. However we are at war. Sacrifices do have to be made in the face of necessity."

"Most tend to claim such a thing when they are the ones that are sacrificing." The King frowned, noting the absurd number of stolen souls around her.

"Haha. Come now, Saber. Must you be so aggressive? If what I have heard is correct than the Caster from the previous war was far more uncouth compared to me." The woman shook her head almost mockingly. "Purposefully abducting children and using them as sacrifices for his crude rituals. Torturing women and the youth for mere amusement. Even I am disgusted by such a crass individual."

"Your opinions do not excuse your actions. What you and your Master have been doing cannot go any further."

"Well then what would you have me do Saber?" Medea pouted as if talking to a child. "Fight _honorably_? Even a child could tell how that would turn out, what with more than half the Servants in this running about with absurdly high Magic Resistance of one form or another, I might as well have been summoned as Assassin for all that approach will do me. No, I believe I feel safer bending the rules to my favor thank you."

She paused purposefully. "Well… that is unless you make it worth my while."

"_Listen to what she has to say." _Once more, Shirou's habit of making unreasonable demands kicked in full swing. _"It's unlikely but we might be able to deal with her without bloodshed."_

Having been the king of a country for over a decade and participating in multiple political deals, Saber knew when she was about to listen to a request that would curdle milk. "Most deals are designed to be appealing to both sides Caster. Choose your words carefully or they will be your last."

"Hmhmhm. Even your Master is interested I see." Medea's eyes met Saber's. "Tell me, how are you, boy? We haven't seen one another since you impaled me with that spear of yours. If memory serves, you didn't seem to be faring that well back then."

Saber's face hardened as she recalled the night she learned of her Master's other affliction. "He is doing more than well enough. Why does it matter?"

"It doesn't." She sighed whimsically. "Shirou Emiya… you are quite the interesting little boy aren't you? Even the other Servants are wary of what you, not Saber, will do next. That is quite an accomplishment if I do say so myself."

"_If I wanted empty praise I would have just gone back to the Clocktower." _Shirou stated firmly. _"Be careful. She has something planned."_

"My master and I would both appreciate it if you skipped the semantics, Caster. We aren't in the mood for flowery speeches."

Caster smiled as if humoring a child. "My apologies. Very well. I shall get to the point. I see no reason why we should not team up. Between your party's resources and mine, securing victory against the other Servants should pose no issue."

"And what resources would that be?" Saber countered. "As it stands, should you be defeated, your… assets will diverge, and be easy targeting for mine."

"And Berserker?" The woman's expression became genuinely curious. "How will you manage to placate that rampaging force of destruction? Excuse me if I have my doubts, but I have known him when I was alive, and so far while you have shown yourself capable, it does not appear to be anywhere sufficient enough to surpass Heracles… unless you truly believe that you can convince that girl controlling him to stop despite her obviously obsessive urge to kill your Maser."

"How we will decide to address him is of no concern of yours, Caster." Neither she nor Shirou were surprised that Caster knew of Illya's thoughts of the Emiya heir at the moment. She had after all been watching their initial meeting with Luvia at the beginning of the war.

Saber looked around for any sight of Assassin. She was capable of defending herself, yes, but being out in the open like this was her greatest concern when Shirou told her of his plan. "However, as it stands, you have yet to provide us with a reasonable transaction. Killing you will stop the people in the city from being drained and disrupt the operations you have going."

"Hmmm. Well, if you are so confident about Berserker, then I suppose that you do make a valid argument," the Witch vocally pondered, clearly indicating that she was not worried about her current situation. "By that logic, my claims that I can easily win the war are moot as well… ah you two are so difficult to please… are you certain that you do not wish to team up with me Saber? I can provide you with far more power than your Master can."

"I will take my chances with the one I currently have." Saber's mouth twitched in dry amusement. "I feel my odds are better with him. Also I can tolerate him."

Caster hid her annoyance with an almost childish huff. "I'd take offense to that, but truthfully I cannot blame you for your response. The boy certainly has a talent in managing this war…"

"_Saber. Quick. Tell her I have an offer. Now." _Shirou quickly ordered.

"Caster. My Master is… interested…" Saber spoke up uncertainly before demigoddess could finish her ramblings. "But he has his own terms."

There was a brief pause as the other party digested what Saber had claimed. "… Does he? I must admit, I did not anticipate a counteroffer, though I will have to hear of the conditions before I agree to anything."

As experienced as she was, even she couldn't hold her surprise at the terms of the deal listed in her head. _"What?! Shirou that's ridiculous! This would kill you! Not to mention she can't be trusted!"_

"_Do it." _The words were as cold as Kiritsugu's had been. Saber was honestly unnerved at how emotionless someone as genuinely caring and kindhearted as Shirou could be if he wanted to.

Gritting her teeth, the King of Knights relented. At the very least, she doubted that Caster would agree to such a proposition in the first place. "Become Shirou's Servant and put Marjatta Edelfelt into her sister's custody. Those are the terms of our partnership, else we end you tonight."

For what seemed like a long eternity to both Saber and Caster, the only sound that could be heard was that of Lancer's and Rider's battle on the mountain.

"… Ha… haha… hahahahahahahahahahaHAHAHAHAHA!" The Witch's laughter grew to near hysterical proportions. Her outbreak was so intense that Saber had begun to wonder if the Servant was at risk of falling off of her staff. "Of course! Of course he would make such a ludicrous demand! Why should I expect anything less from him after all he has done so far!?"

Saber on the other hand clearly was not amused by the deal. "I take it you will decline."

Caster continued to laugh for a few more moments before the tone of her voice became dark. "Hahaha… scary. How scary it is for all this trouble to come from a single child. To think that even for just a moment I had actually considered agreeing to such a proposition. Yes… it is safer that I don't comply. My apologies."

She was telling the truth. Out of all the participants in the Holy Grail War, Caster firmly believed that she would not be able to win so long as the Master known as Shirou Emiya was alive. The boy's resourcefulness was unnerving, and every time he got involved in an event, something unexpected and massive would happen that changed the course of the war. He had a strong connection to every party. He likely had more information about everyone and the war itself than anyone else. He was capable of applicable magic that could kill Servants if utilized properly. He fought different than the others. Hell, even his future self was a Heroic Spirit.

And yet despite all of that, he was not someone that she could genuinely hate. True, he had been making her life a living hell since their first encounter, but even then he had done so on his terms with other goals in mind. By all means the boy was a tolerable individual all things considered. He was not a fool. Not big headed. Not egotistical. Not rude. Not annoying. Not even that strong if she managed to fight him in direct battle… and yet he always seemed to at least be able to break even in every confrontation he had been in before the combat had begun.

There was no doubt about it. The boy was after something in this war, and the Grail itself didn't even seem to be in his mind. She could tell this simply because she could recognize someone like herself: a person with plans and ulterior motives.

In a way he was playing the same game as she was. Outclassed by a majority of their opponents physically, they had to utilize their wits and cunning in order to come out on top…

Only he seemed to be faring far better than she was for the majority of the war.

For such an individual to be in her way of her goal… he truly did terrify her. If there was ever a reason for her to despise his existence, that would probably be it.

She couldn't team up with him. Not in any form save him as a slave or literal tool. To do so would be akin to instantly giving up any hope to obtain the Grail. Just as she couldn't be trusted with allies out of risk of her backstabbing them, he couldn't be trusted to not have something prepared to counter it and make her suffer the consequences.

The sooner he was gone from this world, the better.

Saber readied her blade. "Then I am afraid that we have reached the end of our negotiations."

Caster's amused smile only widened. "A shame. That may be so, however before we battle I must at least grant you something of worth before we clash like barbarians. I would not be much of a host if I did not do this at least. Assassin, would you please step out for a moment please?"

After a few moment's pause, the cloaked Servant slowly allowed himself to be detected, revealing himself to be on the roofs of the buildings bordering the battlefield and armed with a sniper rifle.

The King of Knights was instantly on guard, as was Shirou. Purposefully revealing Assassin made no sense to them unless it was to lure them into a false sense of security. The Servant of Murder in this war after all, had proven himself to be just as dangerous, if not more so, than even Saber or Berserker if he was allowed free reign in a territory that he had prepared.

"Do not make light of me, Caster." Saber felt slighted by the action despite the fact that she now knew where the enemy was. The idea that the Witch would give up her comrade's position when it was a valuable commodity to them was almost an insult to her. It was as if the Witch had just claimed that she did not need such a thing to defeat her, even though Saber was strong enough to shrug off a vast majority of what both could throw at her. "I do not take insults to my pride that well."

"Please, Saber. Assassin did not come out to insult you." The witch taunted. "I just thought it would be nice to have a small reunion."

"Caster…" The normally mute Servant growled. Clearly there was no love lost between the two.

Hearing him speak for the first time, Arturia could not help but shiver unconsciously. She had heard that voice somewhere before, and no pleasant sensations came with it.

"Oh don't be shy. Now why don't you reveal yourself to the world? Heaven knows what it will do for your hair and complexion." The Witch didn't stall in the slightest. "… That's an order. Servant."

Saber watched with trepidation as Assassin futilely resisted his Master's orders and slowly removed his hood…

Her face went pale and her stomach dropped.

"Impossible."

She couldn't tell if the sensations and words she echoed were only hers, or if compounded with her Master's.

Her jade green eyes met his lifeless dull brown, eyes that held a shrewd and cold intelligence that she had never encountered anywhere else. She could tell instantly that this was no copy intended to unnerve them. She was without a doubt staring at her former Master once more.

"Hm? So you recognize him as well?" Caster appeared as if she was a cat that just got away with the canary, unaware of her opponent's condition. "Allow me to introduce you then. Saber, this is my Servant Assassin. When he was alive, he was known as Kiritsugu Emiya, the Magus Killer, and the Hero of Sacrifice. Also, if I am informed correctly, he is also your Master's father."

It didn't need to be said that at the moment, the one that Assassin felt like sacrificing the most was his Master.

All the pieces clicked together instantly for the visiting party. Why Assassin seemed to purposefully leave his targets alive despite being capable of killing them on more than one occasion. His erratic behavior. His attack patterns and methods. His hatred of Caster…

"_Saber."_

The Servant shivered at the dead tone. Due to her connection to Shirou, she had always managed to get a moderate feeling of his mood whenever they were mentally connected… but now… now her Master felt as empty as his voice.

"_My father is dead."_

His words were absolute and his meaning was clear as the sky to her. She had been prepared to move since she had arrived at the Temple… but even so her Master's words carried an ominous finality to them that she had heard the equal to only a handful of times.

"Caster. Whatever you wish to say in your defense is meaningless now." Saber gripped her sword with both hands. Her voice was calm and controlled, not at all reflecting the confusion, rage, and uncertainty that had just been stirred up. "You have just squandered what little generosity my Master and I were willing to bestow you."

Before Caster could make any sort of retort, Saber had swung her blade. Combining the nature of her Barrier of the Wind King and her Prana Burst ability, the King of Knights unleashed a strong shockwave of air that decimated every skeleton warrior that stood between the two female Servants. Despite the fact that they were within the Witch's territory and had been reasonably enhanced by her spells earlier, the lifeless bodies were blown into dust as if there had been no difference.

The obliterated remains of the golems had not even started to head for the earth before Saber had made her charge to her real target.

BANG! BANG!

Kiri- no. Assassin had fired upon her as she moved with his sniper rifle. However, even if she had paid only minor attention to his actions, she noted that his shots were nowhere near as accurate as they should be. Her charge only had only needed to be corrected slightly in order to avoid any damage at all.

" " Caster commanded the world, enshrouding herself in mana as black as the night moments before Saber leapt at her, no doubt intending to kill her in a single strike. Just as the invisible Excalibur tore through the space that Caster had occupied, she vanished.

"Kch!" The Servant of the Sword would have moved, only the air pressure around her seemed to increase tremendously the instant she landed, preventing her from going anywhere. The spell it seemed only affected the air in its proximity and didn't target her directly, which is why it had any effect on her at all.

"Hahaha. How depressing. As powerful as you are Saber, even your might is useless if you are unable to hit your opponent." Caster chuckled as she hovered roughly twenty meters to the right of the Temple gates, taunting Saber with the fact that their positions were nearly the opposite of what they had been before. "It may be obvious, but this is my territory. My magic is far more powerful here than on the outside, and after absorbing so much power from the leylines…"

Caster's cloak began to unfurl, stretching out in a wing like shape to either side with ominous glowing inscriptions on the inside.

Saber didn't bother to watch the show before focusing on breaking free of her trap. As powerful as she was, it would still take her a few moments to break free. Moments she clearly could not waste.

"I dare even say I am even strong enough to overwhelm you!"

Saber's breath hitched as her opponent began to chant under her breath, causing a small number of glowing orbs to manifest about her and the air around them to thrum with raw power. Under most circumstances she would not be worried. Her A ranked Magic Resistance was an absurdly powerful and useful ability in a battle such as this. It was why Shirou had sent her instead of Rider to the Temple in the first place…

However, Caster was aware of this resistance as well. She may not be as powerful as the incarnation witnessed in Kiritsugu's visions. Her Territory Creation ability may not have been as potent either. Nonetheless, the woman was from the Age of the Gods, and she had been recklessly tapping into the power of the city's leylines for days.

Larger and larger the orbs grew in both size and power as the witch chanted. So much so that Caster had even begun to show some strain in maintaining them.

These were beyond mere A ranked attacks. Just by looking at them, Saber could tell that her natural immunity to thaumaturgy would not fully protect her from this oncoming assault alone. Oh she would still likely survive, but it certainly would not be without repercussions.

Saber grimaced as she took in her situation. Trapped in place. Golems on the ground. Assassin to the side. Boxed in by the surrounding buildings. Caster with her tremendous spells about to fire. She could break free, but the moment's delay would not do her any favors. Her situation was clearly not in her favor and everyone was focusing on her...

The only sign that something had gone amiss was when Caster appeared to have detected something behind her. She had only barely begun to turn to look…

… And then a crimson arrow erupted from her chest.

o. o. o.

He had been watching through Saber's eyes the entire time. Well, one of them at least.

He would never have been able to guess Caster's position from outside the Temple if he hadn't.

He also would not have been able to make it up the mountain had he focused both his eyes on what Saber was seeing.

The spell he used was a rather crude one that he had learned from some Enforcers while on the job a year back, and among the few that he admittedly managed to actually get down on the field. It had apparently been one of the more popular answers to a particularly annoying string of sensory interference spells that had been frequently utilized in the mid eighteen hundreds. The spells tended to target and disrupt the connection between the user's eyes and the brain, but did nothing if he was watching through the eyes of a familiar.

It only affected one eye simply because it was damn near impossible for anyone to operate moderate periods of time while in the third person, especially when said third person might be looking somewhere else.

It took some time getting used to viewing things from two different points at the same time, even if the mystery was designed to ease the stress a bit on the caster's brain. However, it was not an impossible task if one just focused on one image at a time.

Neither were used much these days, but it was still taught simply because it was a quick and easy spell to use and it had its uses outside the initial intention. They also did it to piss off most of the noble asses that occasionally tagged along on the occasional hunt who were "above utilizing such crude mysteries".

Unsurprisingly, the ones that used the crude mysteries tended to have a higher survival rate in most hunts.

One of the first things that Kiritsugu had taught Shirou about bounded fields was that natural territories tended to have less distinct boundaries and rules than ones created by magi. As such it was always best to know the true limitations of such barriers.

Take Ryudou Temple's bounded field for example. The only way into the grounds for any spiritual existence was through the main gates; however, there were a few other facts to take into account. First of all, the field's effects were greatest only for about the top quarter of the mountain starting from the temple. Also the field's effects took place twenty meters to either side of the gate before declining at thirty degrees from the pathway. Give or take.

This meant that Servants couldn't approach the gates from the side, and could only approach it at the furthest from that angle once they got close enough, else they feel the effects of the natural boundaries. When Luvia had attacked the Temple the previous night, Shirou had actually suggested starting locations for the second wave of bulls to attack from to conform to these limitations for maximum fire damage and spread…

However what the younger Emiya had also discovered, not that anyone else would bother to do so, was that while spiritual existences were repelled by the natural bounded field… spiritual items, such as say, noble phantasms, were only slightly affected.

Sakura nearly found out the hard way about a year back by accident when Shirou tested it out… with him by tossing a copy of the Mace of Odo over the walls and nearly nailed her in the skull.

She may have loved him, but that didn't stop her from tearing him a new one for that stunt.

In short, should Caster ever turn the Temple into her own territory, she would likely give herself a tremendous blind spot that only Shirou could exploit to its full potential: the Temple boundaries themselves.

It was not an unreasonable mistake. Under most circumstances, no one would be stupid enough to attack upon a Caster's Territory without backup from a Servant. The blind spot prevented any Servant from crossing its borders all the same, and it wasn't as if there were many individuals living in the world today that could do anything remotely significant to a Caster's territory alone, let alone another Servant.

Shirou could do jack against the territory itself, but he had long since proven that he was an actual threat to Servants.

However, there in lay the second issue: the bounded fields that Caster had set up herself on the _inside_ of the temple walls.

Regardless of what additional defenses she would set up, the Servant would at the very least establish fields to prevent prana from leaking out and outsiders from seeing what was happening on the inside. He had similar fields set up around his own home.

Watching everything from Saber's point of view would give him a good estimate of where Caster would be, but even with his rather high ability to judge distances and locations from eyesight alone, it still wouldn't be enough to make a reliable shot…

So, in classic Shirou Emiya fashion, he did something that virtually anyone that knew him well enough would instantly disapprove of and yell at him the instant they would learn of it…

… Which is why he didn't tell anyone he had been planning to do it in the first place. Everyone thought he was just going to try and get as close to the temple as possible for general support.

The moment he had confirmed the location of Caster, the third and final enemy Servant on the mountain, he moved. With the enemy focused on the Servants he sent out, he was in no danger of being sniped or falling into a trap as he bolted up the mountain armed with his traced customized bow and an altered copy of Gae Dearg. Even if it was reduced in power due to the natural bounded field around him, its power to pierce through virtually any and every form of mystery was a godsend in a situation like this.

He had one eye open to watch where he was going, and one eye closed to view everything from Saber's point of view. He couldn't keep up at some points, but that was to be expected given how fast Servants could move. He could also hear both what was going around him, and what Saber was hearing as well.

He was almost disappointed when he saw Caster, from Saber's eyes, begin to gloat as if she was in no danger at all. He thought the Servant would know better by now.

"_Keep her talking."_

Then again he needed time to climb the Mountain. Even with reinforcement and running it would take some time for him to make it all the way up. As strong as Saber was, he was still a pacifist at heart and disliked meaningless and wasteful fighting.

He paused momentarily to watch and make note of Rider's and Lancer's fight to his side… or at least attempt to keep track of it at least. The two fastest Servants in the war were nothing but colored streaks that erratically crossed the mountainside in every direction. Every time they collided they quickly separated again as if they were super magnets with the same charges. Every now and then he could make out Lancer saying something to Rider in a far too eager tone given their situation, but he was moving so quickly that the words were distorted too much for him to understand.

He held back a shiver. As good as he was, Shirou knew that if he accidentally got caught up in such a fight he'd be dead before he knew they were on top of him. No wonder Rider was so amused when she saw him moving at his fastest earlier that day. She probably thought his demonstration was adorable and harmless, like a puppy trying to be tough.

"_Rider. I'm going up. Make sure I don't get caught up in your fun."_

For just a moment he felt a brief flash of annoyance from his quiet Servant before he got a response. _"… I fail to see how anyone can consider Lancer's bantering fun."_

The Emiya held back a snort. Apparently Rider's quiet personality didn't mesh well with Lancer's rather talkative one.

He stuck to the burnt dirt as he raced up the mountain. A normal human could make it up a flight of these stairs at full sprint in about fifteen seconds, ten to twelve if they were in good shape. Running up the sides while reinforced, he was clearing a flight in just under four. As sturdy and surefooted as he was, he didn't want to risk slipping on the hard stairs due to the soot covering them. It slowed his progress a bit, but he'd rather not waste time by being careful…

… He nearly fell flat on his face as Assassin revealed his identity about three fourths up. He was so stunned he probably wouldn't have noticed if he did fall.

Impossible.

That was the first word that came to his mind as he saw his father's face in the flesh for the first time in almost a decade. He didn't dare risk actually speaking, lest he risk actually gagging on the horrible feeling in his chest.

He didn't notice that the electronic device on his hip was buzzing, indicating that someone was trying to contact him.

He had attempted on many occasions to try and reason out who Assassin was the night he had discovered the irregularity. It seemed absolutely bizarre that anyone other than Hassan-i-Sabbah or Kojirou Sasaki.

If he had been summoned by a normal human master, then one of the nineteen incarnations of the old man on the mountain would be brought forth since any uninformed Magi would use the name itself as the catalyst. If Caster summoned him, which she did, he had expected the fictional swordsman to be brought forth due to the irregularity of a Servant summoning a Servant causing enough of a distortion to bring out the Wraith. He couldn't think of anything else at the temple that could be used as an adequate focus to summon a hero of legend.

… But Kiritsugu Emiya? Even if the Magus Killer was buried in the graveyard behind the temple, Shirou would never have expected his father to actually obtain enough notoriety to ever reach the Throne of Heroes.

His father. The man that had all but guided him onto his current path… was fighting against him…

The weight of the idea pressed down on his shoulders as if Berserker was standing on them.

The mere thought of fighting against his father terrified him on levels that the War could not even begin to reach. First and foremost, his father was a relentless monster on the job. He had learned from the man first hand, and even though he had only witnessed his true cold anger less than a handful of times, the younger Emiya was fully aware of how ruthless his father was. Politics in the Clocktower was one thing, but even years from now Shirou would claim that he had never encountered anyone who was half as good at calculating a person's murder better than Kiritsugu.

It was an unmatched skill that was worth more than the strongest Noble Phantasm in a war like this.

Second, and also obviously, he loved Kiritsugu. The man was his father in all but blood. He had sacrificed so much to raise Shirou as his son… to prepare him… to protect him…

And Illya.

The thought of his sister, and his father's final wish snapped him out of his near catatonic state. He couldn't risk losing his cool now. Not when there was so much on the line now. Kiritsugu would never let him live it down if he found out.

The Magus Killer had always stressed abandoning emotions while doing a job, lest they get in the way of everything, and for the most part Shirou had agreed with the lesson. The second generation assassin was not as adamant to throw away everything as his senior had, but the boy had learned to shut himself down in inhumane situations. It came with hunting Dead Apostles for several years and walking through slaughtered corpses of undead men, women, and children that he had put down personally.

What would Kiritsugu do?

It was a question that Shirou frequently asked himself whenever he was in an emotionally trying situation like this.

The sick irony given the situation was not lost on him.

During Apostle hunts, he would use it when trying to infiltrate the target's base, locate the enemy in the first place, or plan a method of attack. Often when he asked himself the question, he would take on his predecessor's behavioral and thought patterns to increase his ability to answer the question at hand effectively.

It was a state of mind that he greatly disliked utilizing for multiple reasons, primarily the fact that he was naturally not that cruel or heartless. However, he considered it a necessary evil in his line of work and sometimes just to deal with some of the magi in the Clocktower in general. It allowed him to come up with quick solutions to immediate problems that would get out of hand if left unaddressed.

Some of the things he had done after getting into this state of mind… he'd rather if no one ever learned about them.

His breathing slowed down. His body loosened. His eyes focused. His mind grew cold. His vision cleared…

If Kiritsugu was in his position…

"_Saber."_

Then the man would without a doubt…

"_My father is dead."_

Act as if this information did not matter in the slightest and proceed with the objective.

Servants were tools. Elaborate copies of their original selves in the Throne of Heroes. Servant Assassin was no different. Once the war was done, he would return to being nothing but prana.

The least Shirou could do was ensure that his predecessor's wish was achieved before then. Anything less, and the boy might as well have spit on his corpse.

Ignoring Kiritsugu Emiya's current status and what could become of him. Treating him as an enemy. Pretending as though he was a stranger. That was the most efficient and kindest thing Shirou and Saber could do for him.

He didn't bother listening to what was said now. It was irrelevant. All that mattered was that he get to the walls of the temple.

"Time alter. Double Accel."

Ignoring his body's cries of pain and protest, he bolted up the last stretch of the mountain at abnormal speeds, making it to the walls of the temple just as Saber began her attack. He didn't make a sound as he released the spell and felt his body simultaneously self-destruct and recover from the damage due to Avalon. He was too focused and silently enraged by the situation at hand.

From Saber's perspective, he saw Caster vanish from her initial position, only to reappear near the entrance of the temple. He could easily estimate where she was from his side, but not accurately enough to deal a decisive precise blow. Not from Saber's standpoint at least.

Knowing he had little time, he moved, tightly gripping the bow and arrow that he had had with him the entire trip up the mountain.

Dashing to the part of the wall that was closest to the floating Caster, still invisible to the world outside of the Temple, the Emiya cocked two guns in his skull and jumped.

The walls of the Ryudou Temple were roughly five meters high from the outside, give or take. Even if Caster was floating above them, Shirou would still need to get to a certain height in order to get a good shot of her from behind with the element of surprise.

His best jumping height while reinforced was three and a half meters on a good day, three was his max average. Rin and Sakura could actually jump higher than him, but that was due to the fact that they were more diverse than he was in utilizing mysteries. Shirou tried to learn of their methods once, but it involved terms and practices he was unfamiliar with and wound up landing him losing an unreasonable bet.

The end result was him spending an entire afternoon of him embarrassing himself in front of them with a modified high jump bar. He didn't even try to figure out what that was all about.

The first gun fired, and a plain looking sword was projected in front of him two meters off the ground, flat of the blade parallel to the ground and unmoving.

His magically enhanced legs launched him off of the ground just high enough so that one of his feet landed perfectly on the floating sword.

The blade did not so much as twitch under the sudden new weight.

While it was not denied "internal temporal progression" like the weapons he had used to cage Berserker, the tool was still locked in its current position. It would not last long as such, the mystery keeping it in place was still a bit rough around the edges and had holes that the temporal adjusting normally covered, but that was fine. He only needed it available for a few seconds regardless.

He notched his bow as he prepared to leap for the second time, steeling himself for what he was about to do…

Caster's power was peaking. Even on the other side of her bounded fields, he could actually feel the overwhelming spells that she was preparing to unleash.

His leg extended, he shot up into the air, he drew back his modified arrow… and his eyes turned silver.

"Trace. On."

Caster was roughly right in front of him, but he couldn't see her. Even if he saw himself aim through Saber's eyes, he wouldn't be able to make a solid shot in midair. There was no way for him to dispel her bounded field without her noticing, and no way to see past the illusions with mere mysteries from the Common Era.

So he didn't try looking for her.

Instead he looked at the air in front of him… and where it wasn't.

_Average composition consists of 77.89993 percent Nitrogen, 21.10004 percent Oxygen, .929901 percent Argon…_▅▅▅▅▅▅▅

▅▅▅▅▅▅▅ _Average composition consists of 77.89994 percent Nitrogen…_

_Adjusting... _▅▅▅▅▅▅▅ _Average…_

"… Tch! Urk!"

_Current air pressure is 96.11_▅_7 K_▅_A._

_Adjusting. Current a_▅▅_ pres_▅▅_re is 96._▅▅▅_24 KPA._

_Ad_▅▅_ing__._ _Current _▅▅▅_ pressure…_

Pain flooded his skull as he structurally grasped the air in front of him. Analyzing gasses had always been horrifically difficult for him to do. Solids were simple enough. Liquids were slightly more abstract, but still not particularly outstanding or difficult so long as he wasn't looking at the ocean or a massive lake.

The third common state of matter though was a different situation altogether. It was always changing. Always adjusting. Always flowing. In a free and natural environment, every puff of air had its own story, origins, paths, pressures, temperatures, and more. It was like being forced to read thousands of different objects at once that were constantly moving all around you.

Pop.

Something in his skull burst, unable to handle the strain that was placed on it. It was probably a blood vessel. The same thing had happened the first time he had tried something like this and had a seizure after two seconds.

Of course, back then, he didn't have Saber around to enact Avalon by then, but it didn't make the experience any less painful.

_Nitro__ … 57 degrees wes__ … digested and passed through the body of a __ before being processed by a plant in__…._

Pop. Pop.

"Nnnngh!"

His skull felt like it was going to split apart starting at his eyes. The pressure on his brain was beyond torturous. Had he not been so distracted by it all, he would have noticed that he had begun to bleed from his nose and ears.

But that was fine. He had been prepared for it so he shouldn't complain. He had died once already. Pain like this shouldn't even be registered. The only things he needed to feel were the bow and arrow in his hands, and the arms needed to aim them.

Temperature. Pressure. History. Purpose. Prana density. Composition. Growth. Direction… using all of his might he shoved against the torrent of irrelevant information that threatened to overflow his mind.

_Range. Twenty meter radius. Filter. Only positional existence accepted. Deny irrelevant data. Compose information, processing, isolating areas __where__ scanned substances are vacant…_

What was at most a second as the top half of Shirou's body crested over the Temple's wall seemed like an eternity as his silver eye overlooked the battlefield that was hidden from the rest of the world. It was a good thing that the action of shooting an arrow was more of a bodily reaction than a conscious action to him after so many years of practice. It was nearly impossible for the assassin to focus on anything else, being preoccupied by the deluge of information that was threatening to overwhelm him.

_Existence of matter labeled "air" processed. Positional data processed. Outline of intended target identified with 99.924 percent certainty. _

Even with his eye's power, he did not actually "see" anything in front of him. His eyes were not strong enough to pierce the veil of magic stemming from the Age of the Gods, nor were they designed to. Instead, they simply instead took in information and expressed the Servant's position in numbers that were then processed and utilized.

It was akin to a blind man given information and experience as to where everything in his home was, and then being told to find the fork on the kitchen table without tripping, falling, or using the walls for guidance. Shirou "knew" where Caster was exactly now down to the millimeter, body and all. However he was still essentially shooting blind.

He corrected his aim. He had jumped up too late and had to aim roughly four point three seven two meters back towards the gate and nearly point five nine four meters up…

"Gae. Dearg."

This irrelevant fact did not stop him from aiming the Crimson Rose of Exorcism at her heart with deadly accuracy and released his shot at the apex of his jump…

He didn't blink as his arrow-spear vanished as it crossed the barrier with no resistance and pierced the "data" that was Caster… just as she seemed to move as if turning around. For just a brief moment he had been able to see the entire battleground for what it was as the bounded fields encountered the tip of the Noble Phantasm, actually seeing the back of his target… only to have it all vanish again as it passed the barrier and the illusion reestablished itself.

He was back behind the wall and out of possible sight of his target before she even turned around. She wouldn't even be able to reach him because of her own defenses.

The tremendous spike in power in front of him dropped rapidly indicated that his shot had hit her. Saber's eyes indicated it as well, but he might as well have been blind due to all the stress he had placed himself under…

WHAM!

He collapsed to the ground heavily, unable to control his body after the tremendous strain he had placed his mind under. The traced bow in his hands fell to his side and disappeared, its purpose fulfilled.

"Gah! Hah… hah… urk!" He vomited as he allowed himself to succumb to the strain. Even with Avalon healing him, the pain he had put himself under was unreal. His eyes had been active for at most five seconds, but he knew without a doubt that he would have been crippled for life had it not been for the sacred scabbard inside of his body.

His limbs trembled as he tentatively regained control over them and pushed himself up and instantly reached for the nearby wall for support. He couldn't afford to rest just yet. He needed to-

"▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅!"

The world stopped as the bellow of a monster that surpassed all others was unleashed.

"No…" Not now. Of all the possible times for something to happen…

"▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅ ▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅!"

He focused quickly at the phone on his waist and grimaced as he noticed that it had been buzzing. Without looking he pressed the button on the side as he pushed himself up and once more ignored the pain he was going through. He had to keep on moving.

"Emiya! What took you so long?!" Luvia hissed through the speaker. "Berserker is-"

"Here. I know. Sorry." He finished her sentence firmly while spitting out the last of the bile in his mouth. He wasn't exactly in the mood to banter right now. "I was distracted and couldn't talk. Keep an eye out if anyone else appears."

"What do you mean dis-" _Click_. He turned off the phone. He didn't have time to waste as he focused on his first Servant…

… And saw Caster teleport away just in time to not get sliced in half by Saber's sword.

His stomach fell for the second time that night and he almost threw up the nonexistent contents of his stomach again. Without any hesitation he pulsed prana in his hand and shattered all but one of the remaining jewel rings.

It was the sign to order an immediate emergency retreat.

"_Shirou! Caster…"_

"_Ignore Berserker! Go after Caster! She's likely retreated to her workshop!" _He mentally yelled as he looked down the mountain to see blurs that were Lancer and Rider teaming up to battle the massive black giant. Even from the summit he could feel the monster's blows echo through the earth. The monster was moving so much with enough power that he was more a rampaging ash cloud than a giant at this point.

He then turned to run to the Temple's entrance, only hesitating for a second to look down at where his sister was no doubt watching him. It was better he deal with the Witch first, lest everything truly go out of control. 

"_You have to grab Caster's attention! Sakura's still in there!"_

o. o. o.

As traditional as the monks tended to be in Ryudou Temple, even they were not willingly blind enough to live in the 21st century without a means of getting vehicles to their grounds. Sticking to the old ways were fine, however some modern conveniences were simply too good to pass up.

The means to transport large amounts of goods to their home without dragging it up a mountain, plumbing, and electricity were at the top of the list.

The back road that allowed vehicles to reach the temple wasn't ideal. It wasn't even paved. The dirt and rocky path was used by the temple's three beat up nineteen eighty something Toyota pickups for mandatory chores and moving equipment around. If a good deal of monks needed to go somewhere for an occasion, the temple rented a bus from the town at a discount which everyone boarded at the bottom of the stairs, as they were one of the major tourist attractions, but that didn't happen often.

Of course, one of the essential things about having road access for cars was a location to place them in and access to the compound itself…

And conveniently enough, the detached garage for the temple cars was just outside of the main compound walls. It was the perfect spot for Sakura to wait for her signal without getting noticed after she had unlocked the back doors to the Temple. Shirou had asked Luvia and Caster about the security of the back entrance and the road leading up to it before he even came up with the approach just in case the Witch had realized that it could be exploited…

She didn't and the back entrance might as well have been wide open.

Sakura had been biding her time inside for nearly fifteen minutes before Shirou gave her the signal to move in the form of the crystal ring on her finger shattering.

The ring itself was a simple piece of thaumaturgy that Shirou had learned through Rin's teachings. Each one had a twin, and they utilized a simple conceptual mystery that caused them to share one another's existence. In short, if one broke, so did the other.

The first meant to start the operation. After that, if one ring was broken, it meant that they had achieved their objective. Two more meant they were in trouble. Breaking all of the remaining rings save one signaled an immediate retreat or danger. And all at once meant the other user was dead.

Shirou breaking the first ring indicated that he knew where all of the enemy Servants were and that he had their attention… meaning she could start her part.

Instantly on the move, Sakura reached into a pocket and took out the first of two traced items that Shirou had traced for her.

"Carnwennan."

One of the first legendary weapons utilized by King Arthur in his legends. The small ornate dagger reacted to the girl's voice eagerly, wrapping her within the shadows that thrived the night.

And then she was gone.

Under most circumstances, Noble Phantasms don't obey the commands of anyone other than those that brought them to fame. Excalibur only worked for King Arthur. Gae Bolg for Cu Culainn, and so on. Weapons that held passive abilities such as Gae Dearg were an exception as their abilities were always active, and the Berserker from the previous war's power enabled him to use virtually anything he had his hands on. However they were not the only case.

Shirou was an exception to the rule simply because the Noble Phantasms he used, save Avalon, were not the originals, but made within him. As a result, one could say that the weapons made recognized him as their maker instead of their wielder. Of course he still needed to fuel many of these abilities to make them function, which was a daunting task for a human, but the fact still stood.

On the other hand, with regards to Carnwennan and Sakura, the fact of the matter was that the girl was just so in tune with her imaginary element, and darkness in general, that she was able to synergize with the often overlooked Noble Phantasm of Shadows… no, not just synergize, but actually enhance and magnify the dagger's powers as well.

In fact, when she first tested it out earlier that day, Saber had pointed out that the girl was possibly better with it than she was.

The small blade's ability to hide the user in shadow seemed to work perfectly with the last living Matou's powers. Had Saber and Rider not been paying attention in the first place, they would have had trouble detecting the girl. Rider had noted that it was almost as if Sakura was utilizing a lesser form of Presence Concealment.

It wasn't perfect, but it would be enough to get into Caster's territory while she was distracted by Saber flaunting her power, and Lancer and Rider beating one another senseless across the front of the mountain.

As for how Shirou managed to get King Arthur's dagger in his stock in the first place, the answer was simple. Saber allowed him to go through her mind and look at her memories of the Knights of the Round…

Or more specifically, their weapons.

Arondight. Excalibur Galatine. Rhongomiant. Red Hilt. Calibern. Clarent. Secace. Coreiseuse. Fail-Not. The shields of Lancelot, Galahad, Joseph of Arimathea, and Judas Maccabee…

These and hundreds of other armaments, legendary or not, were witnessed by Shirou through Saber, and thus near perfect imitations now existed within Unlimited Blade Works.

Sakura flowed silently through the Temple compound and buildings unimpeded, heading straight to the one identified to hold Caster's workshop. With Assassin under her command and opponents such as Berserker and Saber capable of near overrunning anything she could normally utilize, there was little doubt that Caster set up her bounded fields in the Temple to excel in combat purposes to increase the odds in her favor.

The fields around the building itself on the other hand were clearly defensive in nature. Memory decay. Attention deflecting. Anti Projectile. Anti Surveillance. The Witch clearly was making it clear that the building would not be targeted or even noticed should the fighting get out of hand in the area. No one pressed for time would be able to manage to identify or locate Caster's workshop under normal circumstances with the myriad of subtle defenses around it.

Fortunately, Sakura already knew exactly where it was, what it was, and why she needed to enter it. Hence, she was able to approach the building without losing sight of her goal.

The idea that anyone would attempt to sneak into Caster's territory was near comical given who was there and the Temple's setup. The fact that Servants could only approach through the front meant that only humans would be able to get in through any other direction …and since it was widely accepted that humans didn't stand a chance in hell against Servants alone, sneaking into the compound where Caster and Assassin lived via any other entrance was akin to suicide.

Everyone knew this, including Caster… so it was to be expected that the overconfident Servant did not place any advanced detection or security bounded fields around the other entrances of the compound.

Thus, Sakura's intrusion on the temple, and her approach onto the workshop fifteen seconds later, were completely undetected.

So far so good. Next came the part she had the most misgivings about.

The girl stopped at the edge of the building, hid under the stairs, canceled Carnwennan's power to undo her shadowy cloak, took off her backpack, and opened it to reveal the half a dozen bricks of primed C4 that were inside.

As a _traditional_ Japanese temple, virtually every building within the compound was expected, and was, _built_ in a traditional manner to validate its authenticity. True there had been some structural upgrades over the years, electricity and plumbing being ideal examples, but for the most part the buildings followed standard guidelines that had been established for centuries.

This suited Shirou's plan just fine, considering the fact that one of these "guidelines" was that these buildings were built on elevated platforms that virtually anyone could climb under… so long as they didn't mind dust, grime, bugs, moss, and the occasional half rabid woodland animal.

During his lessons, the first Emiya often lamented that he wished he had more jobs with these sorts of buildings. They made jobs so much easier it wasn't even funny.

Shirou didn't intend to actually destroy the building and everyone inside, but if things went pear shaped, it was always good to have a last resort even if it was a distasteful one. He still had to make sure that Marjatta was out first before he did anything though. Obliterating anything that Caster may have been working on the inside was just insurance.

Sakura slowly and silently summoned a familiar not even two feet tall, using as little prana as possible. The almost adorable looking golem knew what to do the moment it fully formed and took one of the exploding bricks before disappearing under the building. It would place the charge near one of the larger pillars under the structure before repeating the process with the others before finally dispelling itself once the task was complete.

Making sure to put the pile of bombs under the flooring so that no one would see it, the girl enveloped herself within Carnwennan's shadows once more and entered the building that Caster had turned into her workshop.

Her main task was simple. Get in. Find Marjatta. Then decide between getting her out through any means necessary, or using Rule Breaker on her to gain control over Caster and force the Servant into submission with a Command Seal.

Simple.

Had she moved just a minute faster, she would have encountered a possessed Bazett running out the building through the exit on the other side.

Had she also placed the bombs herself, she would have also noticed that someone else already had the interesting idea of possibly blowing up the building from beneath with explosives.

Instead, she had barely made it ten meters into the building before she found herself looking at an albino rat with a crown and a large red jewel hanging off of its stomach. The rat, in turn, had no trouble aiming its beady crimson eyes back right at her.

She had been expecting several things once inside, but this admittedly was not one of them.

The two mammals stared at one another for a good five seconds in silence before the smallest of the pair turned and began to run down the hallway, stopped, looked back at her, and then bizarrely enough waved its front paw in a gesture to follow it.

Sakura liked to think that she had prepared for anything when she had entered the Temple less than two minutes ago. Apparently she had been mistaken.

Knowing full well that it could be a trap, but doubting it at the same time simply because the thought of Caster using a rat familiar at all was ridiculous, the Matou quickly, but warily followed the small creature as it led her through the building. She could not help but worry as she felt the air grow increasingly heavy with each step she took, as if she was breathing in more prana than air with each inhale.

Soon enough, she stopped at a door that the rat had temporarily been staring at intensely before somehow vanishing into a hole in the wall that did not exist.

She knew right away that Marjatta, or at the very least Caster's workshop, was right behind the door simply because she did not want to open it. Her instincts and senses were screaming to not open it if she knew what was good for her. Though there was very likely bounded fields set up to hold prana within its confines, there was still a tremendous amount of power leaking out.

_Run. You should not be here._

The nerves on her spine were erratically going off. She didn't know if it was due to a bounded field that Caster had set up, or just her primal instincts reacting to the corrupted power she was feeling, but she did not want to go forward.

Her hands tightened in fear… and she felt the four remaining rings in her hand. The rings that connected her to Shirou, and reminded her why she was here in the first place…

She was ashamed of herself. She owed Shirou everything, but she had allowed her fear to temporarily get the better of her during such a critical time…

As if to spite her weakness upon this realization, she instantly threw the door open and prepared herself for whatever may be inside…

Again she failed to sufficiently predict just what she would see.

Surprisingly enough, the workshop for the most part was fairly rudimentary. Spread throughout several open door rooms that appeared to be used for storage at some point, Sakura's eyes were met with staple elements of thaumaturgy. Workbenches with tools, ingredients, and notes. The occasional formalcraft circle was seen on some of the floors and walls, though most of the symbols and patterns utilized were completely new to the Matou. Some gems glowing with power hovered in peculiar areas around the perimeter of the rooms for one reason or another…

But most of this was ignored for the biggest outlier that almost instantly met the intruder's eyes.

One of the adjacent rooms was dedicated to one thing and one thing only. In the middle of the square area was a tremendous cylindrical tube glowing with an eerie dark yellow fluid that pulsed every few seconds. Each thrum was accompanied by a tremendous wave of prana that overwhelmed Sakura's already flooded senses. She had been in workshops that were designed to contain power before, but never had she encountered this much at once. She'd hazard to guess that there was more power in the room than two whole Servants combined, possibly three.

Even so, while the tremendous energy in the area was significantly distracting, it did not divert the girl's attention to what… or more specifically _who _was in the tremendous container.

"Marjatta… Edelfelt." Sakura shivered as she instantly recognized the girl that she had fought to the death with almost a week ago. The teenager seemed to be unresponsive to the world around her as she bobbed in place within the clear fluid.

The Matou shivered. Would this have been her fate had Shirou not rescued her that night? To be used as some sort of prana generating tool? To be taken from one hell and placed in another?

Her hands clenched. She felt the rings again.

Her target was there. Now was not the time to be afraid or contemplate possibilities that had not taken place. Swallowing heavily, the girl walked forward and reached into her pouch…

"I wouldn't do that if I were you."

Her stomach dropped as she turned to the source of the warning… only to encounter the kindly looking priest that had aided with Shirou's Apostle condition the night Marjatta had attacked her.

"He gave you a copy of Caster's Noble Phantasm didn't he? Rule Breaker, correct?" The non-human eyed the girl's empty hand. "It is certainly a marvelous and useful tool in most situations. However it won't be of use regarding Miss Edelfelt's I'm afraid."

"Wh-what?" The girl attempted to try and keep up with what was happening. "How did-?"

"You'll find that there is little that my Master and I are unaware of in this War." The newcomer moved to approach the trapped teenager at a slow yet leisurely pace to exemplify that he meant no harm. "You can deactivate that Noble Phantasm in your possession. It is a rather useful tool and you use it well, but there is little point at the moment."

The girl hesitantly looked at the King of Rats for several moments before revealing herself to the world, but ready to act at the first sign of trouble. "Why are you here? I thought you wanted to stay as uninvolved as possible."

"You are correct. Make no mistake. I am not here to aid you so much as prevent you from making a significant err. Time is not something we have in abundance, naturally, so I will be brief. In her current state, it is nearly impossible to rescue the girl in front of us. Caster is utilizing her and her origin as both a source of prana, and a catalyst to access the Grail War's core system within the mountain below us. In essence, she is a poorly fabricated and unstable, yet still functional Lesser Grail. Given how much power has already been accumulated and what I have learned so far, I give it another week before enough has been gathered to achieve the minimum functions of activating the Greater Grail, a few days more if she has to expend power combatting the other Servants."

"Lesser Grail?" Sakura felt cold upon hearing the term. It sounded ominously familiar, as if she should without a doubt know what it should mean, but didn't. Much like doing a major question on a final exam, only to have the answer just out of your reach.

The Rat remained quiet for a few moments as he looked at her inquisitively before shaking his head. "Ask Lord Emiya. The penultimate fact of the matter, is that due to the outstanding prana being channeled through and around the girl, simply releasing her from her confines is not an option. Rule Breaker would indeed free her, but it would also destabilize all the power in and around her as well. At this concentration, I suspect that the resulting explosion would take out the entire temple grounds and a good portion of the mountain if you attempted to go through with your original instructions. Obviously, detonating the charges you placed under the building would yield a similar result."

The girl attempted to keep up and quickly process everything she had heard. The fact that he was aware of Shirou's contingency plan was far from the top of the list of things she needed to think about. "But… what about Gae Dearg? It can-"

"The Crimson Rose of Exorcism's power would be useful had there not been so much power accumulated already." The priest shook his head, already knowing what she was going to suggest. "Marjatta, the fluid she is in, and the chamber that holds them in place are all separate yet intricately entwined parts to this prana generating system. If one falters, the rest will destabilize rapidly. The spear nullifies the connection between "source" and "spell", but using it or the dagger here would be like attempting to pop a large balloon with a needle and hope it doesn't blow out the candle behind the needle."

She was frantically piecing together what she was learning with her current situation. "But Shirou and Saber are fighting Caster right now. Even if Assassin is backing her up, I don't see how Caster can possibly come out of the battle alive. If that's the case…"

His face turned grave. "You are underestimating your opponent child. Make no mistake, your greatest roadblock in this situation is Caster. She is no fool, and will retreat the moment she realizes the odds are not in her favor. More than that, without her or her counterpart to regulate the prison, it will naturally destabilize within a set amount of time. The frequency of this will only grow as more power is accumulated."

"_You need one of the Casters to have any hope of getting the girl out alive. Caster will use these facts to her advantage." _Was left unsaid, but spoken perfectly clear.

"If what you said is true…" She began to piece together what she learned. "Then Caster would most likely try and play defensively until she's gained enough power… but with three Servants under her command including herself, she'd likely try to pick off either the most threatening or least defendable opponents."

"The other Caster's territory is quite impressive. Had the Temple here not had its natural advantages, it would pale in comparison to that on Edelfelt's property." The priest nodded. He didn't admit it, but the European mansion was one of the few places he had yet to manage to infiltrate… after the bounded fields were set up at least. "It is likely she would instead go after the pairs that have yet to team up with anyone and overwhelm them with numbers to pick off the Master. And given who is left, the only safe choice is…" His face instantly turned to one of alarm. "Run."

The conversation was interrupted as a sudden spike of prana was felt from one of the adjacent rooms. Not the one that Marjatta was in, but the other one with the rather large and elaborate formalcraft circle in the middle. Normally it would have been easily detected, but with so much power flooding the rooms it was nearly impossible to detect. The only reason why the Rat had noticed it was because he had been conveniently facing the doorway to it during the conversation and saw the circle on the floor begin to glow.

They didn't know it, but the room itself was Caster's only way of being able to teleport to her Workshop. The amount of prana that Marjatta's cell gave off was so erratic and overwhelming that even the Witch could properly manage to perform long distance mysteries in its presence without some sort of prepared area to work in.

Both Sakura and the Rat moved out of the workshop before Caster's human form had even taken shape. The girl was already halfway down the hall and about to utilize Carnwennan when all but one of the rings on her fingers shattered simultaneously.

Enveloping herself in darkness once more, Sakura moved as quickly as possible. The building itself was not outlandishly large, so it only took a few seconds to have the exit visible in her haste. Right now the most important thing she needed to do was escape and relay what she learned to Shirou.

"… " Caster's voice echoed throughout the building as though it was coming from every direction at once.

The Matou shivered as she felt the Servant's prana seemingly lock onto her despite her cloaked state, but instantly ignored it as the door in front of her seemingly slammed shut and began to disappear before her very eyes, melding into the wall itself. At the rate it was vanishing, she had less than three seconds before it was gone.

Most magi would have instantly attempted to figure out a way around this situation and given up on the door. Most magi would have stopped to think and try to conjure up something that would counter Caster's spells.

"_His body is made of blades…"_

Most magi would _not_ have instead reinforced themselves to the quickly vanishing door in a near blind rush.

Without breaking stride, the running high school student took out the second Noble Phantasm that Shirou had traced for her that afternoon.

Most magi didn't have Rule Breaker.

Holding the fragile looking Noble Phantasm dagger almost an inch in front of her body, Sakura slammed into the wall just a fraction of an instant before the door completely disappeared. Whatever mystery that Caster had been utilizing had instantly been dispelled as the wooden entrance instantly reappeared in its full glory…

WHAM!

… And then completely shattered as the full momentum of a reinforced girl running full tilt hit it head on.

Sakura let out a brief gasp of pain as she sailed past the stairs and fell an additional two feet to the ground below, accompanied by the splinters and remains of the doorway she had just broken, and landed nearly flat on her back. Her reinforced state helped mitigate a good deal of the damage she could have taken, so the air wasn't knocked out of her from the poor landing, but it was still far from a painless experience.

"So my suspicions were correct." An irritated, but strained voice snapped her out of her pain. Blinking several times, Sakura looked up to see Caster standing on top of the building that they had just been in. The Servant clearly seemed to be in pain given from the way she was breathing, clutching her chest, and the sweat coming down her face, but regardless the Master knew that she was no match for the reincarnated woman. "The boy is capable of replicating my dagger. How annoying."

The girl didn't risk saying anything as she swallowed heavily and slowly pushed herself up, not once taking her eyes off of her potential executioner.

It was only then that she heard the chaos, explosions, and gunshots that were coming from the direction of the entrance of the Temple. They were rapidly approaching her direction, but not quick enough in her opinion.

"I commend you both. The boy not only managed to nearly kill me, but had the foresight to exploit a weakness in my Temple that I had overlooked. To think that someone as lowly as you managed to get into the deepest part of my workshop without my knowing." The Servant's power began to peak. "It is equally impressive and infuriating…"

Sakura began to shiver and instinctively took a step back.

"And as if that were not bad enough, you had the nerve to use a copy of _my _Noble Phantasm to try to escape, destroying the bounded fields I had set up on the premises in the process." The elder woman's voice was akin to a deep growl now as a single malevolent purple ball of raw power floated in front of her. "I hope you understand how deeply insulted and frustrated I am right now girl."

She knew that running was impossible. She couldn't fight. Caster clearly was unwilling to talk. Nothing on her would be able to save her, let alone the two Noble Phantasms she had on each hand. The attack that was about to destroy her body was the equivalent of a ten count aria ritual comprised of nothing but pure… prana...

Caster wordlessly fired the bright projectile right at the girl, clearly intending on killing off at least one opponent that night…

"_One cannot stain the shadows."_

… and was left less than pleased when her attack disappeared into the black wall that appeared in front of her target.

_Thump thump._

The bounded field collapsed as its user lost control. Her breathing was erratic as she gaped like a fish out of water and held her body tightly.

Too much.

She had taken in far too much prana at once and was instantly suffering the consequences. That single attack held as much power as she could hold in her entire being at once, and now it had been added to what she already had. Her body felt bloated with fire, like a water balloon filled to the brim with boiling acid. It was unbearably painful to the point that it was difficult to pay attention to what was around her.

It was only because she felt like every portion of her was about to burst that she had felt _it._ A small portion of herself that seemed to go nowhere, but still a place she had never noticed before… and it was slowly taking in the excess power that reached it without any resistance.

She didn't like it. It was likely the only reason why she was going to be able to survive her foolish decision, but she still didn't like it. The feeling she got from these tiny fragments of herself were unnatural, as if they weren't supposed to be there, but were now a part of her regardless of what she did…

And the worst part was they were reacting to the power that was being forced into them…

A bright light and some explosions around her snapped her back to reality to find Saber standing in front of her and glaring at Caster. Shirou must have sent the blonde Servant to save her as soon as he realized that she might be in danger.

"Sa-ber?"

"Do not worry, Sakura." She barely heard the servant reply. "I will protect you."

BANG! BANG! Swoosh CLANG! PING!

Gunfire to their side instantly caught their attention as Saber moved to intercept the rapid moving projectiles. "Tch. Kiritsugu! Why are you doing this?! Why are you following her orders?!"

"Kiri-tsugu?" The girl blinked in confusion, trying to remember where she had heard the name before. She knew she should know it, but she just couldn't remember…

"Because I have no other options available."

Her eyes dilated as she saw Assassin walk from the shadows and recognized his face instantly. She had only seen the man once in person before, but she could never forget it. He was the only person that she had ever encountered in her childhood that terrified her at first sight outside of her grandfather.

That face. Those cold, empty eyes. That emotionless voice. The way he carried himself. Even as a human, the aura of a man who has murdered countless times hovered over him, but now he was generating it as easily as breathing.

The first Magus Killer stared at the two of them as if they were nothing, yet still analyzing everything all the same…

Tink. Tink.

The world around Sakura and Saber slowed down tremendously as they heard the canister Assassin had thrown earlier finally fall straight down from the sky and bounce off the ground behind them. The bullets he had fired earlier were mere distractions. Their eyes dilated as they instantly knew that they had run out of time…

BOOM!

The smoke grenade went off with unnatural force. Saber was at best buffed a little from the explosive shock, but Sakura was thrown a small distance before her body was enveloped in the prana enriched smokescreen the tool provided. It was nearly impossible to detect anyone or anything within three meters inside the dense cloud, and the lack of any natural light in the area didn't help things either.

"Cough! Sakura!" Saber shouted in alarm as she lost her charge. No doubt Caster or Assassin would exploit this opening to separate the two, so she had to act quickly.

"_Time Alter. Triple Accel."_

The wind in the area instantly began to thrash about as Saber poured her considerable power into her weakest Noble Phantasm. If anybody had trouble finding her in the smoke before, they didn't now.

"Get down!" The King of Knights shouted as she swung her blade slightly up and in the direction that Sakura had fallen. "Strike Air!"

Chaos was the best way to describe the next few seconds as the relentless thrashing wind tore through everything at waist height and above without discrimination, blasting away all the smoke that had been clouding her vision. Several nearby windows shattered from the sudden air pressure, as did the doors and some screen walls that were common on the buildings here.

Unfortunately it had all been for naught.

"My my. You certainly are productive tonight, Assassin." Caster grinned as she spotted her Servant standing to the side of the destruction, holding one of Sakura's arms behind her back and the other over her mouth to prevent her from saying anything.

The Magus Killer glared at the woman. "… Saber would have killed us if you killed the girl. Idiot."

The sly grin on the Witch's face disappeared almost instantly. The fact that her Servant had actually insulted her so bluntly spoke miles about how he felt about her decision making at the moment.

"I give you this warning only once, Kiritsugu," Saber growled, unconsciously allowing her instinctual dislike of the man to show. "Let her go now, or I will kill you."

"Hmmm. A very interesting exchange. However, I don't think I'll allow him to make that decision," Caster claimed from her perch. "Hold onto her will you?"

The Servant shifted, causing Sakura to flinch under his grip as if to prove his point. Saber didn't bother to question why he didn't have a weapon out. As weak as he was, he could still tear the girl apart with his bare hands if he wanted to, or snap her neck with the hand covering her mouth.

Ffffp! Slam! Ting! Crunch! WHAM! "Gah!"

Everyone's attention was suddenly drawn to the chaos happening some distance to Assassin's side as Shirou literally flew from the darkness backwards and landed heavily on his back. The boy didn't stay down for long though as he quickly rolled to his side and pushed himself away just as the possessed Bazzett shot out from the shadows and punched the ground he had just been occupying hard enough that everyone there felt the minor shock.

The teen quickly got onto his feet again with practiced ease, however it was easy to tell that something was wrong with him as he was swaying slightly and blinking more than he shoud.

"Oh?" Caster grinned as the boy panted and tried to take in what was happening. He clearly was not in the best of shape if the swelling of his face and the bleeding from the mouth was any indication. "I was wondering where you had disappeared to boy. It isn't like you to simply vanish without saying anything after delivering your… gifts."

Shirou didn't reply as two more nameless blades appeared in his hands and he looked around and stopped on Kiritsugu and Sakura…

His eyes instantly turned silver.

Even Kiritsugu shifted slightly under the gaze. He didn't like the feeling he got from them, and he certainly did not know what they did or how the hell Shirou got them in the first place.

"Hmmm? My my. Now that I have time to have a look at them, I must admit you have some quality eyes there boy," Caster mused curiously. "They certainly are not up to par, but they do remind me somewhat of Lady Athena's. Insight so intrusive that it can be considered a crime and the highest of insults to use them upon others… though you no doubt must have far more trouble dealing with them than she ever did. I can see the strain they exert just by looking at you."

Shirou didn't blink as he maintained eye contact with his father for a few more seconds before turning his attention to Bazett, preparing himself to fight again if needed.

"… Let Sakura go, Caster." the younger Emiya stated with an underlying menacing tone in his calm voice.

The Servant in turn simply chuckled as she slowly enveloped herself in black prana before reappearing next to Assassin. "Oh? And why should I do that boy? You have already shown that you wish to kill me. How else can you elevate your position in my eyes?"

"_My body is made of blades."_

As if to answer the woman's bluff, two dozen weapons appeared above him without uttering a single word, and all aimed at her.

Half were copies of Gae Dearg.

… The other half were of Kiritsugu.

Possessed as she was, even Bazett took a wary step back, unsure of her ability to deal with such an onslaught.

He didn't have to worry about her trying to attack him now.

Caster instantly recognized the blades as copies of what he gave Berserker's Master so long ago, and she figured that the spears were those annoying abominations that he kept on using to pierce through her spells and defenses. She grimaced as she felt the curse coming off of the swords. She didn't know what they were, but if the boy was pointing them at her, then their effects would no doubt be less than pleasant, even if they clearly weren't Noble Phantasms…

"Ah… interesting." Kiritsugu blinked as he stared at the blades. He could feel his very body resonating with the weapons and quickly reasoned out what they were.

"What do you mean by "interesting" Servant? Speak," the Witch ordered irritably. If she was at full health than the boy's tantrum would be no problem to deal with. However, she was still only just recovering from being pierced almost through the heart. She was incapable of performing rapid spells or move as quickly as she would like without damaging herself even further. Knowing what the boy's eyes did, he no doubt knew this as well.

Assassin looked at the weapons some more before a small smirk appeared on his face. "Those swords were made from my corpse."

"Your body? You mean to say that those blades have the same properties as your Origin Bullets then." Caster began to reason out the weapon's properties. "But then that would mean that the curse that they hold…"

"Is the same that killed me." Assassin concluded. "I am unsure of how it would change the effects of my origins bullets… I am certain it is not pleasant."

"I see." She turned to Shirou with a degree of acknowledgement. "It seems we are at an impasse then boy. I have the girl, and you wish to kill me quite intensely given your expression. Do tell, how do you suppose we should proceed?" A confident smirk made its way onto her face. "I suggest a trade. The girl for Saber."

A spear impaled the ground three meters to the right of them.

Saber bent her knees, preparing to move should fighting erupt again. Her eyes narrowed and focused on the enemy…

Assassin glanced at Saber warily. No. She wasn't focusing on them, only on Sakura. It was understandable given the situation, but even so she would at least have to spare some more attention on him and Caster as well to be safe. Something was going on…

He looked back at Shirou and the weapons aimed at them one by one… and noticed the single outlier. He instantly figured out his son's plan and decided to let things run their course.

"A simple no would have sufficed." Caster sighed. She may be the least combat capable of the Servants in this war, but she was still far beyond human and easily managed to determine the path of the projectile before it landed. "I am surprised though. Considering the efforts you went through to keep this child alive last time, I would have thought that you would do the same again."

Shirou's eyes narrowed. "You'd be surprised what I'm willing to do, Caster."

They felt his prana spike just a moment before it happened.

All the projectiles hovering over him fired at once.

Caster and Assassin eyes widened in surprise at the sudden onslaught. The speed of the projectiles was rather slow all things considered, but the fact that the boy had actually attacked them in the first place was what really had the largest shock value. That moment of disbelief was all that was needed to distract Caster from their real plan.

"Saber!"

Assassin moved away from Sakura and out of the range of the attack the instant he had seen the weapons above him so much as twitch, took out a gun, and began to shoot at Saber. Meanwhile Caster barely managed to teleport away before she was shredded to pieces…

BOOM! BOOM! TING! TING! SNNNRK! TING! BOOM!

The large number of projectiles hammered the area where the two Servants and Sakura had been standing. While the destruction and damage had been significant, the fact of the matter was that every single weapon launched had not been aiming for where Sakura was. Servants they may be, but even his targets would not have been able to track the trajectories of that many projectiles at once flying right at them…

"Ah!? Uh? …huh?"

Correction. _Almost_ every single weapon launched had not been aiming for Sakura's position.

A copy of Gae Dearg had impaled Sakura's stomach, passing right through her and into the spot that Assassin had just been a second before. Had the Servant still been holding her, he would have easily been skewered by the weapon just as easily as his hostage had. A talented magus she may be, but she was still human. Her body would hold no resistance against a Noble Phantasm.

As such, it was not surprising that the stunned and collapsing girl now sported a hole the size of a fist in her body…

It began to visibly shrink the moment Saber grabbed her while deflecting Assassin's shots, the copy of Avalon inside of her working just as expected. The wound was large, but not in an essentially vital portion of her body. She would recover quickly.

The fact that she was literally overloaded with power meant that she would only heal faster.

It had been a gamble, but in the end it had paid off. The end goal was to get Sakura away from Caster and Assassin alive. The hardest part was naturally somehow forcing Assassin to let go of Sakura without him killing her. He obviously did not want to gore one of the people he dedicated his existence to, but given what the alternatives were he was left with few options…

… At the very least, Kiritsugu was playing along with his gamble and making a very believable performance. Caster probably didn't even notice that her _loyal _servant wasn't actually holding Sakura's arm behind her back for the majority of the standoff…

Shirou would have been relieved at all of this, unfortunately he was preoccupied with the fact that he couldn't move, speak, or breathe for that matter. The nearly overwhelming source of killing intent directly behind him didn't help either.

"I've had enough of you boy!" Caster's enraged image faded into existence three meters behind him with Rule Breaker in hand and blood coming out of her mouth. Apparently her emergency escape had caused more strain than her severely wounded body could take.

"Shirou!" Saber roared in rage and concern as she in one movement swept Sakura's limp body onto her free shoulder while spun around before launching herself at her endangered Master as fast as she could. As fast as she was, even she had doubts on her ability to reach her master in time.

"_Trace On!"_

Shirou had reacted the instant he realized he couldn't move and reasoned out Caster's location from the raging murderous sensation behind him. Frantically reciting his oldest and most reliable spell in his skull, unable to say anything due to the paralysis he was under and manifested a copy of Gae Dearg above him, he instantly and blindly firing it down to the area he had suspected that Caster would try to attack him from: right behind him. Her screaming only confirmed his guess.

At that range, even Caster was forced to abandon her initial plan and forced herself to twist out of the way while swinging wildly with her jeweled dagger. Just as Gae Dearg grazed the side of the Witch, spilling her blood for the second time that night, Rule Breaker sliced through Shirou's coat towards his lower back and through some pockets, just barely missing skin contact…

It apparently was enough to dispel the paralysis he was under though…

"Saber!" Shirou shouted as he managed to take one step forward before his hand clasped hers. Already he could see the glow of a malevolent purple light behind him, indicating that Caster had lost all form of patience with him and was going to try and destroy him as quickly as possible. Judging from Saber's expression, the odds of her being able to shield him in time were debatable.

The mission was a failure. Sakura was unable to get Marjatta in time, and Caster was still alive. Even with Caster and Assassin weakened as they are, it was too dangerous to fight them here. He and Sakura were just too easy of targets in this situation.

They needed to retreat. Unfortunately simply running away was not an easy option.

Saber could carry them yes, but she wouldn't be able to defend them with Assassin and Caster about, especially in this territory. Fighting would yield a similar results. Saber was a close range juggernaut, but Caster and Assassin were ranged fighters. It would take too long for her to get to them, and way too little for the pair to target the humans there. By the time Saber could kill one or both of them, the odds were high that one of the humans there would meet their end.

He couldn't separate Sakura and Saber due to the former's wound, so having his Servant toss them over the Temple walls to get them out of the way so she could fight wouldn't work either. If Sakura wasn't in such bad shape, or if Bazett wasn't there to hold him off, the risks wouldn't be so great, but as it stood he was left with few options that didn't guarantee someone on his side getting killed.

So that only left…

Shirou's left hand was glowing crimson red before he had even made contact with his Servant. _"I command you__,__ Servant Saber! Teleport us to the base of the Mountain!"_

He had never teleported before in his life, which was understandable considering that it was considered a mystery that bordered on true magic. The only people off the top of his head that he knew of that could do something of similar nature were either wielders of one of the Five True Magics, or individuals that weren't completely human in the first place.

Regardless, he could honestly say that he never wanted to teleport again after slamming into the rough asphalt street at the base of Mt. Enzo. The sensation of being pulled, pushed, contracted, expanded, and being subject to a multitude of sensations and phenomena at once was not something he was very keen on experiencing again.

Saber seemed to have no issue landing on her feet, but he had ended up hammering his knees on the ground, adding to the list of injuries, both combat and self-inflicted, that he had accumulated that night.

"Hah! Hah!" He gasped for air. Between the fighting, being frozen by Caster, and the irregular nature of his transportation, he was more than glad to finally get a steady supply of oxygen in his lungs. "DAMN IT!"

"I share your feelings." Saber looked around warily for enemies, more than once turning back to watch the devastation that was the battle between Berserker and Lancer and Rider. "We had failed multiple opportunities to finish off Caster…"

"No…" Sakura winced as she tried to speak. Her wound was healing, but it wasn't even close to closed yet even with Avalon. Her blood had coated a good portion of Saber's immaculate silver and blue armor with crimson fluid. "We shouldn't kill her. Caster… Marjatta's… we need…"

"Don't speak, Sakura. The fact that you have discovered important information for us about the situation is more than extraordinary considering what you were tasked to do," Saber soothed the girl and attempted to pour more of her power into her to accelerate the healing.

"▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅!"

Berserker's roar sent shivers up all their spines. For two of them this was their first time seeing the black giant of destruction, and he did not disappoint.

"Saber's right," Shirou grunted as he slowly picked himself off of the ground. His skull was absolutely killing him, and he had used up a good deal of his prana during the night's activities. "We need to find Illya first and then signal a retreat. I'll warn Rider to…"

His face instantly went pale.

"Shirou? What's wrong?" Saber frowned, easily able to pick up that something was wrong.

"No…" He instantly began to check his coat pockets. "No no no no. Shit. Don't tell me. Please don't tell me that she actually managed to…"

"Shirou… I can't feel Rider." Sakura grimaced.

The Servant of the Sword instantly turned around to see the battle on the mountain. "That can't be right. Shirou, Sakura, I can tell that Rider is still alive and fighting Berserker. Caster is weakened as well. How is it possible that you can't contact her?"

"… Damn it."

Squish. Wriggle.

The sound of countless small slime covered creatures writhing about one another was heard by the two females. It was something that Sakura in particular had become more than accustomed to, as she had heard it virtually every day of her life after becoming a Matou…

Everyone's eyes focused on the source: one of the pockets that had been cut open by Caster's last desperate attack with Rule Breaker. A large number of irregularly sized worms were leaking out of the hole in them…

Crest worms, that had once been the Book of False Attendant…

o. o. o.

Servant Stats

Assassin

ID: Kiritsugu Emiya

Alias: Magus Killer. Hero of Sacrifice.

Master: Caster (Witch of Betrayal)

Alignment: Chaotic Good

Strength: E

Agility: C+

Mana: B

Luck: E

Endurance: D

Noble Phantasm: B

Class Skills:

Presence Concealment: B+

Independent Action: C

Personal Skills:

Opportunist: A+

Subversive Activities: A

Mental Pollution: E

Eye of the Mind (True): B+ (Reduced from A due to Mental Pollution)

Thaumaturgy: C

Noble Phantasms:

Tools of the Trade: E-C Supplementary

Thompson Contender: C Anti-Unit/Anti-Barrier

A single round hunting pistol, more suited to hunt big game than battle. This weapon was customized to eclipse every other single handed gun in use, easily surpassing "hand cannon" class guns, and was capable of piercing anything with defensive traits less than that of an armored vehicle. The recoil on the original weapon was great enough to shatter the wrist bones of those unused to its power.

Because of its design, the Contender was not intended to kill its target, but to force it into a situation where said target would have to utilize a great deal of prana to counteract its raw power. The gun was frequently used to punch through many mysteries that magi had assumed would defend them, underestimating the bullet's impact.

As a result, this Noble Phantasm has been recreated with an conceptual ability.

Any defensive measure utilized in response to normal rounds shot by this Noble Phantasm will fail unconditionally so long as said precautions are not "the owner's strongest defensive measure". Against a Caster, the bullets will pierce through any and all barriers save for the absolute strongest ones in their arsenal as if they did not exist. Servants with multiple armaments will have to utilize their strongest shields and armors in order to prevent the bullet from piercing through.

This ability is not, however, affected by counterattacks, evasion abilities, or opposing attacks. In the case of the latter, the bullet will simply carry the power of a standard C ranked Noble Phantasm with no additional properties when met with the opposing force.

Had the Servant been summoned in Japan, but not Fuyuki, the power of this Noble Phantasm would change such that the bullets fired would increase by one rank if encountering a non-ultimate defensive armament, instead of bypassing it completely.

Had the Servant not been summoned in Japan, the Contender would simply be a C ranked Noble Phantasm with no supplementary effects.

Origin Bullet: B Anti-Magic

The secret weapon of the Magus Killer and the ultimate murdering tool of any Magi. Utilizing the concepts of "Severing" and "Binding" via the powdered bone contained within each bullet, these projectiles cause irrevocable change and damage to whatever they are used on that cannot be healed. When used on thaumaturgy, the bullets will short circuit the magic circuits used at the time by the enemy caster, causing their Prana to damage them from the inside out.

This effect will also come about should the opponent's Noble Phantasm be shot while its ability is in use. However it is incredibly difficult to make such a shot unless the activated ability has a wide range.

These bullets are primarily fired from the Thompson Contender. However if it is destroyed, a substitute single round gun capable of firing them will be available via Tools of the Trade.

Sixty six bullets were made during his life from powdering the top ribs on either side of his chest, and only slightly more than half were used in his life time. Due to the Servant's exceptional skill, efficiency, and the number of opponents in the war, this Servant is summoned with six origin bullets total. One for each team.

Rider

ID: Medusa

Alias: The Gorgon Queen

Master: Caster (Witch of Betrayal)

Alignment: Chaotic Good

Strength: B

Agility: A

Mana: A

Luck: E

Endurance: D

Noble Phantasm: A

Class Skills:

Magic Resistance: B

Riding: A+

Independent Action: C

Personal Skills:

Divinity: E-

Monstrous Strength: B

Mystic Eyes: A+

Noble Phantasms:

Bellerophon: A+

Blood Fort Andromeda: B

Breaker Gorgon: C-

o. o. o.

A/N:

Again. Thank you Wayfarer for betaing this chapter and dealing with this monstrously large chap.

For all intents and purposes, compare Marjatta's situation like an unstable nuclear powerplant. Gae Dearg can shut off the power. Rule Breaker can wreck the internal programming. But neither one of them will deal with the unstable fuel and materials that are inside. Actually using either one would likely set off the plant. Shirou needs an engineer (Caster) in order to turn it off safely.

As for comparing lesser grails, think of it like this:

Illya's compatibility with the system is ninety out of a hundred, while her functionality is a perfect hundred.

Sakura's compatibility is a perfect hundred due to Angry Man Jew, but her functionality is around sixty to sixty five. The low score prevents her from absorbing Servants unless she's nearly on top of them.

Marjatta's a hashed together grail with a compatibility of around sixty, and her functionality is around seventy since Caster's been looking at the Grail's system directly and has greater spells. The thing about her is that she can actually activate the Grail at a lower power rating as she is able to unleash her entire payload at once due to her Burst origin.

However as mentioned, she's incredibly unstable and needs constant maintenance.

Shinji's (Hahaha… ha… oh Shinji) compatibility and functionality are both between 10 and 20, which is still higher than the average human. The only reason why he's even that high is because he does have a family history that's filled with thaumaturgy. Given the right conditions and wife, his spawn does have the potential to be born with a reasonable number of magic circuits…

Hey, the dude actually survived the end of the UBW route despite what happened to him. There has to be some reasonable explanation for that.

Speaking of the least liked character in Type Moon…

I have a story challenge! And I believe I have a good name for it too!

_Shinji had a smart idea, and the world shuddered._

Please note that I said a smart idea, not necessarily a good one.

Ok! This is a straight up Fate Stay Night Fic challenge people! Stick to the script and keep everyone as in character as possible! There is only one thing that absolutely MUST happen at the beginning of the story that will set off whatever chaotic chain of events that eventually happen:

Shinji uses his head when he first sent Rider up the mountain to Ryudou Temple, saw that Fake Assassin had a piss poor Mana ranking, and had Rider turn his samurai ass to stone in three seconds flat.

Please note that this most likely happens BEFORE Shirou's encounter with Lancer, gets killed and actually becomes aware of the war in the slightest. This means that virtually everything from our favorite redhead's perspective could be completely different than how it played out in the visual novel.

The point of the challenge is not to focus on Shinji! It is simply to see what the effects were if he actually noticed something that could give him an easy win!

So yes, I'm back to working on FFD again after spending several months on TTRT. Rejoice! Or not! Who cares! I'm busy playing all the games I got from the Steam Summer Sales! One Finger Death Punch for the win!

It took me a while to get this chapter down. The comp ate up the first 5k words when I first started and it drove me nuts for about a week. It was a lot bigger than I thought it would be, and I wanted it to end on this cliffhanger. I originally wanted Caster to get Rider through stabbing the book by trying to use Rule Breaker on Illya and Shirou doing a heroic dive of heroism, which would double as a way for Illya to finally listen to Shirou, but as the chapter progressed I realized that wasn't going to happen. Then I switched Illya with Sakura… aaaaand that didn't seem to work out realistically either. All in all though I thought what we got here was pretty good. Not ideal exactly but still good.

Keep in mind that this is only roughly half, of the chaos that I planned for this "night's" events.

Anyways that's about it for now. Sorry for the wait guys.

So REVIEW! WORSHIP THE LOG! CASTER IS NOW AFRAID OF SHIROU'S BIG RED STICKS COMING AT HER FROM BEHIND! AND REVIEW AGAIN!


	36. Chapter 36

Chapter 36: Inertia

I do not own Fate/Stay Night and stuffs.

o. o. o.

She had been waiting for days for this.

Caster was nothing more than an annoyance to her. True, the power she had amassed recently made her somewhat of a threat, but ultimately the renegade Servant served two simple purposes: fuel and bait.

She had done nothing the previous night as Lancer, Archer, and the other Caster assaulted and immolated the side of the mountain. The one she wanted wasn't there, and while gathering information on her future opponents was a smart thing to do, it was nearly impossible to learn anything while the blaze blocked her view of anything. The most she got was that the second Caster was able to organize her summons for more than just simple up front attacks. She had left shortly after Archer and his Master first approached the Mountain, having finally lost interest in doing nothing but looking at an ever growing blaze.

It was obvious that their goal was to set as much of the mountain on fire as possible. Likely it was to reduce the oh so scary Assassin's territory advantage for the rest of the war…

It reminded her of _his _methods of assaulting enemy bases. She wouldn't be surprised if her target was the one who planned this, even if he wasn't there. He always seemed to be involved in one way or another when something big happened. No, she was certain that he had orchestrated it. None of the other Masters in this war were the types to plan the destruction of such a wide area just to gain a slight territory advantage later on.

So that meant that in addition to Rider, he held some sort of agreement with the other Caster as well. Maybe Lancer and Archer, but unlikely. The attack would have been more coordinated had that been the case, resulting in Caster's and Assassin's death…

Instead, apparently, Caster had somehow gained control over Lancer after she had left. It was a somewhat concerning fact, as it meant that the Witch could somehow steal Servants, but she wasn't worried about that happening to Berserker. Caster would be too preoccupied with trying to survive to even attempt to steal him.

Lancer was a reasonably strong Servant. Her encounter with him shortly before the War went into full swing proved it, as the Irishman had managed to hold his own against her Servant without receiving any substantial injuries for a fair amount of time before retreating. No, the real issue with the shift in power was that while Caster still was incapable of defeating Berserker, she did have the resources to spare to stall the Black Giant while the Witch looked for his only weakness… her.

The homunculus may have a child's body, but she was not stupid. She had every reason to be confident in her Servant's power and strength, but the same could not be said for her own capabilities. All things considered, she wasn't really that much of a Magus either. She had been trained and prepared for the war as a "grail" than a magus. Oh she knew a good deal of spells and theory, and could channel more prana than virtually anyone on the planet, but how her powers worked and how she thought… no, she was not a magus.

She was just a tool.

She had watched the fighting from the top of one of the taller buildings in the area a kilometer or so away from the Mountain while masking her presence. She'd still be noticed if anyone bothered to look in that area, but given all the fighting recently, it was more likely that Caster would focus on the buildings and alleyways bordering her property.

Generally speaking she was only moderately skilled at any sensory based thaumaturgy, but she had been altered for the War specifically by the family that designed the system itself. Keeping general tabs on all of the Masters and Servants was an easy task for her. Assassin and Caster were, of course due to their traits and abilities, somewhat more difficult. However the fact that she knew where they were beforehand corrected that flaw.

The reason why she didn't rush the war and pick off the enemy Servants one by one was fairly obvious. She knew she was going to die once all the servants died and she took their power within herself to activate the grail. Even if none of the Servants died or their power went somewhere else, she only had a year left to live anyways. She had come to terms with that.

That did not, however, mean that she was going to rush her death. There were still a few things she wished to resolve before she pretty much committed suicide.

She had felt Saber and Rider approach the mountain long before they had actually arrived. Initially she had planned to just attack them as soon as they got there, but with Caster controlling a greater force than she had liked, she had decided to wait it out a bit before wiping out everyone. Best case scenario, she managed to kill off her target and five Servants in a single night. Pretty productive all things considered. She doubted her grandfather would ever expect such a victory from her, not that the old bastard expected much other than for her to die one way or another.

She had expected a somewhat amusing battle when Saber encountered Lancer, but she was unpleasantly surprised when Rider interrupted and allowed Saber to rush towards the Temple.

It didn't make sense to her. She had sensed Assassin at the top of the mountain, but all things considered, the smart move would have been to overwhelm Lancer as quickly as possible with numbers. Given the battle yesterday, Assassin and Caster were likely still recovering, so Assassin would have only been able to provide mediocre support at best. With the strongest enemy there dealt with, the remaining opponents there would have been easy for the combined might of Rider and Saber to steamroll.

She was even more baffled when moments later her target ran out into the open and up the mountain, completely ignoring the impressively fast and wide ranging battle that Lancer and Rider were engaging in. Despite neither Servant being his, the Greek Gorgon and the Irish Hound did not seem to make any attempt to take out the easiest target there.

It was as if none of them were even trying to win the war…

Her anger flared.

Seven Servants summoned to seven Masters fight to the death for an unconditional wish. Akasha. Victory. Heaven's Feel. Wealth. Fame. Honor. Any of these would be sufficient enough to drive nearly anyone to participate. To be a major participant and not try to become the victor… to not try to _win_… it was not simply suicidal, but impossibly insulting to her.

She was going to die because of this war. People would die because of this war… but he was doing nothing of the sort. To him, the war was just another chore, a means to an end that she did not know or care about, and _somehow_ he was dragging other Servants into this farce rationalization as well.

He claimed that he wanted to save her. Zouken claimed that he was working for the Matou to win the War for him. And yet here he was, with the only Servant that she felt had a chance of beating her Berserker, enacting some scheme that went against both.

"_Shirou Emiya was merely designed to fight in this very war. And his goal does not involve winning the grail."_

Briefly she scanned the sky above her and her surroundings for anything out of the ordinary… well, out of the ordinary for the war at least. She had made it a habit after her encounter with the Apostle a few days past and was not about to let up on it anytime soon. Anyone that could produce such monstrosities with ease would warrant such attention.

The childish immortal's words echoed in her head, causing her to growl in frustration. She wished she could ignore what he had said, but when what very might well be an Apostle Ancestor spoke words of wisdom and advice to you, you damn well listened. They weren't ones to do such actions unless something was up. On the contrary, most were likely to kill you and ask questions later.

Still it annoyed her that an immortal bloodsucker that she had never heard or seen before claimed to know more about her family than she did.

With a silent command, Berserker had taken her small body into his possession and leapt across the tops of the buildings in the area, invisible to both the combatants and the locals. She took a moment as they landed to truly marvel at her Servant's deceptive grace. Despite being insane, he had surprisingly made little noise as they dropped six stories to the street below, three blocks north of where the steps to the Mountain were.

In the current situation, the biggest threats to her were Saber, and admittedly Assassin and Caster. The latter pair simply due to the fact that so long as Berserker was distracted they were the most able to kill her before anything could be done. All things considered, she didn't believe that all of the Servants in the war combined had enough A ranked attacks total to get rid of her Servant's lives, but that did not mean she would stupidly rush in without thinking.

As it stood, said greatest threats were preoccupied with one another in the Temple, with Lancer and Rider in between. _Oni-chan_ wouldn't dare attempt to try to go up fully exposed unless all of his enemies here were accounted for and preoccupied. As much as she hated him right now, she would none the less admit that he was good at what he did.

Regardless, in the current situation, the best option available for her was…

"▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅!"

… To get rid of the unnecessary distractions. With Lancer and Rider out of the way, dealing with Assassin, Caster, and Saber would be significantly easier for her.

She'd keep the fighting to the lower portions of the Mountain just in case one of the Servants in the Temple tried to go for her. That way, even if Berserker was somehow overwhelmed by any additional opponents, she would not be in any real danger.

She watched as Lancer and Rider wisely joined forces almost the moment they realized that the strongest Servant in the war was upon them, not that it would do them any good in the end.

Admittedly, while she doubted that either Servant had much outside of their Noble Phantasms that could pose a threat to Berserker, Illya did have to commend the speed of both Servants. Had Berserker not possessed Godhand's defensive traits, she may have been concerned about her monstrous Servant's ability to come out of the current situation intact. Berserker was by no means a slow Servant. However, even he seemed to have some issue coping with the relentless assault from all angles that the blue and violet enemies were giving him.

The pair were nothing more than colored streaks from her perspective as they forced the juggernaut to fight on the defensive. Adding onto the spectacle was the insane amounts of ash that Berserker kicked up with each deceptively fast swing of his stone weapon.

Even with the dust trailing and outlining exactly where the stone tool had been, Illya had trouble keeping up with just exactly what was happening as the fighting became faster and faster. What was even more ridiculous was how the airborne ash seemed to segregate and get torn apart one section at a time as one of the two blindly fast Servants sheered through the particles faster than it could get kicked up.

"▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅!"

Sparks seemed to be erupting everywhere around and on the Black Giant as he assaulted the two smaller Heroic Spirits with mindless ferocity. Had he been against just one of them, Heracles would likely have made some form of progress by now…

However both of them at once was apparently another story. Lancer was durable enough to endure and exchange a few direct blows from the monstrous Servant before quickly getting out of attack range, and Rider had no qualms about attacking him from behind as a distraction. Despite the latter's small frame, she possessed enough power behind her blows to at least garner some of Berserker's attention, which would create another opening for Lancer to either escape or charge in for another clash of weapons.

When Berserker turned his attention to Rider, the Gorgon would instantly get outside of attack range and keep it that way while Lancer gained his attention again. She never stopped moving, and despite the impossibility was quick enough to run away faster than Berserker could complete a swing to kill her.

When Berserker focused on Lancer, he would be stuck in a direct and unforgiving exchange of blows with neither side relenting. Rider would then use this to her advantage to attack the distracted madman just enough that Lancer got a few extra hits in.

The battle seemed to exchange between these two states ever few seconds, and did not appear to show any signs of stopping soon.

For all intents and purposes, it was a stalemate between an untouchable alliance and an unstoppable force. As it stood, Lancer and Rider were speed demons that could not be hit. On the other side, Berserker was a monster that could not be harmed even when blows were landed.

It was an annoyance for the albino. Berserker's advantage was all but obvious to everyone to see, and by all means he should have been able to crush both of the Servants within the first five minutes of battle. However, that had not been the case.

She could just let things progress as normal. Her Servant was not in any danger of actually losing in the current situation. All it would take is one eventual small mistake on either Lancer's or Rider's part and the battle would be as good as hers.

Problem was, they weren't alone in the area and Berserker… was about as subtle as a train wreck with rocket fuel cargo into a fireworks factory. There was no doubt that everyone in the area knew of the giant's current location. The Einzbern didn't rule out the possibility of someone in the Temple redirecting their attention to the fight here in the near future.

… No. Apparently she still had some time. Looking up she saw her target run into the Temple, meaning he clearly thought trapping himself inside was more important than dealing with her. Coward. If he stayed in the natural bounded field of the mountain, he could of at least staved Berserker off another hour or so before she caught him.

Oh well. At the very least that meant that Caster and Assassin would be preoccupied with Saber for a good while, buying her time to deal with the annoyances here. If her luck held out they'd kill one another off…

… And if it didn't Shirou would be killed and she would end up spending the rest of the war with a bitter taste in her mouth. Definitely something to contemplate seriously.

"▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅!"

Then again it was rather difficult to think clearly when Berserker was rampaging nearby. She had liked to think that she was used to it by now after two months, but then again it wasn't as if there were many things in the world that could stay intact longer than a few seconds against the Servant.

WHAM!

She had returned to reality as she noticed that for the first time Berserker had ignored Lancer to purposefully block a blow from Rider. The force of the impact blew away nearly all of the dust in the area and the shockwave had caused her to clench her teeth reflexively.

The fact that Berserker had intentionally defended was a warning sign. The Servant was insane, but his instincts were still there and intact. The only reason for him to perform an action of defense was if the thing he was defending against actually posed as some sort of threat to him.

The threat couldn't be the nail that Rider was using. It was a weapon, but the Master could tell that it wasn't a Noble Phantasm. It was an interesting piece, but little more mystical than the giant axe sword that her own Servant was wielding. Rider didn't seem to have any abilities to get past Berserker's defense either.

So, given what she could see the only remaining possibilities were either Rider had some sort of conceptual Noble Phantasm that she had yet to identify, which was unlikely…

WHAM!

Berserker spun and swung his tremendous weapon again at torrential speeds, this time aiming for Rider. The beautiful Servant was unable to get away as she had just landed from her airborne strike, and thus could only retaliate. Her lithe figure seemed to coil like a serpent as it lashed out at the weapon that was larger than her… but even more absurd was the fact that she had managed to stop the insane attack with her miniscule nail through pure raw force.

Yes. There was no doubt about it. Rider was using her Monstrous Strength skill to increase her physical power to A rank, enough to enable her to hammer through Berserker's Godhand and kill him… once at least.

How silly. Trying to compete against Heracles using physical power. Even a child knew better than to think of something like that.

"▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅!"

However, even A ranked strength still paled before the might of Berserker as Rider soon found out first hand. Despite her impressive jump in power and holding off the ferocious attack, the smaller Servant was still eventually thrown back with unrelenting force, falling back down the mountainside and into the grave like black remains of the trees that were burned away the previous night.

The monster made way to pursue the annoying thing that had tried to kill it from behind, when the other annoying thing that kept on talking got in its way and began to fight it again.

"Oi oi! I know she's a looker, but I'm still here!" Lancer grinned as he lashed out with his spear and swung low, or in this case, at chest height, in order to nail the weakest part of the human body, the knees. Granted, Berserker's knees were still far more stable and held more power than most Servants, but they were still technically a viable target.

The Mad Servant roared loudly as it turned its focus to the closest target again. It wasn't out of frustration or rage. His mind was too far gone for such superficial emotions. The closest thing that it could be compared to was a greater expression to murder the thing that had gotten in the way of his pursuit to kill the other thing he was about to go after.

However, its seemingly unstoppable swing to bash away the annoyance was momentarily halted before it could reach its target, allowing Lancer to hammer his weakest joints…

For the first time in the war, Berserker had been brought down to his knees.

The Master watching from a distance clicked her tongue in annoyance as she saw the cause of Berserker's failed attack: the chain wrapped around Berserker's arm that led all the way back to Rider. The harlot had somehow managed to snare her precious Servant's limb with her feeble weapon during their brief confrontation and had used it to give Lancer an opening. She was honestly more astounded that the thin links of metal had managed to hold together well enough to actually stall Berserker's movements more than that her Servant had been brought to his knees. Rider must have put a good deal of prana into them in order to accomplish such a feat.

With another thunderous bellow the demigod flexed his muscles, bulging them so suddenly that the metal around his arm shattered instantly and forced the Irishman on the defensive again.

She frowned. This becoming increasingly annoying. She just had to be facing the only Servants in this war that were faster than Berserker in a wide area, thus capable of countering his normal dominance of the battlefield. They weren't winning by any means, but she certainly wasn't either, and it didn't look like that was about to change anytime soon.

She spied the remains of Rider's chain fade away into prana as her Servant began to thrash about rampantly to get at the annoyance that had managed to actually bring it down. Due to the more restricted stance, Lancer was able to get some more strikes in. Not that they did anything as the spear tip sparked against the Greek's legendary body, but the Master still considered it a bit of an insult that it happened at all.

And then as if she was a ricocheting shooting star, a violet blur shot out from the darkness and began to seemingly assault her Servant from five different directions within a second, further distracting Heracles.

Her mind was made. "Kill Lancer. Ignore Rider," she ordered. Rider may be proving herself to be a bigger annoyance, but Lancer was the one that seemed to be holding her Servant back the most. Sure it may take some time and cost Berserker a life or two, but in the end it was the best choice. With Lancer out of the way, Rider would be nothing more than a fly to swat if she got too close.

The Servants seemed to notice the change instantly as Berserker began to make it his existence's mission to decimate the smaller male. From his kneeling position his weapon seemed to move so fast that it was multiplying, instantly putting Lancer on the defensive and behaving as if Rider's attacks did not exist.

"Hahaha! Now I'm feeling too much love!" The battle junkie laughed as he attempted to pretend his arms weren't about to fall off from dealing with countless titanic blows. The fact that he was being pushed back by an opponent that was on his knees was not lost on him, but neither was the fact that his opponent was one of the most famous demigods in existence.

Another colossal blow was made, and Lancer this time was brought to his knees while simultaneously being thrown down the mountain.

Berserker attempted to get up, but Rider was still assaulting him from virtually every side and had seemed to make it her purpose to keep buy as much time as possible.

A sickening crack was heard as the knee that the giant had put his weight on was impacted from behind by the violet blur, causing it to bend at an awkward angle…

The monster didn't seem to even notice as it finished rising to its full insane height and bolted towards the blue target.

"Hahahaha!" Said target didn't even seem to mind the fact that death seemed to be coming down upon him as runes began to glow all over his body. His crimson eyes seemed to glow with as much glee and bloodlust as the magic on his body. "What a guy! It's been a while since I met someone almost as stubborn as I am!"

The fighting resumed with greater intensity than before. Every collision between the two weapons made was enough to send a shockwave that not only kicked up all the ash around the Servants, but was even felt by Illya from her position. To her it was if she was standing close to a massive fireworks display, where every single rapidly fired explosion was hammering her body and gradually making it numb.

However even from her position she could tell that Berserker was not faring well. Her Servant was immensely powerful and fast, but Lancer's new strength was giving him the slight edge he needed to turn this battle around. For every clash they made, the lightning fast crimson spear seemed to puncture through the Giant's skin two or three times. Even with his enhancements, Berserker was unable to keep up with such ridiculous speed and skill.

Even so, Lancer was incapable of utilizing his enhanced state to its fullest. The amount of strength and control it took to edge in those extra blows after every clash with the monster was beyond extraordinary. The fact that he was capable of such a feat at all was a marvel in itself. His god like speed was countered by god like power.

The minor blows he landed were not sufficient though. Gae Bolg's cursed tip did manage to pierce Berserker's hide, as his owner's strength had been boosted temporarily to A rank much like his temporary partner's. However none of the blows had been lethal. Anything short of a killing blow would not put down this beast, or any beast with a Battle Continuation ability of A rank as well. Truly Berserker was an unreasonable Servant to deal with.

Illya watched the fight with anticipation. She did not expect Lancer and Rider to be able to put up such a good battle. She still did not think that Berserker would lose, but she was glad that she had focused her attention on Lancer first. His ability to enhance his traits with runes was unexpected, and given enough time, she dare even suspect that he may have become a genuine threat to Berserker…

A sickening crack was heard as the violet blur struck again, this time driving a silver nail into the skull of the mad beast, driving the metal right into his brain and hammering his top heavy body with enough force to topple it near instantly.

Having finally stopped, Illya managed to get a good look at the beautiful Servant's altering appearance. Her hair was still violet, but it was starting to take a darker, dirty hue, while clumping together into several solid looking steams. Her skin was also becoming less pristine, more reptilian and monstrous, the greatest change being in her hands which were now clawed and chorded.

This was likely only roughly the halfway point of the Servant's transformation. Given enough time, enough of her would change that her identity would probably be known. However that did not matter. Knowing her identity was only needed if the user needed to employ strategies in order to fight. Berserker needed none.

"_That was one…_" The girl thought, only flinching at the sudden death of her mad familiar, already feeling Godhand coming into effect. _"Now can you do it eleven different times?"_

"▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅!"

Berserker had revived before his body had even hit the ground. Rider barely managed to get away from the screaming skull before the area she had occupied was torn through by a tremendous hand.

"You really are a pain you know that?!" Lancer's grin didn't match his words as he once more jumped in and began to engage with the Servant.

Illya wasn't bothered by it. Rider had wasted her kill now, and the best she could do was run interference. Berserker's ability recovered his body to its prime condition. His head was intact, his knees were fixed and his body…

Wait.

The homunculus' eyes narrowed as she focused on the Mad Servant's torso. "That can't be right…"

The wounds created by the cursed spear's blade were still visible on Berserker's body. Countless minor cuts and gouges that had been spawning all over were still weeping blood. They weren't impairing his movements in the slightest, but the fact that they were still there was… concerning.

She attempted to pour some prana into the Servant and heal his body, something she was unused to doing for obvious reasons, but found that the wounds would not close. Even with Godhand's ability to revive him from the dead, there were apparently things that even the Noble Phantasm could not rectify…

What was concerning though was that these cuts were _still there_. They were _flaws_ in the otherwise impenetrable defense that was Godhand.

As tiny and inconsequential as they may be, Berserker, and Illya by association were now… vulnerable.

And should Lancer score a lethal blow with that cursed weapon…

"▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅ ▅▅▅▅▅▅ ▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅!"

The beast seemed to roar with outstanding rage and fury as it felt its Master's sudden distress and fear. It could not understand anything specific, or even what the reasons were. However he understood the following logic: the blue thing in front of him scared his Master. It must be destroyed.

"What the hell?! Why are you pissed off at me?!" Lancer's eyes widened as he had to double up on his defense. One moment, Rider had managed to finally get something through that thick skull of Berserker's, the next, the clearly not dead Servant was trying to turn him into paste as if he was the one that scored the blow.

The further corrupted purple blur that was Rider once more resumed her assault from all angles on Berserker in an attempt to regain his attention, but her blows seemed to have no effect this time. Regardless of how heavy or frequent the blows were, they didn't even seem to have any sort of physical effect on the monster that was hacking away at the other Servant.

Some of the tension in the homunculus abated at this. With Rider's physical attacks being next to useless, Berserker could focus all of his attention on Lancer without interruption. It was only a matter of time before the War would be down two Servants now…

The world seemed to echo as a particularly tremendous blow was delivered. Even though Lancer had properly blocked it, he was still launched back down the mountain like a missile, tearing up the landscape in the process with his body.

Unfortunately, that did not seem to be enough to take out the Irishman, as moments later, the violet and silver shooting star that had been assaulting Berserker from all angles had been joined with a blue and crimson bolt of lightning.

Then Berserker moved, and became a living avalanche.

The mountain itself seemed to shake and quiver in pain as the strongest Servant rampaged all over its side in an attempt to catch his prey. He was not fast enough to catch it, but neither was he something to be ignored until he either died or succeeded in his task.

Illya marveled at the display or relentless destruction. It wasn't often that she was able to watch Berserker go all out like this for so long. Most things tended to break after one or two hits, so she could say for certain that watching him battle for extended periods of time were rare and unique experiences…

Her attention, however, was then abruptly occupied with a massive spike in mana from just over a block away. To appear so suddenly so close to her without her noticing until just now was unnerving.

Another Servant? Given who was here, the only ones left were the other Caster and Archer. Caster would certainly be capable of teleporting this close to her, but there was no point for her to show up. She was by far one of the weakest Servants in the War, and making herself known now might as well be akin to suicide for her. Archer… may have something interesting to contribute to the fight, but if that was the case, why would he bother to appear at ground level when sticking to the rooftops would give him a better position? She had never actually encountered the Servant, but she highly doubted that he would be of the same pedigree as the one from the previous war.

She momentarily lost her balance as the fighting got closer to her and the ground shook more than expected. She was still a good distance away from it all, but her body was small. It was not meant to endure physical activities like this…

She smiled with bitter amusement. Why was she worrying? Archer? Caster? What could they possibly contribute that would defeat Heracles? Her Servant was unstoppable. Even just standing here while he fought in the distance was enough to nearly bring her to her knees.

She could actually see the craters and trails that Berserker was making in the mountain now. It looked as if a genuine war had taken place there, minus the bodies… which would soon be corrected. A vast majority of the equipment that had been left over by the fire department to combat the fire from last night and deal with the damages had been destroyed via crushing, smashing, slashed apart, and in one instance, thrown off the side of the mountain and crashing through a second story window of one of the nearby buildings…

For a brief moment, the homunculus wondered just how badly the war was going to affect the insurance rates in the city, let alone the general area. Given how many fights had occurred on the mountainside, she could only assume that the Temple would be strapped for cash for a good while…

"Man, those three are really going at it huh?"

The albino froze as the voice reached her ears. She had only heard it once in person, but even so its owner shouldn't be here. She had seen him enter the Temple at the top of the mountain not even ten minutes ago, and had not seen him since.

Slowly, she turned around to see her target, her step-brother slowly walk to her, leaning somewhat on the building that she herself was using for physical support. His clothes were slightly ripped in a few places and were slightly dirty, but the main thing that stuck out in his appearance were the poorly wiped away blood trails coming from his nose and ears. Should their sources not be extraordinary in nature, it would mean that he had recently suffered pretty damaging mental trauma of some sort.

"Oni…chan?" She blinked in disbelief. "How…?"

"How?" Shirou's lips twitched into a weak smile as he slowly walked to her general direction. "Well… let's just say that things got a bit messy in there and I had to make an emergency retreat with Saber."

As if she had heard her name being called out, the Servant of the Sword had decided at that moment to shoot out from a nearby alleyway like a silver and blue rocket up the mountain. She was at best as fast as Berserker, and overall seemed to have the least impressive appearance as she made her move. However the instant she had collided with Berserker, the world seemed to shake from the impact like a bomb had just gone off. All of the ash and debris on the mountain seemed to be blasted away from the shockwave, and a good number of windows were shattered under the pressure.

Even Lancer and Rider were temporarily halted, unable to keep control of their movements in the face of the newcomer's opening strike.

Berserker's strength was indeed insane. It alone was overwhelming enough to put him on a pedestal that few Servants could hope to surmount even with their Noble Phantasms.

Saber's power on the other hand derived from her impossibly deep mana pools… which in many ways was just as absurd as her opponent's strength. By all means, she could, no, _should_ be considered just as insane of a monster as Berserker is.

The two humans held their arms in front of their faces in order to protect themselves from the outstanding backlash and ash that headed their way. Illya for one was stunned that Saber was this powerful. The small servant had not demonstrated nearly this much force in the previous fights.

Shirou on the other hand…

"It took that long for the wound to close…" He frowned, not allowing the debris to force him to close his eyes and focus on what was there.

"▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅!"

Saber and Berserker became the clear center of attention as their blades impacted one another with the force and sound of cannons. The spectators there could easily see the shockwaves made in the air with every single collision of their weapons. Lancer may have been a significant force with his runes, but he still paled in comparison to Saber when it came to raw firepower.

Berserker's attention was completely focused on Saber. He still had his orders to attack the first blue enemy, but this one was stronger, faster… a true threat. It couldn't be ignored, even in his current mad state, even if he had enough sanity to want to.

"Illya." Shirou caught the Einzbern's attention again. She turned around angrily, not liking the fact that he addressed her so familiarly, but froze when she saw his face. Unlike her past experiences with him, the assassin wasn't smiling at her gently or trying to put on a gentle or welcome atmosphere. On the contrary, he seemed to be exclude a cold calm aura around him as he looked emotionlessly at the fight. "I'm going to need you to have Berserker focus on Lancer for a bit. I need to know something and time isn't on our side. You can ask me whatever you want after this. I'll answer everything after this, and if you don't like what I have to say then you can do whatever you want to me."

It took a few moments for her to gather her thoughts, but the daughter of Kiritsugu recovered well. "And why should I do that? From your appearance, I can kill you now and easily weaken Saber for Berserker to handle."

"If I told people that I knew of you, odds are very high that you would have come to Japan with more than just Berserker and two handmaidens as backup." He stated firmly as he slowly closed the distance... no, he wasn't approaching her. He was getting closer to the fight so he could have a better view of everything. "Having you come here instead of trying to break into Einzbern Castle all the way in Germany sounds much simpler, don't you think? This way I don't have to waste time with an annoying army of supercharged homunculi."

He paused briefly. "… Then again. I apparently misjudged how badly the rumors spread about me would get to you. Sorry about that. I've made it a habit of ignoring what people tend to think of me, and it seems to have backfired in this case."

The girl's eyes widened in realization at what the boy was insinuating. If what he was saying was true, then the male in front of her had been using the Holy Grail War, one of the most complex and intricate rituals in the modern world… as bait to lure her out where she was the least guarded by her family.

It was absurd. It was insulting. It spat on everything that magi stood for…

It was exactly what her father was known for…

His eyes narrowed as he focused on the battle. "Saber's going to break from Berserker in three… two..."

With another earth shattering bang, Saber had poured an absurd amount of power into her next strike, forcing her and somehow Berserker away from the epicenter and rattling everything in a mile radius. Unlike her opponent, the King of Knights rode the recoil like a professional and moved towards her true target, Rider.

There was a tense moment as everyone seemed to focus on the giant.

_Thump thump._

"Rider! Don't move!" Another instant. Saber was nearly halfway to Rider. Berserker seemed to not even be aware of what was around him.

It was only because Shirou was connected to his Servant that he could tell that she had dispelled her invisible sword…

… and had taken out the copy of Rule Breaker that he had made less than a minute after teleporting to the base of battlegrounds.

_Thump…_

"▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅!"

Berserker turned his focus on Lancer once more.

"Oh come on! This is getting ridiculous! Why are you going after me again?!"

Rider appeared to be following Saber's frantic command, as she did not seem to be preparing to escape or counter Saber's sudden unexpected attack…

The sound of metal hammering metal rang though the air as at the last moment, the Gorgon Queen knocked aside the dagger with one of her nails and attempted to stab her former partner in the neck with the other. Another explosion of prana erupted from the smallest Servant, blasting away the half transformed woman a good dozen yards almost instantly. Apparently Saber had been expecting such a thing happening and had prepared just in case.

"Damn. She noticed after all," Shirou growled angrily as he saw Rider shakily stand up straight, her arms, legs and body twitching erratically as if she was fighting against an invisible force. "She used a Command Seal…"

"What are you talking about?" Illya was growing more confused by the second. "I thought you were partnered with Rider's Master."

"The Caster up there has a Noble Phantasm that can sever the link between Masters and Servants and gain control over the latter." He made no attempt to hide the information, but still tried to be brief. "She accidentally stabbed the medium I was using to control Rider with it earlier. Normally she has to stab the Servant with it, but I guess what I was using was enough of a grey zone that she managed to steal the rights as Rider's Master from me. It would explain why Sakura still has her Command Seals."

"Wait… you were supporting two Servants the entire time?!" Illya honestly wondered if it was best just to kill him now and spare herself the headache. "Why on earth were you doing that?!"

Off in the distance, Rider was now beginning an assault on Saber. However unlike Berserker, the King of Knights was nowhere near as disoriented and sloppy in her counterstrikes as she managed to follow her former ally's attacks with little issue. While the skirmish had initially appeared to be in Rider's favor as she seemed to appear from multiple directions at once, the conclusion that was her being sent flying away from everyone by a single hit was not missed by anyone.

"Let's just say that it's one of the many, many things that we are going to go over later." Shirou muttered as he watched with a solemn expression.

Three… two…

The timer he had set on his watch went off. It was now exactly midnight.

Tools of the Trade had reset. They were out of time and had lost their advantage.

"I know this is going to sound ridiculous, but we have to leave." He slowly began to move to her again, but keeping his eyes open and constantly scanning his surroundings. "The way things are now, we're going to lose."

"Hah?" Illya really didn't know what to say to that. They may be outnumbered, but out of all the possible pairings in the war, they had, at least temporarily the two strongest ones fighting side by side. "What do you mean? Your Saber is the only Servant that can stand a chance against my Berserker. If they work together there is no way that they can be defeated."

The Emiya grimaced. All things considered, she was right in that sense. No two Servants in the war had more muscle than theirs. All things considered, in a straight up fight he believed that they could go up against all of the other Servants in the War at once and still come out on top with the odds in their favor…

On the other hand… "Work together huh?"

Illya blinked in confusion at his statement and the small amused smirk on his face before she realized he was echoing what she had just said and gaining color in her face like a certain unnamed tsundere. "I! You! Don't misunderstand me! You know what I-!"

"Shirou!" A yell of panic from the battleground caught their attention and towards the rapidly approaching violet and silver shooting star approaching them.

Caster must have located where they were hiding already and ordered Rider to kill him. The stepsiblings were far enough into the alleyway that it was not possible to see them from the Temple Entrance, but that did not seem to be enough protection in this case. The Witch must be reveling in the possibility that he would be killed by his former comrade. Shirou certainly wouldn't put it past her to think like that.

Saber wouldn't make it in time. Berserker wouldn't either. Outrunning Rider was a stupid idea akin to trying to beat Saber in swordsmanship. He could use a Command Seal to warp Saber to his location to counter the attack head on, but he did have another option.

"Trace overclock. Rho Aias."

Just before Rider could make it to the entrance of the alleyway, multiple copies of the legendary seven layered Shield of Ajax spawned in front of it and halted her progress. She would have gone over the fairly large bounded field, but the replicas overlapped one another going up, spanning all the way up to the rooftops of the buildings that her mortal targets were between.

"Gggh!" Shirou winced as he felt something in his head nearly burst from the pressure of producing so many shields at once. Creating mass replicas of blades was an easy enough task for him to do, but shields and armor were a good deal more straining. He didn't notice a new stream of blood coming from his nose. Ironically, he had assumed that without being forced to support Rider anymore, he could use some of his more straining spells and methods again… However he forgot to take into account his rather exhausted and weakened state…

When he had snuck into Caster's temple, he had only managed to make a short distance inside when Bazett had fallen on top of him like a freight train.

He had attempted to reason and speak with her to try and snap her out of whatever Caster had done, but that yielded nothing. Normally he was capable enough to hold his own against her for a reasonable amount of time before she ultimately crushed him with her bare hands. He had been learning to fight under her for years, and knew her moves pretty well all things considered...

The problem was that when she fought seriously and used her runes, it was impossible for him to keep up unless he accelerated his body. Even worse was that she seemed to be sporting new sequences on her gloves and clothing that made her even faster and stronger than before. The best he managed to do was lure the fight to where he wanted to go while playing defensive the entire time.

It didn't help that in a moment of desperation, he had activated his Pure Eyes in an attempt to get a better reading on her, and was temporarily shocked by the fact that her legs were nearly identical to Merem's limbs. This momentary pause in his movements earned him a pleasant fist to the ribcage and four broken bones. The slight concussion she gave him when she knocked him into the area where Sakura and the other Servants were earlier didn't help either.

Normally he was more careful and considerate when it came to dealing with his literally oldest friend… However he definitely had a few choice words in mind to say to the Ancestor the next time he saw him.

He had Avalon inside of him, so the physical wounds he sustained from the attacks and from the backlash of using Time Alter were all eventually dealt with. The problem was that dealing with such unbearable pain and stress after utilizing a magic that caused multiple veins in his skull to burst was not having a welcome effect on his state of mind, stamina, and ability to remain conscious.

Apparently Avalon could heal a good many things at impossible speeds, but it still paled in comparison to aspirin for headaches.

The alleyway seemed to pulse as Rider attempted to charge her way through the last second defense and impacted it at full speed. Only one petal of the shield she had hit had cracked, but the reflected damage onto Shirou's person did not help things.

Time seemed to stop as Shirou and Rider looked at one another through the semitransparent shield. Rider's transformation had progressed even further now. Her skin was darker, as was her violet hair which had all but been turned into countless thick tentacle like strands that each seemed to have a life of their own.

What stuck out to Shirou most though was her mouth. It wasn't the fact that her teeth were now altered, sharpened to that of a carnivore's. No, what he saw was that they were clenched together tightly, showing a good deal of frustration and resistance that she was exerting on herself… against the orders that she was being forced to carry out.

"Shi-rou…" Even her voice had been altered by her power. Where before it had been smooth and sultry, it was now thick and raspy.

Her appearance seemed to send a spike through the Emiya's chest. Rider had ended up like this because of him. It was his fault. He had gotten careless and she was suffering because of it.

"Rider. Don't push yourself. Please," he spoke up gently, but the pain and worry clearly evident in his words. Above all else though… behind the soft volume and the soothing tone of compassion… was a foundation of cold silent rage directed at a source that was not there. "Be patient. I'll get you back soon. I promise."

The Gorgon's breathing seemed to become less ragged at his words, and her expression relaxed softly to regain some of the beauty that she had held before… and then she moved to avoid Saber's attack from behind.

"Shirou! You shouldn't push yourself! You haven't fully recovered yet!"

"Now isn't the time Saber!" Shirou snapped as he focused on the fighting in front of him. "Midnight's passed! You have to keep an eye out for…!"

He felt something strike his chest and suddenly became unable to find the ability to talk anymore. A moment later he realized that he had lost strength in his legs and was falling backwards.

A loud bang was the only indication they had that they had been attacked, and by the time it reached their ears it was already too late. It did not originate from a clashing of weapons or a result of something else being absolutely destroyed by Berserker…

"…Ah?"

But from a modified Thompson Contender hunting pistol.

"SHIROU!" Saber and Rider shouted in surprise and shock as the teen fell back with a large bloody hole where his heart was.

The projections he had made to separate himself and Illya from the Servants at once shattered, and Saber wasted no time getting into position between her Master and all of the other Servants…

No. Between Shirou and Kiritsugu.

"Again?!" the King of Knights roared, her emerald eyes piercing into his dull black. "Again you go for those close to you, Kiritsugu?! This goes too far, even for you! Answer me for once! Assassin!"

Standing right across the street from the alleyway, Kiritsugu didn't seem to register Saber's outburst in the slightest as he lowered his gun. Instead his attention was focused on the white haired girl standing behind her, who was in turn staring back at him with wide crimson eyes of disbelief.

"… Papa?" Her voice was little more than a whisper, not because of any emotional expression, but simply because she couldn't seem to muster up enough energy to her lungs to increase the volume greater than that. "What? … How? You're dead… they said you were dead…"

Saber clicked her tongue in frustration. Shirou had told her that he wanted to avoid having Illya encounter Kiritsugu if at all possible. There was no telling what the girl would do now, and likewise there was no way to predict what Caster would make Assassin do to exploit the situation. "Illyasviel! Don't get any closer! You can't trust him!"

"… Illya…" The gunman made himself completely open to attack as he took an unstable step forward and slowly widened his arms in a welcoming gesture. "… I…"

"Why? Why are you here?" Her eyes were growing progressively unfocused as her voice grew. "Why did you kill mama? Why did you give up the grail? Why… why didn't you COME BACK?!"

"▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅!"

The mindless beast responded to his mistress' distress. Without warning, he had turned his attention away from the thoroughly exhausted Lancer to charge down the Mountain at the small thing that had caused the girl so much pain. Without stopping the monstrous existence barreled down the mountain at full tilt, and within moments had crossed the majority of the distance between him and his target…

BOOOOM!

And had set off one of the several broken landmines said target had set up before making his appearance while everyone was preoccupied with their respective battles. As Berserker did not have the ability to detect or even determine what the explosives were before they went off, Assassin's Opportunist skill came into effect, so the broken C ranked weapon went off with the power of an A ranked bomb, packing enough power in it to surpass the Giant's defensive abilities and spawning a shockwave that shattered nearly every piece of glass in a hundred meter radius. The explosion was powerful enough to blow off one of Berserker's legs completely, with the other leg and arm on the same side being damaged tremendously in the process.

That being the case, there was little surprise when everyone witnessed the Bastard of Zeus collapse forward and slide down the mountain with momentum he had been carrying before…

BOOOOOOM!

And set off another two hidden explosives that had been placed further down the slope, utterly destroying what remained of the strongest Servant's body. Chunks of the Heroic Spirit flew everywhere. What appeared to be his head flew into the streets a good hundred meters away from everyone, and the largest part of him, his terrifyingly large torso and chest, landed as a shouldering hunk of meat just a short distance to the left of Assassin.

There was little doubt that he would recover. At the very best, Berserker had been killed twice due to the intensity of the blasts if Assassin had been lucky… however even so it would take some time for him to recover enough to battle.

"Oi oi. That's just not fair. I bust my ass all night just to hold that guy off and that annoying mute weakling manages to kill the monster without even looking? This war doesn't make any sense at all anymore," Lancer grunted as he allowed himself to take a few moments to recover. Despite his complaining, he couldn't help but shiver at Assassin's handling of Berserker. The abnormal Servant was without a doubt a monster of a different make than what most would expect from a Heroic Spirit.

It was an abnormal sight. Assassin standing out in the open like that with so many Servants surrounding him. If the situation was different and Caster didn't control half of everyone there, he really would be dead in the following five minutes.

In all honesty, Lancer was scratching his head as to why on earth that bitch Caster was still around considering Assassin clearly wanted to off her. All things considered, Assassin should have been able to find a way around Caster's orders by now even with the Command Seal keeping his actions in check and killed her.

Allowing his runes to fade away, he scanned the scene below him with mixed annoyance and curiosity before seeing something that clearly put a bad taste in his mouth. "... The hell?"

"B-Berserker…" Illya stared in disbelief at the spot where her Servant had been blown up the second time. She had expected him to die in various ways in the war. Stabs. Slashes. Beams of power. Perhaps gored or crushed by a fairly powerful summon. Maybe even punctured by a lance or strong spell. But to be blown apart like that… and so easily… the scene would no doubt stick with her for a long time to come.

"Illya, come here…" Kiritsugu took another step forward despite Saber pointing her sword at him. "Papa's here now. You don't have to worry anymore. I'll protect you. I won't let Acht take you away… just like Mama wanted…"

_Screech screech._

It was a soft but sharp sound. The sort that could reach one's ears over a good distance despite the low volume it had.

_Screech screech._

It was familiar to everyone who heard it, but at the same time completely unheard of at the same time. Like a song remix from an old tune that you heard on occasion but still had to think about to remember the original title.

Regardless, it was an out of place sound. In a situation like this, it meant that it could only belong to something of concern.

_Screech screech._

It took a few moments for everyone to find the source… and a few more for most of them to comprehend what it was…

_Screech screech._

"Ugh… buuuaaagggghhh!"

The young man that had just had his heart shot and a hole punched through his body was somehow on one knee, throwing up blood and minced organs that had gotten mixed in with the lung that had also been pierced.

_Screech screech._

Despite the unnatural nature of the sound, its pattern was unforgettable to anything that had flesh and blood. Despite clearly being metallic, what they were hearing was no doubt a heartbeat.

_Screech screech._

A heartbeat performed by an organ made of countless interweaving and interlocking blades.

Even Saber was slightly unnerved by what she was witnessing as her Master slowly picked himself up. She knew that with Avalon inside of him and their connection that he would eventually recover even from that wound, but… she had never witnessed its powers in such a twisted form.

Everyone had a clear view of the jagged and irregular organ throbbing and scraping against itself to provide blood to the rest of the body as he managed to prop his body up against the wall of the building he was closest to, his left arm hanging lifeless next to his body as his pectoral muscle was still completely useless. The organ seemed to be comprised of countless little edges that interlocked like scales, shining with bodily fluids as the wound itself continued to heal and close at an unnatural rate. The fact that it was even there after being blown out in itself was almost completely ignored when compared to the bizarre nature of its replacement.

It was an image that even the Servants, individuals who had made their legends confronting impossibilities and undefinable creatures, were temporarily struck mute at witnessing.

"Hah. Hah…"

Shirou had trouble breathing. Every exhale hurt to the point that he felt as if he was about to black out again. His head was throbbing from the previous pain he sustained combined with the short amount of time it did not receive any fresh oxygen. His chest was on fire. His lungs were both burning and filling up with blood as the wounded organ had yet to fully heal along with his heart. Every time he threw up blood, he could feel countless blades coming up his throat and out his mouth, cutting up the tube that traveled through his body and causing him to spew out even more bodily fluids as a result.

But it wasn't unexpected for him. It shouldn't be. His body was made of blades. The fact that he was being cut up by them only meant that he still wasn't familiar with himself. If his blood was turning into sharp pieces of metal, and his heart was being altered, then it should be no issue for his trachea, cricoid cartilage, thyroid cartilage, vocal folds, epiglottis, pharynx and oral cavity to make a similar change. It shouldn't be that hard… he was already unconsciously doing it with his heart and blood already…

He didn't exactly know how he did it, but somehow the next surge of altered blood and bile from his damaged lungs and stomach traveled up without any issue, scraping against an organic mesh of sharp implements and out through his mouth…

He held back a swear as sharp pain flooded his mouth. He had forgotten to enforce his tongue and teeth, and ended up having the bones and the organ littered with more cuts. Avalon managed to deal with those quickly, but the sensation was still far from pleasant.

No, this wasn't the time to be concerned about minor issues like being hurt. He had Avalon in him. He'd be fine. There were more important things to focus on.

He blinked his eyes multiple times in an attempt to clear his vision as he looked up wearily, unaware that not only said ocular organs had turned a dull silver (as opposed to the somewhat glowing silver which was the standard whenever he used his pure eyes), but that his teeth had sharpened into small dagger like existences as well. Combine all of that with blood that had recently been exiting him mouth, and he had a rather intimidating and bizarre appearance.

"Ill-ya…" he gasped out despite the horrific pain it put him under, causing more blood to exit his mouth. His voice itself had clearly been altered by his pseudo transformation as well, becoming scratchy and even had a metallic undertone to it.

His chest hurt in a new way when the girl took a step back away from him in absolute fear. He understood it must have been shocking to see him get back up from such an injury, but her reaction still hurt. It was only later on he would come to realize just how twisted his image had been at this point in time, but that was irrelevant now.

He stopped moving to her and looked ahead to what the entrance of the alleyway revealed, taking the time to rest more of his weight against the wall and recover more. It was much easier to think when he didn't have to move, and thus bring himself more pain than what he was already experiencing.

He saw Saber a short distance behind Illya giving him a look that held so many different emotions that he couldn't really determine them all in his current state. He couldn't really ask her now anyways. It was taking all of his effort to stand up right now. Using magic that required focus was beyond him at the moment.

Beyond her, outside in the streets and at the base of the mountain, he saw the person likely responsible for his current state with wide open arms and dull eyes…

… Ah. So that's what happened. The Thompson Contender was in Assassin's right hand. It made sense now… the gun had been modified on summoning to be a conceptual weapon in itself. It had punched through so many halfhearted mysteries in its existence that only the target's most powerful defense would be recognized by the normal bullets now. Rho Aias was a very powerful shield, but so long as Saber was his Servant, it wasn't his strongest. Avalon was. The bullet fired by the Noble Phantasm simply phased through his wall of barriers when he wasn't paying attention.

However, as deadly as Assassin's attack was supposed to be… he still didn't use the Origin Bullet. That combined with what he saw in the Temple and what he was seeing now was all he needed to figure out what he already knew.

"… Baka-Onee-chan…" He coughed out more blood, never taking his eyes off of his attacker. "Use your eyes. Does dad really look like he wants you to come to him?"

Illya's eyes widened as her brother's distorted voice somewhat snapped her out of her shock. Somewhat hesitant to take her gaze off of the twisted young man that claimed to be her brother, the homunculus turned to look at her father again, this time more carefully.

Upon closer look, it was clear that all was not right with Assassin. The fires ignited from his explosives earlier somewhat distorted his image, but anyone that had their heads on straight could tell that he appeared to be fighting something. His limbs were trembling erratically, and his "gentle smiling face" had more tense muscles in it than nearly the rest of his body combined.

"Ill-ya…" Assassin's voice was clearly strained, as if fighting against a force that no one could see, which was likely the case.

The girl's breathing began to grow heavy as she looked between Shirou and Kiritsugu. Her step brother was some kind of monster, and her father was a Servant. It didn't make any sense at all. It was supposed to be simple. Kill her brother. Kill the Servants. Die for the grail. Why did things have to end up this way? Why did her brother sound like he wanted to protect her? Why was her father a Servant? Why did they sound like they did care for her? Why did she want to believe them?

Why? Why? Why? Why? Why? Why? Why? Why? Why? Why? Why? Why? Why? Wh-

Her body was jolted as in her progressively deteriorating mental state, Shirou had managed to stumble over and wrap her in a bloody and clumsy one handed hug which had him admittedly putting a good deal of his body weight on her for support. The sudden unexpected extra force on her small body had result forced both of them to their knees almost instantly. She'd be lying if she said that the pain of her knees slamming onto the concrete had no part in snapping her back to reality.

"Sorry Nee-chan," Shirou muttered as gently as he could, his voice still altered from the state of his throat. "I should have figured out a way to get to you earlier, to explain everything. I was so busy trying to help everyone I didn't see how badly you were suffering because of me. I should have focused on you sooner."

The small homunculus' body stiffened as he talked and embraced her, unsure of what exactly to do. How long had it been since someone had held her like this… so gently and with such compassion? Even Sella and Lysritt, as dedicated and loyal as they were to her, did not use such intimate and humane gestures of affection, even in their softest and most private moments. True she frequently acted like the child she appeared to be, but very rarely did she receive the same treatment in full.

She shivered as she felt his warped heart beat through the blood that was soaking her ash covered clothing. The vibration of metal grating on metal echoed through her body with a rhythm that she had known from birth.

"Onii-chan…" Her voice cracked, her confusion once more spiking. She was angry at him, but at the same time he seemed to be doing more for her than the majority of the rest of her family put together. Her father was there but he was Assassin. The boy who stole her father from her was protecting her from said father and had regrown a blown out heart. Berserker had been blown apart into multiple pieces. It was getting harder and harder for everything to make sense anymore…

"That's right. I'm here now." He sighed as he attempted to comfort the girl with one arm…

… and glaring coldly at the Servants staring at him from the Mountain. "Onii-chan will take care of everything…"

Berserker was still recovering from being blown up. Caster was likely holed up in her Temple. Bazett was likely hidden somewhere. Lancer, Assassin, and Rider were ready to fight, and Saber was currently their only line of defense, blocking the closest entrance to the alleyway. If the fighting broke out now, Saber could only be able to hold them off for so long before someone got through.

He was honestly surprised that Caster didn't exploit their situation already.

"Saber. You've hidden your sword long enough." Shirou all but ordered in a far darker tone than he had been using before.

"Shi-?" Saber began to ask before catching the deadly look in his eyes and steeled herself instantly. This was not the time to question her Master's orders. By the time she had turned to face her opponents, she had already figured out what Shirou was planning. It was not something she would instantly approve of, but a necessary evil none the less. "I understand. As you wish."

As if a switch in reality was flipped, the air around everyone began to thrash wildly. The immensely pressurized layers of air that had perpetually kept Saber's sword invisible unwound and dispersed itself chaotically upon its owner's command as she took an offensive stance…

Assassin's eyes widened momentarily, recognizing instantly what she was about to do moments before the attack came his way.

"Strike Air!" The King of Knights shouted out the name of her weakest Noble Phantasm as she swung down, unleashing a typhoon of wind in the only direction she could fire it. The lashing streams of air that seemed to thrash out in every direction blasted away any and everything in front of Saber and near the alleyway. Assassin and Rider, who had been standing somewhat to the side of the entrance, had realized the danger of the attack almost instantly and moved as quickly as possible to avoid being completely torn apart.

Berserker's regenerating torso, on the other hand, which had respawned part of his arms, legs and head a short distance away from where Assassin had been standing, was completely unaffected by the attack.

The weaponized storm charged unmolested across the street and hammered into the mountain just a short distance away. While the attack was nowhere near powerful enough to punch through the natural formation, it did proceed to tear up a trench in the stone and earth as the ground redirected its path up the slope. The gouge made it more than halfway up the height of the landmark before the power behind the strike finally lost steam and tapered off.

Assassin grimaced as he fell to a knee and held his injured side arm. He had not fully recovered from the previous night, and while he had held his own using his indirect tactics, he was still by nature a fragile Servant. He had needed to use his time spells to enable him to move out of the way in time since he was in the direct line of fire and close to Saber. Even so he had still been clipped by the attack.

Regardless, the end fact was that all of the Servants were pushed back by Saber's rather reckless move. At first glance one might have assumed that she had done so in an attempt to buy time to escape. However that was not the case. Saber was a powerful Servant, but nowhere near versatile or fast enough to deal with these odds. No, the reason behind her action was far more concerning…

They had all been pushed back so that Saber would have enough time to use her REAL Noble Phantasm.

The base of the mountain seemed to tremble in awe and reverence as Saber's weapon was exposed for everyone to see. There was not a single sane Heroic Spirit that that could not recognize the holy blade on sight. It was after all the single most famous and iconic sword on the planet. Even in Japan, a country on the other side of the planet from its origin, the blade's name was near universally recognized and revered.

Excalibur.

Shining with a near overwhelming holy light, the strongest sword was unsheathed and exposed to the masses for the first time in ten years. Its owner, the legendary King Arthur, stood at the ready to defend or attack at a moment's notice without any hesitation.

"… Damn. That kid really knows how to hide his aces." Lancer grinned with a bead of sweat trailing down the side of his head. He was a strong Servant, but even he knew when it was better to fold. "It's really going to suck if the bitch's ego makes her do something stupid now…"

"I know you can hear me, Caster," Shirou spoke out with a slightly louder voice as he as gently as possible pushed Illya behind him and stood up unsteadily. The fact that only a few globs of blood came up his throat was evidence that his healing lungs were close to fully restored. "I also know that you have a good idea of what I'm seriously contemplating on doing."

He looked up at the Temple in the distance. "Your hideout is starting to look like a very tempting target right now…"

Saber held her emotions in check at Shirou's declaration. Despite all the chaos that had occurred here over the past week, so far no one had done any lasting damage to the residents of the Temple itself. Even if that wasn't the case, Marjatta was still in there. Shirou was more or less declaring that he was willing to kill the girl just to get rid of Caster… no. In this sort of situation, where the Witch is in control over multiple Servants, he was declaring that he was willing to kill everyone that Caster was in control of in a single blow. His father. His teacher. His comrade. The girl that he had promised to rescue. All of them.

And to be honest… Saber really didn't know if Shirou was bluffing or not. Not in the state he was in…

"… Hoooh?" Caster's voice echoed in the air as if coming from everywhere at once. "That is a rather impressive weapon you had hidden from everyone boy. I can see why you wanted Saber to hide her identity for as long as you have. King Arthur as Saber… no doubt many Servants would team up to get rid of you just with that knowledge. I'm somewhat surprised that you are willing to take out the civilians here just to get rid of me…"

"Saber. Get ready." Shirou made no effort to try to small talk with her. He barely had the energy to stand.

Another benefit of using Excalibur as a threat was that it completely hid the fact that Shirou knew what Caster was using Marjatta as. Under other circumstances, the Witch would use her Master's bomb like condition as a fallback threat in case the fighting was going against her. Unfortunately, that wasn't an option now since using the Sword of Promised Victory yielded the same result as setting off the makeshift lesser grail.

There was no point in holding the mountain at ransom if he was going to blow it up in the first place.

"Now now, rushing is quite unlike you," Caster continued to taunt, clearly believing that Shirou's actions were just a bluff. "Did you know that Lancer's Master has a rather interesting ability…"

"I know of Fragarach," he interrupted her emotionlessly as his still lame left hand began to glow. "There are ways around it. Saber. By the power of my second command seal…"

"WAIT!" Caster's voice shouted with no hint of the previous confidence it once held. Shirou had caught her off guard with his willingness to use his command seal, and the realization that its power would be more than enough to at least enable Saber to complete her attack despite the Ace Killing Joker's unique power.

Saber likely would have been able to survive the needle like spear through the heart with the copy of Avalon he gave her, but Caster didn't know of it yet. It was far better for him to use something that she did know to give himself an edge if needed. Plus, all things considered, the idea of facing down an unleashed Excalibur blast with a command seal behind it was a rather terrifying prospect to imagine, Servant or not.

The fact that Shirou stopped talking was a silent blessing for those who were watching. All of the Servants there, even Assassin, let out a breath of relief. The boy was willing to listen.

"Kid knows how to play hard ball. Can't deny that." Lancer nodded approvingly with a nervous grin.

The Master remained silent, but his eyes were still darting around to the three Servants watching him warily. It was clear he was in no mood for games.

"You have made your point." Caster's tone was now bitter. She had thought herself untouchable with her latest acquisition, Shirou had once again proved why he was not one to be underestimated under any circumstance. Despite the numerous advantages she had at the moment, the fact of the matter was that she was once again with the dagger at her neck. "What is it you want?"

Shirou looked at Rider, at Kiritsugu, at the mountain itself, and clenched his teeth in frustration and anger. "We are done fighting for tonight. Illya, Berserker, Saber and I will leave and you will make no effort to come after or attack us. If you don't do that, I guarantee that Saber will destroy the entire mountain by morning."

The area was deadly quiet as Shirou's demand was made. He was essentially forcing the end of the fighting right then and there. "… An interesting request. You do not demand that I release Rider from her servitude to me? I thought you were more dedicated to your close ones… or does she and your father not apply?"

"_Of course they apply…"_ he growled loud enough that everyone heard him. She was tempting him to make such a request, sounding as if she was perfectly fine with handing over one of her valuable tools in exchange for her life.

It was a trap. The only way he could get any of the Servants save Lancer was if Rule Breaker was used on them. The only ones on his side that could use Rule Breaker were him, Illya, Saber, and the soon to be revived Berserker.

He didn't trust Caster to release them herself. The witch had too many tricks up her sleeve. He highly doubted that she'd be willing to come out into the open in her current condition regardless.

Saber couldn't do it because he needed her to be at the ready to nuke the Temple if things went south.

Berserker couldn't do it because, among other things, he couldn't even hold the dagger correctly in his massive hands.

He couldn't do it because there was always a chance that Caster would force one of the Servants to kill him at the last second for a multitude of reasons.

And Illya couldn't do it because it was blatantly clear that she meant a goal to him. He was willing to push past the pain of having his heart blown out just to calm her down for heaven's sake. Caster could easily have the Servants kidnap her at the last moment to control him, Saber, AND Berserker.

And, of course asking for Marjatta was just not going to happen for a whole slew of reasons.

The only possibly reasonable request was Bazett, and through her Lancer… but… but…

His head spiked in pain, and for a moment his vision blurred. He was having trouble thinking clearly. He knew that his teacher was the safest request compared to the others, but his paranoia was at an all time high. For all he knew picking his teacher and second elder sister figure was the worst possible choice out of all of them. Several dozen possible ways that picking any of the individuals under the Witch's control could bite him in the ass semi formed in his head before being washed away by the pain he was experiencing.

A small hand reached out and rested on his shoulder, bringing him back to reality.

"You need to pay attention more Onii-chan." Illya stared at him with an expression of disappointment and mild concern. "You should have noticed the spell that Caster set up."

Shirou blinked in confusion before realizing that his mind was clearing up rapidly. While it still was painful to simply stay awake, he could think somewhat easier again. "Illya?"

"Don't think that this means anything." She pouted childishly to the side. "I've seen enough to know that you're too stupid to hurt me. If I don't like what you tell me later, I'm still going to kill you. If anyone is going to end the Emiya name, it's going to be me like I originally intended it to."

The teen stared at her for a few moments before chuckling a few moments and wincing. His warped heart was no longer visible beneath the rapidly regenerating flesh, which was also consisted of a bizarre sword like meshing. It looked as if the wound would close in a few minutes at most, however it still didn't change the fact that it was painful to even look at. "Well, at least we can trust our family with that much…"

He paused for a moment as his words echoed in his head.

"Humph," Caster's voice spoke up again. "I admit, I didn't expect Berserker's Master to bother with you boy. You are fortunate."

"None…" Shirou muttered under his breath, causing Illya's eyes to widen in surprise.

"Care to speak up? My spells do not work when one party is mumbling like an asinine monkey." The Witch grunted in an annoyed tone.

"I said that you can keep them, Caster." Shirou smirked weakly to the sky. He doubted that she was looking at him from that angle, but then again he was too tired to care at this point.

"Are you serious?" Illya looked at him in disbelief.

"Shirou?" Saber glanced back with apprehension, confusion, and worry.

Rider didn't say anything, but her expression did become more unreadable at his declaration that he wasn't making an attempt to help any of them.

"I share similar sentiments." Caster's tone of curiosity, disappointment, and concern was exactly what he was expecting and wanted. "You wish to abandon Rider and your father here? I thought you were more dedicated to your kin than that. Or do you think that you do not need them now that you have Berserker on your side?"

The teen's smile didn't fade. In fact it became even hungrier and twisted, his altered teeth still not reverting back to normal. "No. I fully intend to get all my friends and family back, Caster. I just think that instead of risking myself with a trap you no doubt have, I would rather load all of them, incredibly angry at you, on you, and see what happens before I do anything else. You'll be too preoccupied with your own forces to be a threat to everyone else for the time being."

He wasn't done rubbing salt in the wound just yet. "If memory serves, you have only one Command Seal left. Assassin and Rider wouldn't be struggling against your orders otherwise."

The mountain was silent as his words were digested by everyone there. As it stood, Caster was in control of three Servants and a Master… and absolutely all of them wanted nothing more than to kill her.

Caster's decision to gain more control over Rider just before Saber stabbed her with the copied Rule Breaker came with a price far bigger than just a command seal.

"Heheheh." Lancer grinned savagely as he turned to the Temple with hunger in his eyes, unable to hide his amusement. Caster may have the strongest army in the war, but her means of holding it together were strained to the breaking point. The woman had stretched her key resources too thin and her greed was coming to bite her in the ass. As powerful as the Command Seals were, they couldn't grant her absolute control over her Servants all the time. "Oh, I'm really starting to like this kid. Even when he's losing, he wins."

"… You are the bane of my existence boy." Caster's voice was absolutely flooded with malice and murderous intent.

"I couldn't care less." Shirou countered as his limp hand began to glow again. "If you don't mind, we'll be leaving now, unless you have something else to say."

Thump.

A minor rumbling directed everyone's attention to where Berserker's smoldering torso had landed, and finally regenerated enough to resemble a complete functional body again.

Unlike before though, the monstrously huge Servant didn't roar with enough force to rattle bones or go on a blind rampage. Instead, the demigod walked over to the alleyway with each step causing a small shudder through the earth, completely ignoring the other Servants, even Saber with Excalibur completely exposed, and to the two Masters there.

He came to a stop where Illya and Shirou were, and for a moment Shirou couldn't help but lose focus of everything else and marvel Berserker up close. He of course instinctively knew that all of the Servants in the War were easily able to murder him, but Berserker… there were no words to describe how much of an overwhelming presence the demigod had at this range. Even upon closer inspection, his stone like skin showed none of the natural defaults or flaws that one would expect from any other flesh and blood creature…

… Other than the faint, yet persisting scratches made by Lancer's spear.

The fact that the other Servants could actually fight and possibly kill him was a testament to how powerful they were and the strength of their wills…

The fact that Shirou had somehow managed to hold off this monstrosity without help was a testament to how unique his magic is, and how damn lucky he was.

"Boy." Caster's voice echoed through the air just as the monstrosity on a leash bent down to carry his Master, causing everyone, including Berserker, to stop.

"What is it?" Shirou asked, silently hoping that she didn't escalate things now of all times. He didn't think that he'd be able to handle it physically if Berserker went on another rampage when he was less than two meters away from him, even if they were temporarily on the same side now. Hell, he was having trouble staying conscious in general.

The silence was almost palpable as all sides began to get ready for combat at a moment's notice. No one wanted to battle, but they unfortunately didn't have a choice in the matter.

"… A fair warning before you do something foolish. Think of it as a paltry attempt to make our agreement equivalent," the woman's voice spoke up again, gaining confidence and stability as she prattled on.

Shirou and Saber both frowned at the woman's wording. They doubted that Caster knew something about the war that they didn't; however, they couldn't simply say such a thing. The fact that her confidence was returning from talking about the subject was not a comforting sign either.

"Well?" Illya frowned, speaking up before Shirou could brace himself for the pain that came with talking in his condition. Berserker was like a statue in the crouched position right above her, ready to move at a moment's notice. "Enough theatrics. What is this warning of yours?"

"Hmhm. It is rare to come across a doll with such will," the Witch chuckled with mirth. Said laughing stopped almost instantly as Berserker slowly began to stand and Saber's sword shone with brighter intensity. "As for my meaningless warning, I advise you to be wary of my counterpart's Master."

Saber's expression hardened. "Your warning sounds more of a bluff for your convenience, Caster."

"It is no bluff, Saber." The bodiless voice was stern enough that those listening could practically see her frown. "We were summoned for this War with the expectation that our powers together would surmount any opponent we encountered, yes. However our Masters had a hidden objective to achieve as well. A task they undertook due to their family's trade. One that they did not believe they could accomplish without the additional support of my counterpart and I. You have no doubt figured out by now that I clearly have no desire to follow my Master's wishes anymore. The same cannot be said for my other."

"I see." Shirou closed his eyes for a few moments and breathed out slowly through his nose. Despite the Servant taking a roundabout method to get to the point, he had already figured out what the bottom line was. He hadn't spent long in the Clocktower, but he knew a drawn out backstory speech for some backstabbing when he heard one. A person couldn't go a week in that compound without hearing at least two or three during lunch sessions. "So the Edelfelts were contracted to kill me during the war."

Saber's grip on her sword tightened reflexively. Being surrounded by traitors was not something she was unused to, but it was still something that she by nature disliked greatly. True, this time it was technically Shirou that had been the subject of this twist; however, the boy had long since earned her loyalty. Even if they did not have a Master Servant relationship, she saw and recognized his worth. Despite his personality, he did not trust easily. This revelation would not go over well…

"Humph. How presumptuous of them," Illya huffed childishly, not at all bothered by what Caster had just told them. "No one is allowed to kill Onii-chan but me. The Edelfelts are but simple scavengers. They do not have the right, standing, or the ability to take what is rightfully the Einzberns. I guess I will have to make an example of them once-"

"Illya. That's enough. We'll talk about this later," Shirou chided his sister sternly in an older sibling like fashion, cutting her off. He didn't bother mentioning that if all went well, which he admitted was growing more and more unlikely as the night progressed, the girl wouldn't be an Einzbern for much longer. "I had suspected something like this might happen due to my reputation and the nature of the War, but was hoping that it would be from a Master that I did not have connections to. Caster has only confirmed my suspicions. Thank you."

"… Do not thank me, boy. You are the source of the constant assaults on my Temple. I am merely giving you information that will ultimately benefit the both of us." The Servant's voice grew cold. Clearly he did not have the reaction she expected or desired from him. "Now leave me before I change my mind. There is much I need to do, and I doubt either of us would prefer risking another hole punched in our respective bodies for the night."

Shirou dryly snorted before wincing in pain. It was easier to talk now, and he wasn't coughing up blood every time he breathed. However sudden jerks caused by laughing or coughing still hurt him a good deal. On the bright side, he had recovered almost enough muscle tissue to move his left arm without screaming in pain again. Then again it wasn't as if he was otherwise in picture perfect health as his skull throbbed in tandem to his new heartbeat and threatened to throw off his balance.

His eyes wandered to the three enemy Servants in front of him, watching his every move as carefully as he was them. Lancer was the furthest away, nodding at him in approval with a dry shit eating grin on his face. The expressive Servant was the one that Caster had the least control over at the moment, and as such was likely the one that could convey what all the others were thinking at the moment whether Caster wanted him to or not.

Rider was at first glance the same as normal. Her lithe and seductive body, albeit altered by her transformation, was ready to move at a moment's notice for whatever reason, and her face was an impassive mask that seemed to hold no emotion. After nearly a week of talking and spending time with her though, the teen had learned to be able to read some of the woman's body language and point out things that most would have missed. Despite her initial appearance, Rider was in reality hiding a myriad of conflicting emotions and thoughts.

Obviously she was stuck in a position that she greatly disliked and was reasonably distressed that Shirou was unable to get her back. However, those were pushed down by her acceptance and understanding of the situation. She had… faith, for lack of a better term, that her former Master would come back for her. She was understandably worried for Sakura's sake, but with Shirou protecting her Rider was confident that the girl would be fine. After all he had done for the girl, the former goddess was certain that the boy would go above and beyond what he set out to do. It was proven time and again that he was an anomaly in this era that no one could accurately predict or gauge. The issue with his heart recovering in the manner that it did only further backed her impression.

Her underlying confidence in him was probably the largest reason why she wasn't as stressed as she should be given her current situation.

The third Servant of the group simply stared back at Shirou emotionlessly with blank eyes. Father and Son took one another's gaze in without hesitation or signs of distress, as if the other were targets and nothing more. There was no intent to kill, fight, talk, embrace, or anything else as they did so. At the moment, they were enemies and they couldn't do anything about it. The best they could do now was to play their roles for the masses…

… and play their games when the curtains were closed.

"Onii-chan… Papa…" Illya muttered hesitantly as she turned her attention to Assassin. She had never seen or remembered her father like this in her childhood. Was this what Kiritsugu Emiya was really like? Was this how the world at large saw him?

Now that the shock of seeing him had worn off, she couldn't help but realize just what her father's appearance as a Servant meant. She had known that her father was a killer as a profession and, that at the time, his name stood out more than any other freelancer's by a wide margin… but she did not expect him to be so… devoid of anything. Completely unreadable and emotionless, yet his mind was still clearly his own. Like a sentient machine.

She shivered as his gaze briefly turned to her for a moment before it went back to his son. She had heard stories of her father's exploits before, but even then she had always wondered why someone as prideful as her grandfather had decided to rely on outside help in order to win the previous war. Not once had she ever been told of this emotionless behavior of his, and she had a feeling that the reason was that no one ever wanted to recall being on the receiving end of such an ominously empty look ever again. The impression the man made onto others alone was probably enough to intimidate most of his clients into never second guessing his skills.

It wasn't until now that she realized her error in thinking. The Einzbern had not decided to utilize outside help to win the fourth war. They had decided to use Kiritsugu Emiya's. Accepting mere rabble was not enough for their family. They only accepted the best, and like it or not they without a doubt got it then.

… And now like it or not, it was her turn to deal with it.

The stare off lasted for several agonizingly long moments before Assassin turned around without so much as a sound and began to walk up the mountain while simultaneously fading away. His actions seemed to hold enough weight that, to nearly everyone else there, he was the one that had determined whether or not the fighting continued and not Caster.

"Come on Illya," Shirou broke the silence once more, his voice smoother now that the blood and bodily fluids had all but exited his repertory system. He spared Rider one last long look before turning around himself. He was still in partial shock and hurt all over, but he had recovered enough to walk without leaning against anything. "We have a lot to talk about."

"I shall remain to ensure that Caster does not change her mind." Saber stated firmly without looking back, Excalibur still glowing sharply like a dagger to the darkness.

"Please do. I will let you know when we are far enough for you to return." Shirou replied softly without breaking step.

The albino was the last to turn around before she ordered Berserker to pick her up and carry her to follow her step brother. Gently cradled in the giant's hand, she repeatedly went over what had just occurred within the past hour and tried to make sense of it all. Shirou. His abnormal recovery ability, knowledge of nearly everything about the war, and his determination in talking to her. Assassin's identity. Caster's steady rise in power and force. More than once she had to remind herself to keep her Servant from killing everyone lest she lose control over both herself and him.

She was tremendously confused, and did not like it one bit…

The three were a block into the city and out of sight of the mountain when Shirou broke the silence. "Illya, I have something to give you."

The girl blinked several times as she was snapped out of her deep thinking. "What is it?" Her voice was a bit sharper than she probably intended, but no one would blame her if she did it on purpose regardless. "Is now really the time to give others random gifts of charity?"

Shirou took his right hand out of a pocket in his pants, holding a letter with paper that appeared to be fairly aged and held it up to her. "I didn't have this on me when you first showed up, and was kicking myself for it for days. I've been carrying it ever since so I didn't make the same mistake twice."

The girl stared at him skeptically before inspecting the paper for any traps, ignoring the blood smeared on the envelope left by the coated hand that had given it to her. All in all it looked like fairly harmless paper with her name written on the front. "… It's enchanted."

He didn't flinch at her even tone. "For privacy. Only the intended can open it and read what's inside. If anyone else tried to open it, the contents would be destroyed instantly. Even I don't know what is written in it."

"If it's not from you, why give it to me like some common messenger?"

"Dad wrote it."

She stiffened at the three words and slowly began to pull back the hand that had been reaching out. "Assassin…"

"No. Not Assassin," Shirou corrected her, his voice soft. "Dad."

The girl paused at the simple statement and stared at the paper with uncertainty and some fear. Nervously she licked her lips in apprehension. "What if… what if I don't read it? What if I tear it apart right now?"

"It's your decision to make." He replied without any hesitation before his lips twitched. "… Though if my guess is right, reading it will save us some time when I finally start to answer your questions."

"Why can't you answer them now?" Her crimson eyes narrowed suspiciously, but carried none of the weight they held earlier.

"Can't risk being overheard." His answer again came instantly and simply, as if it was obvious.

Letting out a huff of annoyance, the girl caved into her curiosity and snatched the letter from his hands. Judging from its texture and weight, it was pretty old and held a good deal of paper inside. Apparently, while her father wasn't much of a talker, he certainly didn't have the same issue with writing letters.

"Shirou?" A new voice made itself known, causing everyone to stop. Turning to the source of the voice, but found nothing as it seemed to come from one of the building walls right next to them.

"Who is there?" Illya was instantly at attention, eyes darting everywhere and letter temporarily forgotten.

"The Crest Worms are all removed, but the soul still lingers." Shirou sighed out the pass code he had told Sakura before they had separated earlier. The girl had used her magic to transmit her voice through the shadows and come out in a completely different location, but he didn't have the energy or the time to explain it. "Sorry. But Rider's still with Caster at the moment."

The area was quiet for several moments before a labored pattern of steps was heard from a gap between buildings behind them. Shirou frowned as the sight of Sakura limping heavily came into sight, tightly holding her side tightly. "You made Saber go before you healed completely, didn't you?"

"It's not so bad." Her failed attempt at smiling and downplaying the injury that he gave her failed at its intended purpose. The fact that her face was drenched in sweat and her hands were covered in blood didn't help either. "I had a good amount of prana available so I was able to continue to patch up everything after she left. Besides, you're the one who said that the clock was against us."

She didn't mention that the wound would be a good place to sink all of the excess prana she had absorbed from Caster's attack into. The unknown hole in her had helped somewhat, and without Rider she needed an outlet to put all the energy into fast lest she tear herself apart from the inside. She was still on the verge of bursting with power, but at the very least she wasn't almost blacking out from the pain anymore.

Shirou shook his head. "Sakura, I would have never forgiven myself if you allowed yourself to die because of my mistake. Even if I did rescue Rider, if you died, she probably would have killed me because of it."

The strained smile on the Matou's face grew slightly in amusement. "I highly doubt that she would harm you for that, Shirou. Rider likes you too much to kill you for something like that."

The Emiya's face lost its serious expression for a moment as he blinked in confusion before he shook his head and chuckled. "I don't know why, but I feel like you just gave me the kiss of death by saying that."

"… Let's just say that it's another thing that we are going to have to work on." The dry amused tone in her voice clearly indicated that this wasn't the first time she was dealing with the boy's near obliviousness when it came to the opposite sex.

"No." Illya's cold tone sent a dagger through the relaxed atmosphere that the other two humans had been building up. "I don't want her coming with us."

Sakura looked up in confusion to meet the gaze of the girl glaring back at her. "What?"

"Illya, what are you talking about?" Shirou's face matched Sakura's.

"I will not have those of the Makiri line interfere with private matters," the small girl stated evenly, giving Sakura an emotionless look. "I also want you to evict Zouken as well. Since they have lost their Servants, they can stay at the Church. I do not care what arrangements you have set up between one another."

Shirou and Sakura blinked before looking at one another in confusion before the latter spoke up. "Um… Illya-san. Ignoring the fact that you knew that my Grandfather had been at Shirou's home at all… you seem to be mistaken about a few things."

The Homunculus' eyes narrowed suspiciously. "And what may that be? That you have contracted Onii-chan to win you the grail so that you may be cut off from your heritage?"

Had the night not already been full of unwanted surprises, Shirou would likely have been more shocked and caught off guard by the statement. Since that was not the case, and his skull was killing him, he instead reacted with a tired grunt and scratching his head in frustration. The slight increase in his warped pulse was once more wreaking havoc on his head and wearing away at the little patience he had left. "I killed Zouken. Sakura's the new head of the Makiri, and she's ultimately absolved the contract. We're now working together to deal with the pile and a half of problems that are happening in the war. Illya, now is really not the time for accusations, so can we please get back to my place before we resume any important talks and potential accusations?"

"… Huh?" This time it was Illya's turn to blink in confusion. "You… you killed Zouken? The head of one of the three families that set up the grail? B-But you made a deal! And… and he was at your house… a-and he's…"

"A complete pain to kill, let alone without repercussions, and he should have died centuries ago. Yes, which is why it took so long to get rid of him for good." The redhead grimaced irritably. Just thinking about the bastard only made his headache worse and caused him for a moment to lose his focus and balance. "Illya. Please. Can we just go home before we talk anymore? Sakura and I need time to rest and recover. I could do for a drink too…"

Sakura's eyes widened momentarily at his statement, but didn't say anything. Now wasn't the time or place to bring up any more sensitive topics. Instead she limped over to him and positioned herself so that she could support him while still managing to put pressure on her wound. All things considered she really didn't have to do so at this point as the bleeding had stopped. However, the skin over the hole had yet to form and her muscles and sensitive nerves were still exposed to the outside. She couldn't do anything about the exit wound on her back, but thankfully there were fewer nerves on that side so it didn't agonize her nearly as much as the front. Regardless, their physical issues would wear off as soon as Saber got closer anyways.

"Come on." She got close to him in an attempt to help, enough that they were sharing a fair amount of skin contact. She didn't dare show that she secretly was enjoying Illya's reaction to their close proximity. It was rather difficult for anyone to be confident around her when Berserker was right there. "How much longer until it's safe to call back Saber?"

Shirou breathed out heavily as he reluctantly leaned against Sakura, trying to put as little effort on her as possible. He knew she was trying to help him out, but he couldn't in good conscience willingly load her with more burdens that she already had. He was after all the one that had punched a hole in her in the first place. He didn't bother to note that his vision was blurred and he was having trouble controlling his motor functions. "A block or two. Enough that Caster can't risk sending out her resources and risk losing them. She's keeping an eye out for any sudden moves. Caster's trying to get her to talk about me, but Saber's not falling for it."

"… Saber is an impressive Servant." Illya's statement was made as if she was stating a fact than expressing her opinion. Shirou could feel her eyes boring into the back of his head, but he couldn't tell if it was because she was accusing him of something, or because she was allowing Sakura to come even though she still really didn't want her to. "King Arthur herself. It is rather surprising that you managed to obtain an artifact that could call her Onii-chan. There are not many Servants that are powerful enough to rival my Berserker."

Shirou laughed lightly, causing more miniature blades to cut into his insides. By this point his entire repertory system had returned to normal save for the portion of his lungs that had regenerated from scratch. He knew exactly what the girl was insinuating. "You don't sound that surprised."

The girl sighed, already receiving the answer to her question. She was getting really tired of coming across all this new information at once and honestly wanted nothing more than a nap or some tea now. "I hope you understand the debt you owe the Einzbern for this."

"Given how they probably put in a good amount of effort to convince you to kill me on first sight, I'll consider us even." The dry retort caused Sakura to giggle and his sister to childishly puff out her cheeks in frustration.

"… Baka-Onii-chan," she muttered childishly. She mentally commanded Berserker to slowly follow the limping pair down the road. While it wasn't as fast as she normally would like to travel, there was something oddly soothing and therapeutic about listening to the giant's rumbling and steady footsteps…

o. o. o.

On top of a building nearby, a single person stood still watching the figures below.

For the longest time she remained silent as the chaos unraveled in front of her eyes, completely unaccustomed to the show of power and mystery that the Servants had played. Even though she had trouble focusing on anything there, she knew for a fact that she did not belong in such a spectacle. She could not contribute anything that could or would turn the favors to the side she was on… even if she did manage to figure out who was on whose side in the end.

She didn't dare make a noise, let alone take a shot. She knew for a fact that it wouldn't work even if she had the perfect opening. If she drew any attention to herself, she was without a doubt dead. The rule applied to all of the other targets she had taken out before, but she at least knew that they could be downed by a bullet. The monsters in front of her though… no way in hell she could even put a scratch on them.

She stayed in her spot for almost half an hour after all of the monsters in human form disappeared. It was only after she witnessed the first few cars drive down the road and subsequently stop in front of the debris that had been kicked up that she even trusted herself to speak.

"What… the fuck…"

o. o. o.

Inside the Temple:

The Witch scowled as she stood in front of the rat's carcass.

Had she been in a better mood, she would have without a doubt been interested in the fact that it was similar in nature to the Banshee children.

Had she been in a better mood, she would have no doubt attempted to experiment on it to see where it had come from and who was responsible for it.

Had she been in a better mood, she would have contemplated on how it managed to get inside her Temple so easily and why it had known to meet up with the girl within her workshop.

Instead, her mind was preoccupied with recovering from nearly having her heart shot out by a Master, wrapping her mind around the fact that Emiya DID have his heart shot out and regenerated it in front of everyone, and that she was left with a single Command Seal and everyone knew about it. Given that none of her Servants were actually on her side, there was little doubt that she would need to be careful around them lest they force her to use it just to keep herself alive.

She had attempted to interrogate Assassin as he returned inside the Temple, but he had acted as if she had not even existed. When she tried to push harder, she had found herself facing down the barrel of the Thompson Contender. It was only her quick words that had saved her head from being blown to pieces. Nonetheless, it had been enough for the Witch to realize that whatever minor leeway that Assassin had given her was now gone.

Her decision to use him to play with the minds of Berserker's and Saber's Masters had clearly not gone well with him, even if he once more behaved as if he had no emotions or aspirations of his own.

Her power base in the war was stronger than ever with Rider added to her ranks. Unfortunately the foundation and stability supporting it all was on the verge of collapsing. She didn't know what was likely to kill her first at this rate: mutiny, the combined forces of the remaining Servants… or, and what she felt was the most likely, by someone named Emiya.

She didn't have time to bother with minor annoyances like this rat. She'd deal with its source once she dealt with the bigger threats at hand.

With a brief grumble in an unpronounceable language, the Servant destroyed the rodent's body with a beam of light a foot in diameter that proceeded to punch down through the floors below until stopping twelve feet into the earth. She didn't bother to fix the damage until the next morning.

… By that time, unknown to her, Merem had already recreated his faithful left arm.

o. o. o.

Edelfelt Manor:

The room was silent as Caster turned off her monitoring spell, its controller ready to move at a moment's notice, unwilling to trust the human female giving her master a look of utmost loathing at the moment. The accused, on the other hand, seemed not to notice and was calmly drinking some tea that had been served earlier. The drink was no longer hot, a fact known by everyone there, but it served as a decent enough distraction.

For what seemed like the longest time, none of them spoke. Each female dwelled on their thoughts on the situation, what they learned, what they knew, and what the others would likely do with this information.

While they were all concerned with the simple fact that the shift in power in the war had no doubt changed greatly once more, the Witch's revelation that Luvia had intended to kill Shirou in particular shattered any form of potential alliance that the Edelfelts and the Tohsakas might have had.

The simple fact of the matter was that while Rin did expect backstabbing and killing to take place in the Grail War, and intended to do a bit of both, she had at the very least was not the type to sell out the closest people in her life for just some money. She might willing to grievously harm them, but only to the point of putting them out of commission. She'd at least make sure not to do anything permanent… on purpose.

"You have outdone yourself," Rin finally stated in a calm and collected tone. "I didn't think that you could lower yourself any more from my perspective, but you have proven me wrong. I must admit, I'm impressed."

"Welcome to the world of Magi, Tohsaka," the blonde replied with a near identical façade. "We are often confronted with tasks and individuals that we would rather not encounter. It must be a rather refreshing experience for you, who had grown up in such a backwater area."

"I'm surprised you get anything done," the guest's disposition didn't change, her relaxed posture failed to betray the fact that she was ready to kill the woman in front of her at a moment's notice, Servant be damned. "I had always thought that you had at least considered Emiya an ally of sorts. It must be difficult for your family to maintain your standing when you are clearly allow yourself to sell out anyone to the highest bidder. Do tell, how much would it cost for me to get you to forget about your sister?"

Luvia's body stiffened at the low blow before regaining her composure. To her side, Caster slowly prepared herself to attack at the slightest command.

"Remember where you are Tohsaka. I may be honor bound to treat you as a guest as is expected of me, but do not assume that gives you leeway to do as you wish."

Rin's azure eyes narrowed. "Funny, as Second Owner of this land, I do believe that I am in fact allowed to do just that. Just as I have full authority to ban you from here whenever I desire."

Taking a risk, Caster allowed herself to cough just loud enough for the other two females in the room to glance at her. "While I have no love for either Emiya, or yourself, girl, it would be best if we maintain our priorities for the moment. The boy will no doubt be contacting us soon about his failure and any other information he may have obtained. The fact that Berserker is potentially on his side, and my counterpart's growing strength cannot be ignored either despite what we may wish."

The two humans glared at one another, clearly ready to attack at a moment's notice before Rin let out a dry snort and began to rub her temple with a hand, covering her face in the process. "… I honestly don't know who the bigger idiot is at the moment. Emiya for all the ridiculous things he is doing, or you for actually believing you can kill him."

Despite the fact that deep down she knew there was more truth to that statement than she would like to admit, Luvia still took offense to it. She was about to speak her mind, but Rin cut her off.

"Shut up you, cow." Her voice took on a layer of malice and instability that was unlike her, and for a moment both Luvia and Caster suspected that she might actually attack right then and there. "Unlike Shirou, I honestly don't care what happens to you. You could die horribly in this war and all I would lament is the loss of a customer and a mediocre magus. On the other hand, what you do know does bug me far more than your shallow bleached brain could possibly fathom. The only reason why I am tolerating you to stay on my property unrelated to this war, let alone live, is because he needs as much help and resources as possible to deal with whatever the hell he believes is so important to lie, cheat, and maneuver all of us around like this. And make no mistake, until this is all over, I expect you to do everything he says like the bitch you are. If he says he needs your family finances, all your account numbers better be damn well in his hands by the time anyone blinks or there will be bloody consequences.

"The second he is done with you, I expect you and your sister, if she is fortunate enough to live, to leave like the trash you are and never come again unless it is absolutely necessary. That is all after I geass you to an agreement that is so tight you won't even be able to THINK of Shirou without my permission. If I ever hear of you coming anywhere near him for a reason other than for business and Magus Association related events, make no mistake, I will end everything about you."

Caster and Luvia looked at one another skeptically and with a hint of trepidation. By all means, Rin's decision to make a threat now could be considered foolish at best and suicidal at worst given that she was essentially defenseless at the moment. The issue was that Rin had been emotionally unstable ever since the previous night, so there really was no telling what she was willing to do at the moment.

"I'm surprised that you are letting Emiya off so easily," Luvia spoke up with the slightest hint of hesitancy in her voice.

A dry bitter smile etched itself onto Rin's features as she began to laugh. "Heh. Shirou? Oh don't worry about him. I'll make sure that he's aware of how much he owes me for this _personally_. He may be the Queen's bitch, but by the time I'm done with him there will be no question as to who is holding his leash. That idiot won't even be able to breathe without my permission once I'm done with him…"

The nervous feeling shared between Caster and Luvia intensified as Rin's disturbing smile grew increasingly disturbing. _"Master, do you blame me if I harbor concerns for Archer's wellbeing at the moment?"_

"_No." _Luvia somehow managed to keep a straight face as Rin slowly began to break down due to stress. _"By all means Caster. Even he deserves some pity right now."_

o. o. o.

On top of Luvia's roof, Archer sat and watched the city of Fuyuki with a bored expression. For what seemed like the hundredth time, he suppressed a shiver. It was as if he had missed something incredibly important, and it would no doubt come to haunt him intensely in the near future.

… He hated that feeling. He had experienced it far too many times when he had been alive, and things always tended to bite him in the ass soon afterwards.

o. o. o.

A/N:

Once again, thanks Wayfarer for betaing, especially since he's still getting better from an operation. Hope you recover soon man.

And done. Whew. That took longer than I thought. Honestly I wanted to add the scene where Shirou talks to Illya when he gets back home, but the chapter was going long enough as it was.

I had actually played with various ways that this fight could have gone and ended, initially starting with a massive stareoff with everyone on both sides until Kiritsugu catches everyone off guard and blasts out Bazett's side, causing her and Lancer to retreat for her to survive, but in the end I scrapped it because it was too hard to both set up and resolve what happened after that without making things more complicated.

As you can see, While Shirou is having less problems interacting with the people he's trying to help out, it's not exactly working so well with the relationships between said people themselves. I'm not going to spoil anything, but let's just say it's going to lead to some… issues, in the near future.

As for the Rule Breaker on the Book of False Attendant effect… honestly I'm treating it as a grey zone until proven otherwise. Rule Breaker on Master just nullifies whatever major connection they have at the time (Sakura and Angry Manjew as an example). Rule Breaker on Servant nullifies the contract and allows the user to take the command seals (the entirety of Unlimited Blade Works for example).

The Book is… like a halfway point. It's made of familiars, but it's possesses the authority of being the specified Servant's Master. When slashed, the user of Rule Breaker gets the authority over the other Servant, but none of the extra command seals that the original Master had. As a result, Sakura's condition is also a bit unique in that she still has her command seals even though Rider isn't her Servant anymore.

So, on other news, the expendables 3 came out, and if you look at the people who went to the release screening at the Chinese theatre in California, you might have been able to catch a highschool special ed teacher and his wife walking down it. Why do I know this? Because my parents are friends with the CFO of Lionsgate and they were in the area for vacation.

They sat behind Arnold, Stallone, and all of the other actors there. Hell they were even at the damn after party.

Bastards.

Although, it was pretty funny in that when everyone was leaving, the paparazzi were taking photos of everyone, and when my parents came out their reaction went along the lines of this:

(With flashing cameras and fake smiles.) "Heeeeeeeeeey!"

(Secretly whispering to one another.) _"Who the fuck are these guys?"_

So… amusing stories aside… well that's it for now. I'm tired and meh.

Now if you'll excuse me, I'm off to make an ass out of myself playing Sengoku Rance.

So REVIEW! WORSHIP THE LOG! CONTEMPLATE THE INSURANCE COSTS THE TEMPLE WILL HAVE TO PAY BY THE TIME THE WAR IS OVER! AND REVIEW AGAIN!


	37. Chapter 37

Chapter 37: Mass Comprehension

I do not own Fate/Stay Night and stuffs.

o. o. o.

_Illya,_

… _You'd think I'd know what to say after trying to write the same letter countless times by now, but I suppose that it's just another thing to put on the long list of failures made in my life. To be honest I don't even know how many times I've tried writing to you already, and I doubt that this scrap of paper will be the one that you'll have in your hands, but I'll keep on going in the off chance it is._

_I'm… no. I won't say it, even on paper. I've done too much to consider ever being redeemed, and actually doing so would probably only make things worse for both of us even if I am dead by the time you read this._

_There is so much I want to say to you, to tell you, to hold you and protect you again with my two hands… but it's impossible now. The damn curse that rendered your mother's sacrifice meaningless, that's threatening the world, and is killing me is taking its toll. I doubt I'll last much longer than a month or two at this rate. It's a miracle that I still have enough motor functions in my hand to write this legibly._

… _Damn. I must have gotten softer than I thought. I've put down this much and it's all meaningless gibberish. Your mind tends to wander when it reaches its end stretch… and I'm barely past thirty. This whole letter really is turning out to be a bad joke. I'll scrap this later, but I might as well finish it._

_You probably didn't know this, but near the beginning of the Fourth War, before things spiraled out of control, I begged your mother to abandon the war, run away with me and you, and hide somewhere where Acht wouldn't find us. I got down on my knees, held her tightly, and cried my heart out to her. I loved the both of you so much that I was willing to forgo world peace just to stay with you and be selfish. I know of at least a dozen different places that the old bastard still wouldn't even think or consider looking at if we had made the decision now._

_Your mother said no. She said that I wouldn't be able to forgive myself if I did something so selfish. I could barely tolerate being happy even back then. I didn't deserve it then and I certainly don't now. _

_If I allowed myself to give into my moment of weakness, I probably would have killed myself out of guilt and self-disgust._

_If I knew then what I knew now though… we'd probably be at one of those locations all together, and the only magi that knew we were there would know better than to utter a single word about us._

_For clarification, yes, I did try to get you from Acht multiple times. Anything else you've been told is a lie. The bounded fields around the castle mixed with the region's natural defenses made the place one of the most secure locations in Europe. Even if I was at the peak of health and had all of my equipment and resources it would have taken me months to manage to plan a moderately feasible way inside._

_Unfortunately, as I mentioned before, the curse that's eating away from me prevents me from even doing that much. My mind is progressively losing its sharpness, and the few functional circuits I had I gave to Shirou as an investment for his attempts. _

_In fact, I almost didn't make it back the last time I tried to get you. My health fell faster than I thought while I was climbing one of the mountains near the castle and I barely managed to get myself to a local hospital in time. I spent almost four months recovering from pneumonia there, and to be honest my body's never been the same since. _

_If I ever thank your grandfather for anything other than Avalon, you, and your mother, it would be for making me learn German. It's a useless language as far as the rest of the world is concerned, but it did save my life… if only for a short while._

_Then I would have put a bullet in his skull. You'd have to be blind to not notice the homunculus on the hospital staff keeping tabs on me while I was there after the first week. One of them even had the nerve to give me a picture of you in the middle of one of your "adjustments". I tore it apart the instant I saw it. I couldn't bear the image of seeing you like… that._

_I hope you haven't hurt your brother too badly. Yes, your brother. Not by blood, but I consider Shirou as much mine as you. He does need to be slapped upside the head occasionally for his sheer stubbornness, all things considered I believe that should be the family's greatest defining trait, but he's a good kid and he doesn't deserve your anger. I've already done too much to him to warrant such treatment. He lost his family due to my actions in the war, and worse he's…_

_There's no real way to explain it, but Shirou isn't like other humans, even by Magi standards. What he went through in the war essentially broke him. I may have saved his life from the fire, but what was inside, what I __unintentionally__ did to him… what he could have done and become…_

_Illya, I have killed many people in my life. Both innocent and guilty, and in many ways that even had your mother look at me in disgust when she saw it firsthand. I always despised what I did, but it was often a necessary evil in our world in order to save lives. I hate the very idea murder, and those who tried to paint it in a glorified light even more. I would have gladly carried countless sins on my shoulders to ensure that the world was forever peaceful…_

_What I did to your brother… I can't, and won't ever be able to rationalize or forgive myself for it. It crossed a line and accomplished something that even I am beyond sickened by…_

… _What I saw in my dreams… was me passing my stupid childhood dreams of becoming a hero onto your brother… and in the end putting him on a path that would lead him into willingly becoming a Counter Guardian, and damned to murder for all eternity._

_I cursed your brother on a path that would result in him being betrayed by his own borrowed dreams. Just writing this sickens me more than you could imagine._

_Even worse, if what I saw has come to pass, then that very Counter Guardian is fighting in your war under the title of Archer. If so, do not trust him near Shirou. Archer's true goal is to kill his past self and cause a paradox in order to possibly escape __Alaya's grasp__. _

_Had I not had the visions… if I didn't know what would happen… even after everything I've done to avert those outcomes, I will be haunted by this knowledge and the images until I die soon._

… _I'm being vague and talking in circles again. To the point, I essentially broke your brother in the destruction of the war that took your mother. He has literally no sense of self-preservation if someone else he is focused on is in trouble, and only finds self-worth from aiding others. Just last night he nearly fried his magic circuits experimenting with his spells for over fourteen hours, and was honestly confused when I forced him to rest and have a day off to relax._

_The bottom line is that Shirou has the capability of manifesting a fully developed Reality Marble. He hasn't summoned it completely yet, but even now I can see the results… and they truly terrify me for a good number of reasons._

_If I did nothing, your fool of a brother would have given up his life or gotten hurt for anyone in his line of sight that needed help._

_After what I did… the only people that he should be willing to do that for, and is in fact aiming to do that for is you and those he truly considers close to him…_

_It was the best I could manage to increase the likelihood of both your survival. Make no mistake__,__ Illya, your brother is completely willing to die for you, and to be honest I fear that if not managed carefully he may do just that without even thinking._

… _What kind of father am I? Training and sending my near suicidal son to protect the daughter that believes I abandoned her, who likely wants nothing more than to kill him? I certainly didn't get it from my father. For all his faults, raising me to the best of his abilities and taking care of me was something he did do right._

_Damn. Now I'm dwelling on my first kill. I really am losing it now._

_The visions I mentioned earlier. I don't know where they came from or if they are some sort of sporadic phenomena caused by a true magic, but they showed me the war you're in, or at least some possible versions of it. All I know is that I've gathered more than enough to confirm that they are too accurate to simply dismiss._

_They terrify me, to put things mildly._

_One major path results in you having your heart ripped out of your body. Multiple have Shirou dying in even worse ways, or even becoming a monster like myself. All of them have the world in great danger…_

_And none of them solve the fact that regardless of what happens, you will die in a year regardless._

_But that doesn't mean that I have not found anything of use. Just the opposite._

_In the past few years since I started having these visions, I have gathered everything I could and prepared Shirou for what was to come. Your brother is in possession of every minor detail that I have obtained about the war, and with the training I have provided him, he should have an overwhelming advantage over everyone involved in this war. Should everything have worked out, he should have managed to obtain what is needed to save your life, and set himself up to deal with the large number of other great threats that have arisen in this War, including dealing with the corrupted Grail itself. I will leave explaining the details to him, otherwise this letter would be unbearably long._

… _Your brother is however unaware of one thing. I have not told him about Archer's identity, nor his reasons for wanting to kill him. It was a risk on my part, but I cannot truly trust Shirou with this information. There's no telling what he would do with it. In all honesty, I don't know what Archer… no, Heroic Spirit EMIYA would do if confronted by his past self out of the blue like this, or if he found out about what I have done. _

_From what little I gathered about his past, I have likely already diverted the current timeline from his, so I don't know if he will even be able to be summoned now, but if he is, be careful. EMIYA is difficult to read. Most of the time he will fall in line to his master's orders and behave as if he has nothing better to do, which may in fact be how he feels, but if he sees an opening to get what he wants be assured that he will take it. He is a careful planner, and isn't concerned by ethics in order to get things done._

_If Shirou has summoned King Arthur as Saber, please talk to her about Archer. I have also informed her of him in another letter I have written. Hopefully together you two can at least allow EMIYA to have some closure, if nothing else._

_And tell him… tell both your stupid stubborn brothers thank you._

_I love you__,__ Illya. More than you can possibly imagine. Never believe anyone that tells you differently. What I would give to spend some time with you again. But I would give even that up to ensure you live through this hellish farce of a war and live a happy life._

_I have entrusted everything to Shirou to make this happen. The war. You. Your mother. Any and every loose end I have witnessed I have given your brother to resolve._

_What happens after that, I leave in your hands. Your brother will need someone to keep him anchored once his goal is fulfilled, lest he fall down the path I took. There is no doubt in my mind that Shirou will protect you from anything the world will throw at you._

_All I ask is that you protect him from himself._

_Sorry in advance for giving you the harder job._

_I… no. I'm done. I'm surprised that I've managed to put down this much. My wrist is throbbing horrifically, to the point that it's hard to get anything down now. I'll put it on the pile of other letters I've made and probably burn it with the rest of the rejects when I've made my decision on which one to give you._

_I'll have to do it when your brother is away. Ever since the kitchen fiasco he has a panic attack whenever he even hears I tried to turn on the stove. Honestly, you can't even see the burns on the ceiling anymore._

_Damn. Dropped the pen. It's hard to hold anything now._

_I love you Illya. I miss you so much that even this curse can't block out the pain. Please, listen to your brother._

_Please, be happy and live the life you deserve, the one I failed to provide you while I was alive._

_Kiritsugu Emiya _

_P.S. On a side note, if you are still debating on whether to kill your brother or not, do try his cooking before you make a final decision. The boy can make just about anything to a professional level now. Thank all that is reasonable in this world that the curse killing me hasn't taken away my taste buds yet._

o. o. o.

Clocktower:

She walked through the halls as she always did: with proper poise and a neutral face that made it impossible for anyone to determine what she was thinking of or where her destination may be.

Regardless of who came across her path as she made her way to her goal, the results were the same. Upon recognizing her, the countless underachieving introverts would get out of her way allowing her to travel unimpeded, as it should be. Some of them may have greeted her, possibly have thrown her a compliment of some sort as she passed by in an attempt to gain favor with her, but she paid them no mind. To her, such things were to be expected like a stray gust of wind during an evening walk. Completely expected and even easier to ignore.

Had anyone had anything of actual interest to say, she would have picked it up instantly. However that rarely was the case, and today was no different.

The area of the Clocktower she was walking in was considered one of the more dangerous areas in the establishment. Nowhere near as concerning as where Gazamy was held, but ultimately few places were.

Still, simply traversing the area where most of the Hermit Sealing Designates were held was generally considered a rather risky thing to do, even for the Enforcers. Most of them were in reality quite harmless (when compared to the standard magi at least), their outstanding and unique discoveries more minor conceptual phenomena that were otherwise deemed impossible by magus standards.

Perfect spherical manifestation and comprehension. Spiritual fusion to the point that the resulting existence was a flawless entity. The ability to instantly communicate with any creature, be it mystical or not, on sight. Perfectly contained perpetual temporal loops.

Most of them relatively minor by themselves… but putting them in the same location at once had proven to yield rather concerning aftereffects at times. The fact that Zelretch had more often than not been seen spending some of his free time here only added fuel to that fire.

The last time he had been there, the entire floor had been swarmed with experimental creatures that were supposedly an attempt to replicate some phantasmal species from a popular children's game going about. Pouch Creatures or something like that. All she knew was that those red and white ball monstrosities absolutely destroyed the main entrance and the maintenance entrance to the area when they all blew up and made repairing the damages nearly unbearable. Managing to get a hold of the ones that could plow through the ground like water before the public saw too many of them was even more of a nightmare.

One intern had made the mistake of trying to pet one of the monstrosities. A little yellow rat.

After she had been electrocuted with enough amperage to literally fry her nerves, heart and brain, no one else had hesitated in crushing every little mistake that met their eyes into a chunky red paste.

On the plus side, from what she heard the number of students that were distracted by modern day electronics dropped phenomenally for the next few years because of it.

Most members of the staff wouldn't consider walking here alone due to the potential dangers involved. The Designees themselves weren't allowed to exit their workshops without specified permission for their own safety as much as everyone else's. Most of the time it didn't matter that much since many of these individuals practically lived in the lab anyways. However, there were more than a few that were just as adept at playing the political game as well and were given permission to move as they pleased within the grounds so long as they didn't cause trouble.

And then there was the one that she was visiting…

She knew he was inside his workshop as she approached. The main entrance to the area had a system in place to indicate who was in their workshops, who wasn't, and if they were in the middle of any experiments. The one she was going to was in the middle of something. However it was the general rule of the Tower that if she wanted something from someone, she got it without question.

A notification was sent ahead of her, so she had expected him to open the door within moments of her knocking. She pretended to ignore the cheap generic "do not disturb" sign hanging from the door handle.

Five Seconds. Ten. Thirty.

She would have knocked again after the fifteen second mark, but she had better self-control than that.

After two minutes with no response, she knocked harder and pressed a button on the doorframe that allowed her voice to be transmitted inside. "You have had ample time to prepare for me McGinty. Open the door or I will slash your budget in half."

Four seconds later the sound of something loud hitting the floor was heard and her way was opened with no one on the other side. Instead she was given a full view of a wide array of shelves and tables full of an assortment of tools, equipment, machinery, materials, clothes, vials, gems, and other such items. All of it was organized and categorized, not to her perfectionist standards of course, but in a manner that none the less showed the signs of a professional's work.

The sight in front of her was no doubt likely one of the most diverse and expensive arrays of thaumaturgical equipment in the Clocktower, partially because most of the more valuable equipment in the Clocktower was made here. Likewise, she knew for a fact that this was only a pittance compared to what the blacksmith was working on in his private areas. No self-respecting magus would simply allow visitors, which in of itself was a minor blessing, to see the full endeavors of a workshop on first sight.

"An I thought that when I put up tha "do not disturb" sign on tha door, people would get that ah don't want ta be disturbed," an annoyed gruff voice from one of the adjacent rooms, clearly nowhere near as accommodating as the ones she had encountered earlier that day. Given the distance he was at, it was fairly obvious he had opened the door through some sort of contraption or spell so that he wouldn't move from whatever he was doing. "It's not like ah couldn't be working wit potentially lethal and or dangerous materials."

The Queen of the Clocktower's eyebrows narrowed just a hair as she made her way to the voice's source, irritated by the disrespect she was being given. "Most people would find a way to manage to put their personal projects on hold when they are told I am coming."

"An mos people are tryin ta glue their lips to yer arse," the old man retorted without hesitation. "Ah think ah speak for ta both of us when ah say that it's a good thing that ah am not one of them. My poor lips don't deserve that treatment. Don't think my back can take it either."

The young woman didn't bother to comment on that statement as she walked into the adjacent room and found the large old man hunched over a desk with several tools in hand that appeared as precise as the skills probably needed to use them, a crude headband on that held several enchanted magnifying glasses in front of his face, and a small stand holding up what appeared to be a ring that he was carefully inscribing runes onto. A quick glance at her surroundings showed that the entire enclosure was filled with significantly more precise and delicate equipment than the one she had just been in.

"A custom order?" she asked with mild curiosity. Despite being a Designate and a teacher in the Tower, the old man still kept his mystic code crafting business alive as much as possible.

"Experiment," he muttered, not once allowing the conversation to distract him from his work. As rude, massive, old, and crass as he was, the man was a professional and could focus with a steadier hand better than nearly anyone else when he was on the job.

It didn't hurt that he had a pair of bracelets on that enabled him to have abnormal machine like control over his hand movements either.

"Turns out that most objects tend ta become unstable if enough concepts are removed from them. Gaia doesn't deny them, but has trouble… recognizing them for lack of a better term. Almost as if it forgets what they are at times. Remove too much and most things either just fall apart or in some cases just fade away. Blokes in Spiritual Invocation are researchin that bit. Makes makin some protective equipment and other things that way a bloody pain ta do."

"You're fabricating an alternative," she surmised as she looked at the ring with the smallest bit of curiosity. This was the man that created her gauntlet and her rapier. His work and methods were of her impeccable standards, so whatever had his attention must be worth at least some interest.

Even though she was familiar with runecraft, she could, not that she ever would, admit honestly that she was incapable of deciphering the old man's array. Oh she recognized several strings of the near microscopic symbols he was etching into the ring, but there were many more that she had never seen before. She suspected that there was a good chance that the old man was using several letters that weren't known to the general community, ones that were only taught in certain select circles, but she couldn't be too sure and she didn't bother to inquire about them. Asking questions about such a guarded subject was, rude, improper, and above all pointless. Spreading this sort of information would only cause more problems then solve.

"Runes can add conceptual effects. They can take them away just as well. Ah already figured out how ta do that part a year ago," the old man muttered. "Takes some tweakin of the thing the runes are on though. It's a lot trickier than simply addin an effect. Temporarily imitating immunity is one thing. Completely ignoring an aspect of reality an bein able to switch what aspect is bein ignored is another. This here's the next step. Ya set off the runes in a way or two and everythin from the hand the ring's on to the matchin bracelet is enveloped in a bounded field that denies the specified concept… or that's what ah'm aimin for. Gotta finish tha bleedin inscription first."

"I see. The rune sequence and the materials you are using are unstable until you complete it." While she was not an expert on manufacturing and runic based processes, she was more than proficient and knowledgeable enough on both counts to come up with this conclusion almost instantly.

"Ah sneezed eight hours into my last prototype. Damn thing near turned ta dust right in front of me," the Irishman pouted with some annoyance.

"You should have prepared better. Such a mistake is inexcusable." She wasn't mocking him. There really was a bounded field frequently used for workshops that was made for that exact purpose and was practically a standard for magi everywhere. Many thought it was a joke when they first heard about it, but after the fifth story of a magus' experiments killing them because of an inopportune sneeze, complete with autopsy reports and pictures, they frequently sung a different tune.

"Yer concern is heartwarming." His tone clearly indicated otherwise. He personally didn't set up such bounded fields onto his workshop because he honestly believed that they were meant for lazy shits who couldn't wipe their own asses without uttering a spell. "What is it you want, lass? You wouldn't come here in person if it were just fer a job request or report. And as much as people enjoy the sound of my voice, I doubt that yer here for that either."

The Queen's face remained stoic. Truth be told she did hold somewhat of an emotion close to appreciation and amusement for the old man's personality. He was one of the few people in the Tower that spoke to her in such a manner despite knowing who and what she was, and one of the fewer that neither wanted something from her nor was plotting against her. To him she was just another possible customer. Granted a powerful one that could execute him whenever she wanted, but otherwise their relationship was rarely outside of supplier and customer.

She was rarely treated in a manner outside of her station, and while most would, and rightly so, consider it a grave insult, Barthomelloi allowed it simply to expose herself to the experience. The old man had earned this liberty as recognition through his craft and knew well enough to not push his luck in public or assume too much familiarity. Practice made perfect after all, and it would not do for her to be unaccustomed to something as plebeian as being addressed with something other than the greatness that was a Barthomelloi. For that, she was grateful for his unknowing services.

Still, much like the vast majority of the Clocktower nobility, she could only tolerate such treatment in small doses.

"It's been over a week since the Fuyuki Ritual has commenced," she stated, her voice as crisp and even as ever. "And not a single participant has died yet."

_Shirou's poor performance is reflected onto me. I don't tolerate poor performances on my record. Ever. _Her silent insinuation was heard loud and clear.

"I guess yer not countin that idiot that got offed before summoning his Servant then," Sirius snorted, not at all bothering to hide the fact that he was keeping tabs on the war as well.

"Putting my intelligence to question is a rather foolish thing to do, McGinty." Her tone carried a faint edge to it. That alone was more than enough to make a good number of people in the Tower to get on their knees and beg for forgiveness.

"Just makin a statement, lass. No need ta get snippy." The old man brushed away her threat without batting an eyelash while still scratching runes on the ring inches from his face. "Can't really call someone who didn't even contribute to tha war a participant, now can we?"

He let out a brief knowing chuckle just before the woman was about to speak again. "Then again, if yer confused as ta why the lad hasn't offed anyone yet, yer lookin in the wrong place. Lad's taken out a big fish just a couple o days ago if memory serves."

"The individual that was reported interfering with the ritual." She could already tell that something was occurring in the war that should not be. "I don't play games, McGinty. Speak clearly. There is clearly more to this ritual than you are pretending."

Sirius didn't turn around. He didn't freeze up, stammer, or even try to lie or make up an excuse. He merely sighed in annoyance as he continued to etch his runes onto the ring less than a foot away from his face.

There was no point in delaying. They always knew that Barthomelloi would find out everything sooner or later. They had only hoped it would be after things had calmed down a bit.

Best he could do now is present things in a way that would hopefully allow Shirou to have a future.

_Sorry lad, but the timer here's run out. Ya better get yer arse in gear quick, cause this is one lass that sure as hell doesn't have a soft spot for ya._

Lorelei spent the rest of the afternoon wishing for a Dead Apostle to show up more than any other point in her life, even if it was just so she could have something to take her frustrations out upon.

o. o. o.

By the time they had made it back to the Emiya residence, Shirou was struggling to stay awake.

Even after Saber returned, the damage that the teen had sustained earlier had finally made itself known in full force. The broken bones. The burst brain vessels. The destroyed and then regenerated heart. The overheated circuits. The lost blood. The fact that he was even remotely aware of his surroundings was a praiseworthy accomplishment.

Physically he was almost fully recovered, but the combined weight of the damage to his mind and sheer exhaustion were the greatest offenders. Throughout the entire trip back, he had periods where he had been speaking, or rather muttering, his scattered thoughts out loud and had not even been aware of it. Other than the bloodstains on his body and some red skin above where his heart was, his body appeared to be in perfect shape.

It just went to show just how erratic his mind was at the moment given that in one particular instance, he had somehow managed to string together Taiga, Illya, dinner, homework, killing Caster, shoelaces, fixing his bike, meat and potato stew, and that Barthomelloi was coming after him in a single incoherent mumble.

Sakura was faring a good deal better. While she was still a bit bloated on prana, she had managed to sink enough into healing her wound that by the time Saber had returned to close proximity she was all healed save for some tenderness where she had been pierced through. She was still a bit dizzy from her experiences, but it was a far cry from Shirou's near crippled state as she helped him walk to his home. Saber needed to be as unimpeded as possible in case they were attacked again on the way back.

Illya, on the other hand, had not said a single word ever since she read the letter that Shirou had given her.

"We're almost inside. Just a little bit longer," Sakura said as she shifted under his weight. "I have a key to the house but I can't get it like this."

"Of course." The blonde didn't hesitate to shift her Master's weight onto herself. She had plenty of experience carrying the injured to safety during her lifetime. "Illyasviel. You are invited into Shirou's home obviously. However…"

"Huh?" The small girl blinked, clearly not paying attention to where she had been until just then. Looking around, she saw that they were at their destination. She also noticed after an additional few moments that said destination's entrance was vastly less than what was needed for Berserker to get through. "Oh. We're here."

Without so much as a gesture to command her Servant, the Giant instinctively obeyed his Master's wishes and gently lowered her to the ground before becoming spiritual. No one there thought for a millisecond that just because they couldn't see him didn't mean that she was any less dangerous though.

Sakura opened the doorway without any hesitation and stepped aside to allow everyone in. Wordlessly everyone took off their shoes (Saber had returned to her modern attire as soon as she entered the home) and made their way to the living room…

"Shirou, I know you are stressed from what happened, but now really isn't a good time to cook a feast." Saber sighed as she fought her Master's attempt to limp to the kitchen.

"Illya's here. Can't be rude…" the homeowner muttered more to himself than anyone stubbornly as he futilely tried to make his way to his favorite part of the house. Since everyone was focused on him, no one noticed the albino's crimson eyes widen momentarily as if seeing something for the first time before narrowing in thought.

"Shirou, even you can't make anything in your state," Sakura gently argued with him. "I'll make some tea and get some snacks for everyone, okay? It's my turn to cook anyway."

The Emiya paused at Sakura's declaration and looked up at her with confusion. "It's your turn?"

The purple haired girl mentally sighed in relief. Normally it was impossible to get Shirou away from the kitchen if he really wanted to cook, but being who he was he would without question step aside if he thought he was intruding on someone else's "personal time". Even in his current state he wouldn't go against this fact.

Also, she was relieved because it was actually his turn to cook that night. She had been in charge of lunch that day while he was going over that night's plans for the hundredth time.

"Is he really going to be able to explain everything like this?" Illya frowned, her cheeks puffed out childishly. "I know I said I'd listen to him, but I assumed that it would be tonight."

"Your brother has been through much, Illyasviel." Saber calmly sat on her knees at the table next to her. "Please be patient. We can use the time waiting for him to recover to discuss what happened tonight with Sakura in addition to our activities in the War so far…" 

"No," Illya cut her off. "I still have no real reason to trust any of you. Until you convince me otherwise I won't say anything."

"Fair enough." The former King sighed reluctantly, knowing that there was little point in arguing.

"Illya-chan. What sort of snacks do you like? We have crackers, cookies, chocolates…" As Sakura listed off the treats that Shirou had stored in the kitchen, mostly for Taiga, the homunculus' eyes started to sparkle with childish delight and greed. Saber pretended not to notice.

It took a few seconds for the girl to realize that she was on the verge of drooling in front of others before managing to pull back her impulsive nature and school herself. "I'm not sure." She spoke with as much maturity as her small body would allow. "I'm unfamiliar with the snacks that are served in Japan."

"That's alright. I'll just get out a little bit of everything, and you can try and see what you like from there."

Sakura's response was exactly what the small girl was hoping for. The Einzbern allowed herself to chuckle in satisfaction before pausing and turning to see Saber looking at her with an amused look. "… What?"

Saber gave the girl the smallest of amused smiles before turning to the kitchen. "Sakura. Truth be told I have yet to partake in many of the refreshments of this era as well. If possible could you by chance add a bit more to each sample?"

"Sure thing."

Illya's eyes widened at the Servant's dubious actions, seeing the swordswoman in a completely new light as the elder turned her attention back to the younger. While they may be enemies in the war, they were no doubt allies when it came to being gluttonous gourmets.

Neither of them noticed Shirou staring at them accusingly from across the table. The only male human in the house may have been out of it, but he could still sense a threat to his position in the pecking order when he saw one. He'd have to be careful of these two. Still it would be best to remain quiet for now, lest they turn their greedy nature onto him.

Plus it was never a good idea to make a comment about a woman's eating habits. Especially if the one doing the commenting was a male. Even being crippled and in his current state wouldn't save him from divine judgment should he open his mouth.

"Getting back on subject though, I believe it would best that we first review…" Saber began to speak about more serious subjects when the house phone began to ring.

"Ignore it." Illya frowned, not liking the interruption. "I have heard that these… what's the term… phone merchants… are relentless and call at the worst times."

"It's Luvia," Shirou mumbled as the bounded fields in his home leaked in the call's identification into his head. Standard caller id was fine, but this method also registered lines from Magi who were often impossible to keep track of via normal means. Given that said individuals don't normally use the phone, this rather out of the way method was quite useful for someone like Shirou who had a social life in both worlds.

"Even worse." Illya's face soured at the information. She felt like a fool for trusting the girl with the sword that Shirou had given her earlier. She made a mental note to ask him about the blade later. "Why bother to talk to the traitor?"

"She's needed and I owe her," the red head grunted, hoping that he could have rested at least a bit more before this conversation took place. His mind was still fuzzy as hell, but with a seemingly critical conversation at hand, he was forcing himself to regain control over his body as much as he would absolutely love nothing more than to fall asleep. He muttered a small spell and channeled prana into the table, instantly turning it into a sender and receiver for the conversation. It was a gift from Sirius; from what he's heard, it was a big hit at the Clocktower when it came to holding long distance meetings. "How much did you see?"

"Everything outside of the temple," the blonde's voice calmly stated, though the strain was noticeable. "So enough to know that the Einzbern Master should be with you, Rider is not, and that you are the proud new owner of the most distorted heart I have ever laid eyes on."

"No really, Edelfelt. Tell him how you feel," a new voice from the line spoke up, catching everyone's attention.

"Nee-san?" Sakura blinked in surprise as she put the snacks and tea she prepared on the table.

Shirou held back a groan and settled for simply resting his head on the table so no one could see his face. On the one hand, it was great hearing from her again and confirming that she was alright. On the other, she had to show up now. Of all the times to come clean with Rin…

"This one unfortunately managed to find her way into my home recently." Luvia's stressed tone didn't change, something that was picked up by everyone.

"I take it she was present when the Witch divulged some rather condemning information." Saber calmly drank her tea. The stability of the situation was growing worse by the second, and had she been any less used to such circumstances she would be showing it much like nearly everyone else at the table.

"Oh I saw my share of tonight's activities. Don't worry about that. Edelfelt has been MORE than helpful in explaining what she knows to me and how you are responsible for the headaches I've been having these past couple of weeks, so please do not bother wasting your time to get me up to speed." Rin's voice was surprisingly calm and collected. Shirou and Sakura shivered instinctively, knowing that it was a bad omen. The fact that Rin was avoiding calling Luvia by her first name was also another major indicator that the Tohsaka had gone full circle and was so enraged at the moment that she was perfectly at ease. "I'm just having trouble deciding on what to DO exactly with such information. So many options…"

Shirou didn't dare make a comment as to how on earth she and Luvia had managed to stay within proximity of one another given the circumstances without trying to kill one another. Normally they were at one another's throats, but now he was afraid that they really would go all out if not handled carefully. It really might be the proverbial trigger that would send things spiraling to hell. "If… if you're planning on killing Luvia, don't. She's needed."

He attempted to hide the fact that his throat and chest felt irregular as he talked. However given the look Saber had on her face he was falling short of his goal.

"Oh? I'm needed?" The foreigner's voice perked up with some curiosity and a hint of mocking spite. "How so? The last we spoke, you claimed that I was just an convenient way to ensure that the right Caster was summoned."

Saber interrupted her Master before he attempted to speak again. "In case you haven't noticed from what you have witnessed, Shirou is not in an ideal condition to explain much in detail. I recommend that Sakura and I answer as many questions as possible to put as little stress on him as possible. For anything that requires additional information, Shirou can inform me through our connection. I assume this is acceptable with all parties?"

There was a brief moment of silence as those involved contemplated the offer. Shirou nodded to Saber in a silent appreciative thanks.

Luvia spoke up first. "Very well. Your offer is both appreciated and recognized as the most efficient one for getting through this discussion. Now, about my earlier inquiry?"

"The Witch has been experimenting on your sister," Sakura answered upon seeing the glance that Shirou gave her. Truth be told, she had only managed to give him a brief summary of what she had learned inside Caster's Temple before he had gone off to Illya, so it could be said that she had played one of the most crucial roles in the night's events despite having failed her initial objective. "From what I managed to learn from sneaking into her workshop, she's turned Marjatta into something called a Lesser Grail."

"What?!" Illya slammed her hands onto the table in rage, and in all honesty she was not the only one that was surprised by the information if the stares Sakura was getting were any indication. Although she had claimed that she would not participate in the conversation until her questions were answered, she clearly had decided that this was an exception to the statement. "As if your deplorable existence was not enough, even a Servant has the nerve to desecrate the Ritual's process?!"

""_Your_" existence?" Rin echoed in a way that those hearing could practically see her frown. "What exactly does she mean by that, Shirou?"

The addressed male did groan this time as he tried to ignore the stares he was getting as well as the headache he had. His only solace at the moment was the tea in his hands that helped distract the pain enough to talk to Saber mentally.

"One issue at a time please," the King of Knights diplomatically addressed everyone. "If we allow things spiral out of control we aren't going to have any progress tonight. It is difficult enough time keeping things organized as it is. Everything will be explained in time, but we can't get distracted from the primary issues at hand." She paused momentarily at something Shirou told her, staring at him with some skepticism, before turning to Illya. "Illyasviel, I believe you would be the ideal individual to elaborate to those unaware of what exactly a Lesser Grail is."

"Obviously," the girl muttered coldly under her breath before lecturing everyone. "A Lesser Grail, to put it simply, is a container that gathers untold amounts of prana over an undefined amount of time and means, and uses that power to set off the Greater Grail. The latter of which, outside of being the actual system that enables us to summon our Servants in the first place, is what enacts the wish granting mystery that we are, or should be fighting for right now. The Einzbern is the designated supplier of the Lesser Grail for each War."

"Which is you, the position itself being nothing more than a glorified sacrifice," Luvia's voice stated factually, causing those who were not in the know to blink surprised. "Due to certain circumstances, I happened to figure out the nature of Emiya's activities some time ago. Obviously he has apparently left some things out when I confronted him about this, not that I am surprised by this point, but it is enough that I will have vastly less trouble comprehending the situation compared to most."

"You seem awfully calm about your sister being turned into a sacrifice," Rin noted, half out of curiosity and half out of attempting to gain another rise out of the foreigner.

"Given Einzbern's accusation, I believe it wouldn't be inaccurate to say that we all have someone that is at risk of being something that they do not wish to be at this point," the blonde countered dryly. "And seeing that Emiya has been quite busy for some time preparing methods to prevent two of them from fulfilling this role, I don't see why he is incapable of doing so for a third person."

"I apologize that your memory is so faulty, Edlefelt. However, I must remind you that the third, like you, took a contract to kill him. The War gave us an excuse to do this should it happen, yes, but you two went in with the aim for his head in particular, so I am having trouble seeing why he should even consider doing this for an egotistical little…"

"Rin!" Shirou snapped, causing everyone to stop talking. It was not often that he raised his voice, and even rarer when he did so at someone he trusted. The fact that he bothered to speak at all in his condition was enough to underscore just how frustrated he was. "That's enough. Sakura, you said that there's a problem with Marjatta's condition."

Sakura looked hesitantly as Shirou. Illya's accusation of her being a Lesser Grail was something that she didn't expect, and she didn't like the fact that Shirou was avoiding eye contact with her either. "I… Yes. I don't know exactly what being a Lesser Grail entails exactly, but I did see Marjatta in Caster's Workshop. I had snuck in with the goal of getting her out of there, as planned, or at the very least severing her connection to Caster with a copy of Rule Breaker that Shirou had made me by cutting off her arm, but…"

"Obviously something prevented you from doing so, otherwise we wouldn't be in this situation," Luvia's voice was emotionless and dry.

Sakura swallowed heavily. "She was inside this container of liquid and was generating terrifying amounts of power from it. More than anything I had ever seen or imagined before. Every pulse it gave off nearly overwhelmed my nerves. Had Caster not set up her bounded fields, I think we would have been able to sense Marjatta from the bottom of the mountain if not even further. She didn't respond when I came in, and after going to the room I… discovered what she was from some of Caster's notes lying around and found out that her setup was the focus of all the power that the Witch was stealing from the city… and that it was unstable. Caster has to frequently adjust the bounded fields around her to keep the setup from collapsing on itself. If I had tried anything, even with Rule Breaker, I'm certain that I could have set off a chain reaction and done untold damage to the area. The only way I can see us getting her out alive, let alone getting rid of the mana generator safely, is with Caster's, your Caster's help in dismantling it."

"I see…" Luvia was clearly thinking going over what she was learning. "So Emiya's bluff to use Excalibur on Caster earlier… was a way to prevent her from informing us of something that we already knew in the first place. As far as she knows, my sister is simply inside a heavily armed prison and more importantly, we supposedly don't know about her plans and time limits."

Shirou remained quiet through the explanation and hoped no one would question how Sakura would know how to read ancient Greek or get through Caster's notes in such a short time period. They would be up long enough without having to discuss the presence of an Apostle Ancestor here. The vampire was keen on staying in the audience seat where no one saw him and all things considered Shirou wanted to keep him there too.

"Wonderful," a certain Tohsaka muttered sarcastically under her breath. "Of course there would be that sort of complication. She's possibly in the one state that even if we did agree on killing her as a last resort, even that action would be unavailable to us via normal means. As it stands, "saving her" and "killing her without destroying the mountain" would require the same steps and plan up to the very end."

"So long as your goal is to ensure my sister's safety, you have my full cooperation. Still there are more questions that need to be answered. How is it that she managed to get control over Rider?" Luvia pressed. "Rider was with Berserker the entire time and Rule Breaker only allows the user to steal control over a Servant if the Servant is stabbed. If she can repeat such a feat…"

Shirou scowled as the rest of the girls looked at him curiously and some apprehension. Among all the things that had gone wrong that night, he considered loosing Rider, betraying her trust in his abilities, to be the greatest.

Saber began elaborating as she already knew the bulk of what happened and the reasoning behind Shirou's actions. "Due to Sakura's condition and what Zouken had done to her, she was unable to properly sustain Rider. As a result of an agreement that Shirou had with him, he served as a stand-in Master for Rider shortly after she was summoned. A Book of False Attendant was created through the process which he until tonight held onto at all times while Rider stayed with Sakura. It was unfortunately that which was stabbed by Rule Breaker when we both went to recover Sakura inside the Temple. Unless anyone else has been exchanging ownerships of Servants, the odds of this happening again are nonexistent."

"I see… so that is why you were so emaciated when you appeared at the Matou Fire," Luvia mused. "You were still adjusting to supplying two Servants with power at once."

"And the reason why you could not inform us of this rather interesting situation before is because?" Rin questioned firmly. While there was a good deal of irritation in her voice, she was primarily focused on getting a better picture of the overall situation and why Shirou had allowed things to go unaddressed for so long.

"Zouken needed to be addressed before anything could get done safely. From what I have been told and my brief encounters with him, he tends to know things he shouldn't." Saber easily reverted back to being Shirou's mouthpiece while taking another snack. "Having the Crest Worm that contained his soul right next to Sakura's heart complicated things, so it took longer than normal to set up the right conditions. Otherwise he would have been dead years ago."

Shirou nodded softly in agreement as his eyes focused aimlessly on the twisted memories involving the twisted magus. Just thinking of the old bastard caused his migraine to pulse with greater intensity.

The only reason why it wasn't worse was simply due to his memories of the worm's last moments. Shirou wasn't a sadist by any means, but he would savor that image of fear and desperation for decades.

Everyone's expressions soured to some degree, but none more so than Sakura's. She had known of course of the worms in her body, but even she didn't know that she had essentially had that parasite of a man inside of her for who knows how long.

"Well, at the very least, I highly doubt anyone here can contest to his title as Magus Killer anymore." Luvia casually sighed in an attempt to get things moving again. "Even the Witch seems to be wary of you now Emiya."

"I'm somewhat surprised that Caster is giving you this much trouble in the first place Onii-chan," Illya spoke up. "When you and Saber went into her Temple, I had assumed you'd finish her off then and there without trouble. Even if…" She realized what she was about to say and bit hard on her tongue. She didn't want to talk about _him_ just yet.

"Caster _was_ almost vanquished," Saber stated factually after sampling another of the snacks that Sakura had provided. "Inside her Temple, her combat ability was significantly greater than we suspected, and Assassin, though injured, was supporting her. Even I am uncertain of the outcome of our battle if I did not receive additional aid. Had Shirou's attempt not been off by more than but a few centimeters, I am certain that Caster would not have been able to recover from the wound he delivered her. It was a praiseworthy attempt. Not many could produce such results from outside a Caster's Temple borders. We only retreated due to the fact that while Caster and Assassin were wounded, I was still not capable of adequately protecting Sakura and Shirou by myself in that area."

"Then again…" the voice of the Princess spoke up from the line. "If what the girl says is true, then there is a good chance that it was fortunate that you did not dispose of my counterpart. We have no way of measuring how much time it would take for Marjatta's cell to destabilize without its owner present. It may have very well resulted in your inadvertent destruction."

"Wait, wait… back up for just a moment please. You mean to tell me that Shirou almost assassinated a Servant?" Rin asked incredulously.

"Wouldn't be the first time I nailed her from behind," Shirou mumbled halfheartedly as he drank some more tea. The hot fluid did help his nerves somewhat but it wouldn't get rid of the thirst he was experiencing. He would have chalked it up to his Apostle condition, but it was rarely ever this strong. The sensation had grown from "easily ignorable" to "distracting annoyance".

"Shirou can copy weapons and instruments seen from the memories of others. Waver Velvet showed him some of his experiences during the previous war," Saber elaborated. "One of the Noble Phantasms used by Lancer was ideal for penetrating Caster's defenses."

The King of Knights remained impassive she remembered Darmuid's final moments and his vengeful last words. She didn't know if he was just being spiteful or he held some sort of precognitive power, but the fact of the matter was that most of the things he cursed onto her and Kiritsugu did come to pass in the worst possible way… not that they didn't deserve it for all that they had done…

"I. But. Damn it Shirou! Do I really have to be the one to point out that you're doing it wrong?!" One could almost hear Rin tearing out her hair in frustration. "Servants kill Servants! Masters don't!"

"Even I have to agree with Tohsaka on this," Luvia admitted. "The fact that you are constantly attempting and succeeding in directly interfering with Servants is both bewilderingly impressive and outlandishly imbecilic, Emiya, regardless of how peculiar your mysteries are."

"As futile it may be, I don't blame him for trying," Illya mused neutrally after swallowing another treat. "The Servant needs to learn her place, and having Onii-chan do so is only fitting. Kiritsugu is dead, and he should stay that way."

The room went quiet as the girl's words were heard. Assassin's identity was no secret among them, and with it came a good deal of issues that would need to be addressed sooner rather than later.

As far as Shirou was concerned, the only Servant on that mountain that was going to die was Caster. He frowned and spoke up instead of allowing Saber to do it for him. "I made a mistake of not getting rid of her when I had a chance. I'm not going to again. Once she's out of the picture, none of the others under her control have any reason to fight us, and we can deal with the real problems at hand."

"Gilgamesh," Saber stated coldly as she glared at her drink.

"Gilgamesh?" Illya asked in confusion, being the only person there that had not yet heard or been informed of him.

"The Archer from the previous war," Luvia supplied as if he was a side thought. "Your father's Servant I believe, Tohsaka. It seems that I'm not the only source of our current issues after all."

"The King of Heroes and without a doubt the strongest Servant to ever be summoned," Shirou grimaced as Saber voiced his thoughts. "Illya may have summoned Heracles, but even he doesn't stand a chance in hell against that monster alone. Most Servants don't."

"If he's so dangerous and powerful, then why hasn't he done anything yet?" Rin grunted impatiently. She had heard in passing about how powerful her Father's former Servant was, but the fact that the previous head of the Tohsaka family had still died during the previous war was something she still had trouble comprehending.

"That man's ego knows no limits," Saber recalled her encounters with the obnoxious Servant with distaste. "To him the world is already his, and because humanity is so weak he probably rarely possesses desire to impose his authority, much less have the need to. This war is probably just entertainment to him. However, given what is at stake he will no doubt get involved sooner or later. Knowing his personality though, he might act soon since there hasn't been any "progress" lately. He certainly didn't have any issues with showing up a few days ago."

"And you didn't fight him then?" Illya looked at her skeptically.

"Part of waging war is knowing when and where to battle." She frowned, not exactly happy that she didn't fight then either. "Staying on the planet for over ten years has done nothing to impair his power. Had we fought then, the odds of my victory were far from ideal, and that would be after we caused significant damage and casualties to the area."

"Hmph," Illya snorted as she puffed out her chest proudly. "I supposed that you were waiting to team up with me then. With Berserker and Saber together, there is no way that a single Servant would be able to win."

"It would make little difference against that one." The King of Knights shook her head solemnly while shooting down the girl's claim. "From what I have seen, Berserker would not fare well against him. Gilgamesh possesses the originals of almost every Noble Phantasm in existence and can fire them off at will. Shirou's power is the natural counter for such tactics, which will enable me to engage him in close combat where he is significantly weaker. Even so, given from the information we have gathered, if Gilgamesh manages to take out his true Noble Phantasm before I get to him… it's all over."

"Enuma Elish," Shirou spoke up again, but this time there was trepidation in his raspy voice. As composed as he was, just thinking about the weapon always seemed to unnerve him to his core. "The Sword of Rupture. Anti-world Noble Phantasm. Just seeing that thing through Waver-nii's memories caused me to black out. I can't even begin to tell you guys how absurd that monstrosity is and how much it terrifies me."

The blonde Servant winced as her connection to Shirou's mind allowed her to see minor glimpses of the drill like weapon in between the erratic static that came from his trying to process the impossibility. She was somewhat used to her Master's peculiar disposition, but this was the greatest first hand example she had so far, and it wasn't pleasant.

Still, if this was what the Emiya experienced just looking at a memory of the weapon, then the real thing itself must be a terrifying existence to behold.

"If Gilgamesh is so powerful…" Sakura frowned. Shirou had filled her in on a good deal of what he knew about the war and what he was trying to prevent, but there were still a good number of blank spots that had yet to be answered. Her being a Lesser Grail being one of them. "Then why did fa-… The previous Tohsaka head loose?"

Everyone there pretended to ignore Sakura's momentary slip as they were more interested in what Shirou had to say. Given that he and Saber didn't say anything was a clear indication that there was a good deal to talk about.

Saber nodded as she took in the information Shirou gave her. When it came to long explanations, the boy seemed to be limiting his messages to general pieces of information that she may have not been aware of and the path of conversation. He appeared to be too tired to send anything more detailed through their link at the moment, which was concerning.

"Given Gilgamesh's personality it's not difficult to see. Gilgamesh is extraordinarily egotistical and prideful. An individual with the stereotypical magus mindset would find it nearly impossible to control him. More so that they would have trouble even comprehending that they would have trouble controlling a Servant in the first place. The same would occur with any relationship between a closed minded magus and a prideful and independent Servant. Something was bound to give. In this case, we believe that the trigger came in the form of a third party…"

"A third party?" Illya looked at Shirou and Saber skeptically. "Humph. Why should I be surprised? The Tohsaka family was always the bottom of the three families that contributed to the War. I should have figured that they would prove incapable of controlling their Servants, let alone what's around them."

Luvia wisely did not say anything regarding that comment.

"Oh yes. Fine words coming from a walking doll that's incapable of doing anything for herself," Rin's standard fake polite voice shot back. "All you have to do is make your Servant do all the hard work while you do nothing. Truly the Einzbern knew what they were doing this time, and as opposed to all of the other Wars they've failed."

"Kirei Kotomine," Saber quickly stated the culprit's name, being the only one who was paying attention to how worked up Shirou was getting worrying about everyone fighting. Instantly the shots between the female magi ceased, their minds focused on what Saber would say next. She closed her eyes and recalled her brief experiences related to the man. "Originally the Master of Assassin in the previous war and student of the Tohsaka Master. He constantly hounded Kiritsugu, even going against Tokiomi Tohsaka's orders and knowledge at times. Even when he had lost his Servant and was seeking refuge in the Church. On the last day of the fourth war, Kiritsugu infiltrated the Tohsaka household and found evidence that Tokiomi had been killed with minimal struggle. Despite that, when I encountered Archer at the summit of the War, it was clear that he was being supplied prana from a Master. Given Kiritsugu's encounter with Kirei at the same time in the same area, the only reasonable conclusion we have is that the man killed his teacher with Gilgamesh's knowledge, and they formed a new pact. Gilgamesh allowed this as he saw Kirei as a more… interesting Master to have. That is the most logical conclusion Shirou and I can come up with."

The room was deadly quiet for several moments before Illya spoke up. "I take it that you have something in mind to deal with this errant Servant? The strategy you stated before sounds reasonable. However I doubt that that is all there is to it."

"Some." Shirou admitted, glancing at Saber again.

"Shirou has given me a copy of Avalon, my lost scabbard. It's the only thing we know of that can directly counter the Sword of Rupture's power. It's only one strategy we have though. We had hoped Shirou would fully master Unli… his magic, in time for the War, which would have enabled him to have a shot of taking Gilgamesh down alone in case something happened to me, but he is still a few years off from accomplishing this, so he can only fulfill a support role. We have reason to believe that Archer would somehow manage to stand a chance against Gilgamesh. As mentioned, Shirou does not have any information about him, but I do and…" she hesitated, not wanting to give away Archer's identity prematurely. A glance at Illya told her that the girl knew exactly who the Counter Guardian was, but she had no certainty about the others. If no one else knew of him yet, then it would be best to approach it as carefully as possible. "There is some merit to this assumption. Other than that, obviously a mass attack with as many Servants as possible would be ideal, and…!"

Saber looked at Shirou accusingly. While she knew exactly what this last option was, she did not expect him to actually come out and admit such a risky plan with everyone. Revealing it now could possibly cause what little cohesion that existed between those here to fail magnificently.

"Don't hold back, Emiya." Rin's voice was polite and calm again. "As I said, Edelfelt-san has informed me of everything. That includes the ridiculous story of your father seeing several futures. After all that has happened so far, I believe it is best to lay out your cards now and get it over with."

He glared at Saber, telling her to go on with the explanation. It was clear that he had a good deal of distaste for admitting this as well, but now wasn't the time to hold back such important information.

"… and… as an absolute last resort… Sakura."

Everyone blinked in surprise. Up until then his explanations had made a sliver of sense to all of them, but this admittance definitely caught them off guard. "Sakura?" Luvia couldn't help but feel as if a bad joke was being played on her. She had been patient and understanding of the situation up to this point, but this new piece of information was outlandish, even for her. "Of all the times to spew poor jokes Emiya, you chose now? She couldn't even defeat Marjatta! How on earth is she supposed to beat the strongest of Servants?!"

"By all means, I'm curious as to how you came up with such an absurd notion as well," Rin asked with as much ire and curiosity. Unlike the blonde Master, she knew that Shirou wouldn't dare admit to something like this unless he was damn sure of it, regardless of how bad of a taste it left in his mouth. "… Does this have to do with her condition as a Lesser Grail?"

The Emiya cradled his head into his hands. His headache was spiking again, so much so that it was getting hard to think or listen to everyone there. Saber frowned at this. She had had some close calls during her lifetime, even with Avalon's regeneration ability supporting her, but regardless, the damage he received from the battle should have been completely addressed by now. She would have to ask him about the nature of his injuries as soon as they were done talking.

"Yes, you are correct Rin. You all are aware that the system itself is corrupted. It turns out that Sakura's powers, her element of "imaginary numbers" meshes with the curse in the system. Too well. If left unchecked, and if she's the one that sets off the Greater Grail system itself, she could possibly unleash a genuine incarnation of Angra Mainyu, the God of All the Evils in the World, onto reality."

"How on earth is something like THAT supposed to help us?!" Illya snapped as she looked at Sakura warily. It was clear that the albino was reaching the end of her patience with how ridiculous the situation was. "If anything, that only gives us a reason to kill her now!"

"_No one is killing anyone__,_" Shirou growled with a threatening tone that he himself did not notice was just a hint unnatural, all while not taking his head up. Thankfully no one seemed to be willing to interrupt him again.

Saber's mind was flooded with information as Shirou's mind began to go over Sakura's status with the sort of sharp focus that normally came after going over a subject countless times, thus knowing it inside and out. "… Despite her condition… or rather, because of it… if Sakura manages to tap into her powers, to her connection to the Grail system itself, to Angra Mainyu… she can absorb Servants into herself forcefully. If it's just Gilgamesh, even though his soul is the equivalent of roughly three Servants, then there wouldn't be too much risk of her getting out of control given that she has more training and experience this time around. In fact, we had managed to orchestrate Caster to be summoned just for this occasion. Rule Breaker can sever her connection to the Greater Grail if things prove to be problematic. There's even a copy of it in the Workshop right now inside a bounded field that will prevent it from disappearing just in case Shirou is no longer around and the worst happens."

"Just a moment," Luvia started slowly. "… From what I've gathered, the main purpose of obtaining Rule Breaker, is only so that you may sever the connection between Matou here and the Grail, ridding her of the worms aside. Matou, no offense, is a Lesser Grail that may cause the end of the world, and only a last resort for dealing with another apocalypse that has just the barest chance of succeeding in that task. Is that correct?"

Saber could already see what Luvia was getting at. While she did somewhat feel for the girl and what was going to happen, she could not afford to allow herself to show such sympathies. She gave Shirou a look as she responded to the question, warning him of what was to come. The look back told her that he had come to the same unfortunate conclusion. "That is the initial idea correct, but it's useful enough that we may need it for another purpose later."

"So…" the blonde's voice slowly began to show more strain, and even Shriou in his current state knew that something was going to give any moment now. "By chance, wouldn't that mean that the entire purpose of fooling me and my sister into summoning Caster… and us being in the current situation now… is all the simple result of Emiya wanting to play the hero saving the damsel in distress, using her miniscule chance at solving another issue as a paltry excuse to justify his outstandingly poor judgment?"

Shirou closed his eyes in frustration as he thought of his response. From Luvia's perspective, she really did have every right to be pissed. Not only was the War she had staked her life in a farce, but nearly every major decision she's had outside of willingly entering the thing had essentially not been her own. Not only that, but she was now coming to the conclusion that one of the biggest reasons for him putting her in such danger with regards to her current choice in Servants… was simply to save a girl he liked, when Luvia and Rin obviously shared similar feelings with him no less, that very well be one of the biggest issues they would have to deal with.

From a practical standpoint… killing Sakura early on really _would_ have been the most efficient and safest thing to do. It would make dealing with Zouken, if timed properly, significantly easier. It eliminated the risk of her turning into the primary Lesser Grail and prevented Angra Mainyu from being born. And it overall freed up everyone's hands and attention to deal with every other issue that came up much sooner. Rider's loss would have been a detriment, but she still didn't compare to Saber and she wasn't the only Servant that he would have eventually teamed up with. True she may have been a possible solution to Gilgamesh, but the odds of that happening were so minor that it really wasn't worth considering in most cases…

He knew this. Kiritsugu had pointed this out and explained it in full detail in his notes. The man even mentioned that he would have done this in his son's position without hesitation. Hell, even Waver and Sirius admitted this to be the case when they went over the sensitive topic with him, and they _liked_ the girl.

But as far as Shirou was concerned it wasn't going to happen. End of discussion. He had ensured that Sakura lived and Zouken died. His objectives with regard to that had been achieved. As for Caster…

"Calm down," he replied tiredly. It was hard to muster up energy to speak at this point, let alone keep his eyes open. "You were going to participate in the War regardless of what I did. You've seen how much of a pain it's been for all of us to deal with Assassin being different than what was predicted. How much worse do you think it would have gotten if Caster was different too? Would you have been more comfortable if you had summoned Morgan Le Fey and stuck Marjatta with her less savory side? Or perhaps a corrupted Cleopatra? We'd likely be stuck in a similar situation to the previous war regardless."

"Worse," Saber muttered under her breath as she recalled her experiences, battles, and encounters with Morgana. As much of a pain Caster was, and even though the witch came from the Age of Gods, she _paled_ in comparison to Saber's stepsister on a good day.

He didn't bother mentioning that due to the timing and the way things had been set up, the only other Servants that Luvia had a shot of summoning by the time Waver came back to Fuyuki with Marjatta were Caster, Assassin, and Archer. Berserker and Lancer had already been summoned by that point, he had pretty much ensured summoning Saber given what he had and what he was, and Zouken had informed him that he had done some tweaking to the system to ensure that Sakura would be summoning a Rider class Servant shortly before the War even started.

All three classes were difficult to control for one reason or another. They already had enough trouble with an out of control overpowered Archer, and if she and her sister had summoned Assassin and one went out of control like Caster did? … Well, odds were pretty likely that they wouldn't be having this conversation.

"He has a point," Rin sighed in a way that everyone that knew her could tell that she was mocking Luvia while still supporting his case. "I mean, if I was in his position, I would do the same thing. There's no point in knowing what a specific Servant can and will do if they aren't even summoned in the first place. Besides, why are you so angry? It's not like _he_ was contracted to kill _you_ on purpose."

"Rin…" Shirou grunted warningly. He really didn't want anyone to get excited. Excited meant yelling, and yelling never helped when dealing with a boat load of sensitive information.

"No. I'm curious about this myself," Illya spoke up with sharp eyes and accusing curiosity. "Do tell Edelfelt, what _were_ the terms of the agreement? Who was the other party, and the price? I want to know exactly how badly someone wanted to steal my prey."

"Illya, you're really not helping…" Shirou gave his sister an accusing look. "Besides, there is likely no point in asking."

"No point in asking?" Sakura blinked in confusion.

"He means the contract signed was geassed, so I am unable to speak of the details to others. Not even Caster knows." Luvia sighed with some mild irritation. "It's a basic procedure for rather sensitive jobs like this one for obvious reasons. Emiya should also be quite familiar with them by this point as well."

"Familiar enough to know the in's and out's. Don't really need to get a geass scroll to keep me quiet that often so long as Barthomelloi is involved." His bland response managed to cause those that knew him to smile briefly. His fear of the Queen of the Clocktower was well known to all of them.

"I can admit that the contract's format was nothing outstanding though. Well, outside of who was involved really," Luvia added as if adding in a meaningless comment. "Standard payment procedures. Standard silencing subjects. Standard contract…"

Shirou's eye twitched at the statement. Saber noticed.

"_Something she said catch your attention?"_

"_Later. Now's not the time__,__" _he mentally replied without giving any visible signal.

"A geass is just a thaumaturgical contract, correct?" Sakura asked contemplatively. "Then theoretically, it should be nullified easily with Rule Breaker, shouldn't it?"

"Along with the connection the contract has to the other party, yes. It's a rather noticeable procedure for all directly involved." Caster stated factually. "I believe that it's in everyone's best interests to avoid any further outside complications time being."

"Not like having a Dead Apostle Ancestor here is bad enough," Illya grumbled in annoyance, not realizing how big the can of worms she had just opened was.

"An Ancestor?!" Luvia shouted in surprise and alarm. She wasn't the only one that was stunned by the new information as everyone's eyes shot wide open at the statement.

"… _Merem, we are going to have a very long talk in the near future about your methods of interacting with those close to me and topics that are and are not permissible to talk about." _Shirou's eye began to twitch more irritably. "Circumstances?"

The albino looked away as if admitting she stole a cookie. "Ah. Well, I was planning on… participating in the battle between the Casters, Rider and Saber a week ago after it had started. Berserker and I were not that far away, but before I could get there he showed up out of nowhere. He looked my age and had blue eyes, but… I don't know how but he could turn his limbs into Divine Beasts of all things." She shivered at the memory. "One of them turned into this massive whale like creature and managed to kill Berserker through raw power alone."

"Four divine beasts?" Caster's voice was unstable. "In this era? That's… that's absurd. An individual with that much power would be considered a major power even during my time."

"His limbs?" Rin asked in a tone that Shirou recognized as one that indicated that she had already figured out who the culprit was. "Anything you forgot to include in your explanation, Shirou?"

"Don't even try to assume that I'm responsible for this one," the accused grunted, not happy that the girl had not decided to keep mum about the subject. "I'm just as surprised that he's here in the first place as you are."

"You _know _this abomination?!" Luvia's voice increased in volume and hysterics, and for good reason. "How?! Barthomelloi would kill you for having any sort of relationship with an Apostle! No! Ignore that! By what forgotten mystery are you even alive from encountering such a thing in the first place?!"

"Merem Solomon. Twentieth Apostle Ancestor and member of the Church's Burial Agency," Rin summarized factually and some resigned exhaustion. "I never thought he'd be back here again."

Illya blinked in confusion, trying to keep up with the new information she was being given. She had vaguely remembered the vampire introducing himself as such, but she had been so stressed during the aftermath of their battle that she had forgotten it. Outside of subjects related to the War itself and Thaumaturgy, she wasn't given that much information on the outside world. True, she knew of the Church itself and some of its dealings, but not outside of what was relevant to what she was doing. "What's the Burial Agency? He was here before?"

"The Burial Agency is the best of the best the Church has to offer when they need something addressed permanently. Executors pale in comparison to them. They are the ones the Church uses whenever they're planning on taking out Ancestors and the like, and they are very accomplished at what they do." Shirou grimaced as Saber voiced his thoughts.

He didn't get into specifics that he had learned from his position in the Clocktower and his conversations with the Ancestor, but from some of the bits and pieces that Merem had told him… he never wanted to encounter any of the other members. Ever.

"He was here at the end of the Louvre incident. He supposedly likes to collect artifacts and was interested in a mace that Louvre found shortly before everything happened. It was simply coincidence that we met him then, and the only reason why Barthomelloi didn't destroy him, and Shirou's home in the process, was because he works for the Church in hunting down other Apostles," Rin elaborated what little she knew about one of the most powerful beings on the planet. "Normally I wouldn't even dare speak of the incident for obvious reasons, but these are clearly exceptional circumstances."

"As for why he's here now? The best I can guess is that he's interested in watching the War itself and the Noble Phantasms. A common mantra among the older Apostles is that boredom is their greatest enemy." Shirou hoped that those who didn't know of his relationship with Merem would miss the fact that he had avoided mentioning anything about the time between the Louvre incident and now.

"That isn't right," Illya spoke up, gaining confused looks. "When he fought Berserker, he kept me out of the battle by carrying me on one of his beasts, one that flew. I asked him why he was interfering, and he simply replied that he was interested in seeing "the wonderfully exciting beginning of something new"."

"Something new?" everyone asked in confusion, all drawing a blank as to what the small Apostle was referring to.

"Wasn't he interested in the Grail?" Luvia probed suspiciously.

"No." The smallest one there shook her head. "He seemed to be familiar with it actually, like he was related to it in some way, but didn't seem to have any desire or care for it. He even said that if he would have participated in the war long before now if he actually did. If he was interested in Angra Mainyu, he likely would have left me alone to expedite the ritual instead of delay it."

"… So, a Dead Apostle Ancestor stopped you from making a frustrating situation worse… from our perspective at least, ripped your Servant apart several times, discussed with you in a predictably vague manner that he's not interested in the War or the Grail, but something that would come from the situation at hand… and then I'm assuming he simply let you go once things calmed down?" Rin attempted to summarize the situation in a tone that clearly did not hide her frustration as much as she wanted.

"More or less." Illya's cheeks pouted. She hated being addressed as if she was powerless when she still had Berserker at her beck and call. "Other than the damage to the surrounding area, I honestly would consider it a tame and low key encounter with an Ancestor."

"At least we aren't dealing with Tatari," Shirou muttered under his breath. From the little he had read up on that particular Ancestor, the only way they'd be safe from that one was to simply get the hell out of town as fast as bloody possible. Even Merem wasn't too keen on dealing with that particular monstrosity if he could help it.

"Tatari?" Several eyes turned to him curiously and confused. The thirteenth Apostle Ancestor was a bit of an unknown, even for those with the proper clearance to secured information about the twenty-seven. Only a handful of individuals even knew of its name, let alone existence in the first place.

"You don't want to know." He drank some more tea, grimacing as his sore throat met the liquid. His thirst didn't abate at all. He must have drank it too fast, since all he got for his efforts was a small burning sensation in his chest.

Saber managed to glimpse a few key details about the Apostle Ancestor from Shirou's mind… and couldn't help but agree with him. As powerful as they were, the only ones that might, key word, might stand a chance against such an absurd opponent were the Casters.

"Wait," Luvia spoke up. "If he works for the Church, couldn't we get him to help us? If we give him proof that the Grail is corrupted…"

"A fruitless endeavor," Saber replied as the assassin shook his head in denial. "He's probably more curious as to the outcome of the events here than worried about how things are turning up. Only after the conflicts here are somewhat resolved should we expect him to do something about Kirei… if he's still alive after this."

"Something tells me that won't be a concern," Luvia's voice made it clear that something was making her slightly unnerved. Shirou and Sakura guessed correctly what it was within a second.

"Don't even think about it, Rin." From what he had seen, the priest was just probably just as dangerous as he had been in the previous war. It was still impossible to read his body language for emotions and thoughts, but there was no way of masking the man's way of walking and carrying himself, betraying his training and technique. The man was a professional killer.

Saber agreed completely. "We need him to keep Gilgamesh in check for as long as possible. He's also a former executor. He would unquestionably defeat you if you tried to take him on yourself. Even Kiritsugu barely managed to achieve victory against him in the last war, and that was with Avalon giving him extreme regeneration abilities."

Shirou grinned feebly. "Just to let you all know… I'm not the only one that's gotten a new heart thanks to the thing." If at all possible, he'd like it if no one else in their unstable group went through the experience either. It hurt like hell.

The line was silent for a good few moments before the sound of someone taking in a deep breath was heard. "You are making this very difficult for me, Shirou. First, you tell me that the traitor who raised me is responsible for my father's death, and now you tell me to do nothing about it. I'm having trouble figuring out what's more of a pain to understand at the moment, this entire situation, or what's going through that head of yours."

"I doubt anyone knows what's going though his mind by this point," Luvia clearly pouted.

"If you don't mind, I believe now would be a reasonable time to get to the other main topic for tonight." Sakura broke the silence again before the conversation got any darker. "Shirou, didn't you say that you were going to convince Illya of everything?"

The Einzbern looked at her brother skeptically as he slowly went through what Sakura asked. "Can he? It looks like he can barely keep himself awake."

"I…" Shirou grunted as he rubbed the bridge of his nose. It really was getting hard to think. It wasn't just the exhaustion, but his entire body had been feeling off since he was shot in the heart (as peculiar as that sounded in the first place), and not in a freshly recovered way either. Despite being fully healed, his skull had not stopped throbbing since the battle, and every now and then it felt as if is chest was being stabbed from the inside out by countless tiny needles. He tried to ignore it to keep his mind fresh and prevent everyone from gutting one another, but he really was reaching his limits. "… Saber, can you help me to my workshop? I need to get some papers and make sure that nothing sensitive can be found if Caster breaks in."

"You're destroying your notes. Is that wise?" Saber noted as she stood up and moved to help him, putting his arm over her shoulders to support his weight while ignoring the smell of dried blood and bile that clung to his clothes. It was a common scent that often accompanied the end of a fierce battle, so she was not particularly bothered by it. "A bath may be in order after this."

"I have copies in hard drives hidden in multiple locations. Definitely places that Caster wouldn't look. As for the bath, I'd probably pass out and drown if I had one now." He smirked weakly. He blinked several times getting up as his vision temporarily grew blurry, but it corrected itself moments later.

Most of his notes were stored in several computers in the house with another additional copy hidden in the Fujimura household and one last one on a private secure server that Sirius made for international access. The only Servant that would even give the things a second look let alone know how they would be used is Assassin, and he definitely wasn't going to give the woman any hints if he could help it.

Saber frowned as she noticed his moment of weakness, but didn't point it out. She doubted that the others at the table missed it either. Regardless she slowly made her way out of the room with her Master. "… I see. We will be back in a moment."

"Hard drives?" Illya blinked in confusion as the pair left, not familiar with the term.

"Electronic information storage devices. What stores all the raw information on computers," Sakura replied. Rin may have been the genius of the pair when it came to Thaumaturgy, but the younger sibling had a far easier time understanding technology.

"I see… so they are like the brain of the computer?" Illya inquired curiously, her expressions once again regressing to that of an innocent child.

"More the soul… or just the frontal lobe for those who aren't educated as Magi. Where all the information is stored," Sakura elaborated factually.

"I see. I see. Modern technology really is a peculiar craft." She bobbed her head up and down in understanding. "And how do computers connect to this… intraweb? What is the exact method of exchanging of information? Does it also have to do with this hard drive?"

"Please don't tell me I sound like this whenever I ask questions about technology." Rin pleaded out loud, horrified at the thought of sounding as oblivious as a (seemingly) twelve year old child.

"I can only make assumptions Tohsaka." Luvia stifled a minor giggle, not saying that she suspected that her rival was even worse than she thought.

Had a certain Archer been present for the conversation, he would have without hesitation confirmed his Master's worst fears.

"Ah… I'm not exactly sure about that." Sakura bashfully looked away nervously. "I only know some general information about computers. Parts and functions. What you're asking is a good deal more technical that a professional would focus on. Shirou might know…" She paused. "Actually, I doubt it, he's more hardware oriented than software…"

"Hardware? Software?" Illya's head shot back to Sakura expectantly with wide eyes. If anyone didn't know any better, they could have sworn that she was sparkling with innocence.

"Er… The components themselves, and the functions within them," the more mature of the two hesitantly replied, wondering how she got stuck in the situation.

"I see. Now I get it. But… why do they call them hard drives, if they store information for soft ware?" The girl tilted her head to the side in confusion.

"Um… well…" Sakura began to look around nervously. The girl that was supposedly older than her was bombarding her with questions like the child she appeared to be, and it was really to get to areas that she had no answer for. She could have sworn that she heard a snort of a barely restrained laugh over the phone, but couldn't tell who the source was. Mentally she shouted out a plea for someone to change the topic of conversation so she wouldn't embarrass herself anymore.

"As amusing and informative as your conversation is… I believe that we still have some more slightly important things to discuss," Rin's rather annoyed voice echoed from the table, killing the mood in an instant. "Such as how we are going to manage to deal with Caster AFTER she gets Rider to spill everything she knows to her. Sakura, as Rider's Master you spent the most time with her right? For clarification, just how much _does _she know?"

"Rider?" Sakura blinked in temporary confusion, flashing to depression as she remembered that her Servant and confident was no longer there, and then pushed her feelings aside to ponder the question. Rin was correct in her concerns, obviously. All things considered they probably should have brought this subject up earlier in order to determine what could go wrong. No doubt Caster was interrogating Medusa as they spoke, attempting to wring out as much information about them as possible in order to gain the advantage as quick as possible.

In contrast, given how things have gotten so far, Rider doesn't know much that hasn't already been shouted to the world already.

"Well, she does know of the existence of Shirou's original notes on the alternate Wars, but he's already destroying those and she doesn't know of the copies. There's the information on the other Servants. Gilgamesh and Kirei, but that would only make her even more paranoid and defensive. It would probably prevent her from acting out in the short term save for maybe stealing more prana from the city…" She began to list off what Rider knew of, but she couldn't help but feel that he was missing something.

The only other major secrets that Shirou had been keeping from virtually everyone was that he had a Reality Marble, which everyone but Luvia and maybe Illya knew by this point… and… and…

Her face paled dramatically and her stomach fell through the floor.

"It seems there is something that we should prepare for." Illya frowned as she noted Sakura's alarming change in appearance.

Before she could reply, Saber's voice was heard from outside. "Shirou!"

Sakura was the first to respond to the frantic cry as she ran outside to see what was happening. The bounded fields around the building hadn't been triggered or broken in any way, so there shouldn't be anyone attacking. That however made things all the more alarming, as to her knowledge Saber never raised her voice for any reason outside of emergencies.

"What?! What's going on?!" Rin shouted through the phone, her voice clearly worried, but was ultimately ignored by Illya and Sakura as they rushed outside to see what the commotion was all about.

What they saw was Saber leaning over to support Shirou as he attempted to gasp for air as he threw up copious amounts of blood and chunks of lungs onto the earth. Every brief inhale and exhale he made was wet sounding, but his voice itself was the most unnerving as every hint of it that came out of his mouth sounded almost metallic, and hollow sounds of things not of the human body scraped from the inside.

"He started to complain about his chest just as we were coming out," Saber explained to the girls as she supported him, ignoring the fact that she had some blood on her clothes and face. "The pain grew worse as we were coming back until this happened. What little I know of medicine isn't enough to deal with this, and Avalon isn't helping for some reason."

Sakura grimaced as she grabbed onto Shirou's heaving shoulders and attempted to inspect him. One of the benefits of being trained by him in reinforcement was that it increased her knowledge and familiarity of the human body. It was nowhere near perfect and she was nowhere near good enough to consider it good enough for standard medical use, but it was useful enough that she could usually identify the initial cause of major problems.

It only took a few moments for her to see the source.

"His OD is fluctuating like mad. I've never seen this before. His left lung and heart…" She blinked in disbelief. "They turned into… like bladed mesh. They're tearing themselves apart inside of him. Avalon's healing the damage but every time they move everything just gets shredded again. He's choking on his own blood."

"Blades?" Illya frowned as she looked at Shirou in confusion and concern. "You mean like in his Reality Marble?"

Saber and Sakura didn't even bother wasting time being surprised by the girl's statement as Shirou continued to gasp for air and unload crimson fluid below him. "Do either of you know any spells to deal with this?" the former asked somewhat impatiently.

"No. I was never trained in those kinds of mysteries," Sakura admitted as she knelt down and stabilized his head. "What I can do is try to stabilize his circuits. His prana is running erratically. If I do that his insides might return to normal, but it's hard if we can't get him to stop moving like this…"

"Is that all? Why didn't you say that in the first place?" Illya huffed in an annoyed tone as she strutted forward, ignoring the blood that got onto her shoes and clothes, and lifted her brother's head enough to make eye contact. Her intent to use her Mystic Eyes to paralyze and knock her brother out cold stalled though as she saw that his brown human eyes were not like they were before, but glowing silver and slit. Not only that, but his blood drenched teeth revealed elongated canines.

Shirou heaved unsteadily as his dazed eyes seemed to look forward but not see anything at all. "Ill-ya?" He gasped out in exhaustion. Whether the question was to ask what she was doing or if it was her in the first place no one knew.

The girl blinked several time before backing up a step, clearly afraid of him.

She seemed more surprised when he shakily managed to lift up an arm and hand her a blood spattered file and a small journal and attempted to smile harmlessly.

"H-Here's e-!" He lurched forward and unloaded another small load of blood onto the ground beneath him. Despite the toll it took on him, it was clear that he was making an effort into trying to make sure it didn't get on anyone. "Here's everything. S-Sorry I took so long."

Looking at the documents as if realizing their existence for the first time, the girl took a few moments to take the bloodstained papers from his hand and hold them to her chest. "Stupid…" She muttered the feeble insult under her breath before stepping forward without any of her prior hesitation and waited for a pause in his rampant coughing before lifting his head up and glaring at his non-human eyes.

"Kiritsugu really is unfair, making me take care of someone like you." She frowned in annoyance as she channeled prana into her mystic eyes and knocked him out in a matter of seconds. Had he been in better condition, he easily could have resisted the rather weak thaumaturgical impulse like any other second rate magus, but that clearly wasn't the case.

Standing to her full, if limited height, Illya glared at Sakura and Saber as they got to work stabilizing and attending to the now unconscious Shirou. She barely noticed the dark shadows that Sakura produced go into Shirou's mouth, likely so that they could clean out his air passageway of the blood that may pool inside. A crude method, but it was not as if they had any other to go by at this point.

At the same time, Sakura had also cut a hole into his side in order for all the blood pooling in his chest cavity to leak out and not crush his lungs. She had minimal medical training, but she had learned enough to know that the cause for many deaths in terms of internal bleeding caused by broken ribs was suffocation due to the collected blood compressing the lungs against the rest of the body.

"When, dare I ask, was anyone going to warn me that Onii-chan was a Dead Apostle?"

o. o. o.

Somewhere off the coast of Australia:

He took his time in front of his private full body mirror, ensuring that every facet of his appearance was ideal. His crisp and styled cut black hair. His tan unblemished skin. His gleaming white smile. His facial hair trimmed in just the right way that women would consider his appearance rugged and sexy while still being short enough that they wouldn't consider it possibly getting in the way.

It wouldn't be hard to mistaken him for a male model with the effort he put into everything. His body was nothing short of impressive, standing tall and proud at a solid six foot one, and a hundred and eighty pounds of refined lean muscle, the Spaniard confidently inspected everything about himself once more.

It was not out of vanity that he put so much into his appearance. Not entirely. While he did put a good deal of effort to ensure that he was presentable and provided a proper representation of those under his charge at all times, tonight was a special case.

His attire was simple, yet at the same time colorful. A crisp and dry cleaned high collar black military suit with the expected ornate buttons and medals that represented feats and honors that no one outside of the system truly cared about save for the fact that it meant that he accomplished a good deal of feats. Over his left shoulder that traveled across his chest to his left hip, he bore a violet sash, a reminder of the life and loyalty he once held. Over his right he donned an identical white one with red trimmings, to represent his current loyalties. A saber hung off of his waist, a symbol of his position as a ranked member of the military when he received it, but now enchanted with various spells to make it more effective in battle.

And on top of his head, a rather large and old fashioned Spaniard hat from the sixteenth century. The feather had long since worn away, and it didn't truly match the rest of his outfit, however that was irrelevant. The hat itself was like an old friend of his and had been with him through many battles throughout his deceptively long life. His nameless companion was always with him during important events, even before he became a privateer. It was something worthy of the leader of an awe inspiring march of military might just like the ones he witnessed as a child.

And hosting a dinner for his Master was without a doubt worthy of such an occasion.

He gave himself yet another look over, scanning himself for any imperfections that only his eyes could seemingly make out. It always astounded him just how greatly fashion and cosmetics seem to change in the modern world. However, he admitted that he was not against the developments in the past twenty or so years. Humanity had finally developed a modicum of subtlety and practicality in their products and standards, and it pleased him.

He even admitted that the current style that he had his facial hair in was a good deal more comfortable and attractive than his old favorite back when he had been alive. Getting his moustache to curl like it had was always a bit of a trial, not to mention that it itched at the worst times.

Of course he wouldn't dare attempt to try his charms on his Master, his Commanding General. It was not only pointless, foolish, and insulting to do so, worthy of a court martial if not be put down all together… but there was also the fact that he preferred the company of those more… masculine.

Admittedly it was a peculiar taste that caused many to have negative views of him, but it was of little concern. Not like he was the first person in a position of power to have such tastes. It always astounded him that people tended to be surprised whenever a notable member of the Church gets caught with their pants down, literally, with a choir boy or two. Hell, it had been happening since before he was even born, let alone turned.

"Sir!" One of his men stepped into his room after knocking. Crisp and professional, the man stood at the ready as soon as he stepped inside. Unlike him, the man was wearing a more modern attire for those in the military with camo colored clothing. It reminded him that he was using an American based unit to keep things up and running for the week. Not exactly his first pick, but he had to admit that they did have an efficient work ethic when given a task. "It is time for your meeting."

"Perfect timing my friend, as expected," he replied in English with a hint of his Spaniard accent, enough to be noticeable but not enough to confuse anyone that heard him. He had a natural gift of tongues, even when he was a child, be it for charisma or for other languages in general.

It always amused him when he told people that he was actually Italian. He moved to Spain as a child barely out of diapers and subsequently grew up there, hence the accent.

"At ease. Anything of note to report? The little beastie didn't give you any trouble this time did he?"

The Soldier's mouth twitched at the small joke, but that was the largest movement he made at attention. "Negative. After the previous episode, the men know better than to let their guard down."

The Captain nodded. Normally he would make a larger fuss about sustaining and attending to that creature as he despised being nothing short of immaculate when in front of his Master, but as with all wild beasts, one could not always be correct. Thankfully, his Master understood this perfectly and did not hold the incident against him… and also nothing happened this time.

He was not exactly suited to handle such an abomination anyways.

"Quickly, do tell me your thoughts." He twisted to give himself an inspection of his back and sides. "Too much? Too little? Not enough flair? Does my rear stick out too much? I still have dreadful nightmares the last time I missed such an obvious and humiliating flaw." Said event was almost two centuries ago.

"In all honesty sir, I am not one to ask about such things. Fashion and dealing with nobility were not exactly a common topic where I came from. Much less possible dealings of those of your position," the soldier replied honestly, avoiding the topic of his commander's rear.

"True, but there is no harm in asking for an outside opinion," the man whimsically admitted. He had after all completely ignored his family's wishes when he was but a sheltered boy to join the military. He essentially started his life over from scratch, learning what common culture was first hand. Several attempts were made on his life for that, but that was to be expected. One didn't attempt to leave the world of Magi without such risks. "Simplicity and practicality are arts in themselves, if applied right. So long as the Grand Marshal is easily identifiable among those he is responsible for and is an appropriate representative, all will fall into place."

The visitor nodded understandingly. "All things considered sir, if I hadn't seen you eat and drink before, I would have suggested something that wouldn't stain just in case. Your outfit costs more than I probably would have made in my pension if I had retired."

The leader snorted in amusement. The man's compliment more than confirming that his image was indeed worthy of his Master. "It always astounds me how little countries care for those that have fought for them. I thank you for your contribution for tonight."

"Just doing what's needed of me." The soldier saluted again. "Will that be all?"

"In this room, yes. Please do accompany me as I make way to our guests." He walked past the soldier without sparing him a second glance and into the hallway, not bothering to watch as his subordinate closed the door behind him and took his spot behind him and to the left.

"So I take it that everything is well? No problems preparing tonight's meal?" While he did adore his ship and did try to keep things as well preserved as possible, even he had to make some adaptations as time went on. Thaumaturgically, the vessel was a marvel that was unstoppable and undetectable via any force on the open sea save for a handful of individuals. When most humans laid eyes on it, they either ignored it completely or had their impressions warped to assume it was a moderately large pleasure cruise ship instead of the massive armed sailboat it was.

Despite this, the kitchen of his boat was completely modernized and supplied with the latest technology whenever available. Thaumaturgy and mysteries of the arcane could only help so much when your original kitchen looked like a cross between a butcher shop and a torture chamber. Plus it made storing and preserving his drinks vastly easier as well.

Of course, having installed plumbing and better bathrooms into the ship helped with the quality of existence on his pride and joy a great deal as well.

"Yes sir. Our guests of honor are waiting your arrival on the bridge as expected. Both have been supplied with the brands that you have explicitly pointed out and to our knowledge appear to be satisfied with them."

"Hah," the captain chuckled. He knew his charge was merely relaying his beliefs. His Master was a difficult one to read on a good day with those that she did not care about. To assume that the man could tell if she was pleased with anything was the same as expecting him to tell if she was disappointed with the same matter. It was akin to handing a plastic coin to a blind man and asking him what side was black and the other white…

Well… that would have been the case if it weren't for the fact that she had a bad habit of being far more insulting and bitter if she wasn't happy with something. Given from the fact that the soldier from Utah wasn't hesitating, it seemed to be the case that she hadn't reduced any of his men into a miserable weeping mess with her tongue waiting for him. Trained soldiers or not, the girl was relentless when she wanted to be.

He opened the large wooden doors to the outside and breathed in the strong salty air. Australia was always an interesting land to visit. So far out of the way of anywhere really and yet the mysteries native to this land always seemed to surprise him…

… That and Australia was where most of the world's remaining phantasmal beasts tended to live nearby these days. Africa was being swarmed by more humans by the day now, and most thaumaturgical beasts tended to instinctively stay away from South America ever since ORT landed there, or so he had been told.

He marched professionally to the dinner table that had been set up on the center of the bridge and stood at full attention in front of a young woman that appeared no older than fourteen years of age… and the truck sized white wolf lying down right behind her, lazily lapping up blood from a large saucer obtained just for this situation.

Snapping his feet together with an audible click, the man stood ramrod straight and saluted the pair in front of him. Without any indication that they had been paying attention earlier, the soldiers around the ship had matched his movements perfectly just as he did so. Even the most strict training would not be able to enforce such a perfect reaction from the humans there attending some of the most dangerous individuals on the planet. "I have come as requested! My lady, I hope everything is in order."

Altrouge Brunstud did not appear to notice his unnecessary display as she calmly drank the blood served to her in a wine glass. Both knew she was rather put off by his constant military behavior every time they met and the fact that he seemed to love making a show of it as well, but at the same time both knew that he would never stop even if she threatened him to.

Silence permeated the area for minutes as the elder child of Type Moon casually sampled the drinks provided, ignoring the man standing at full attention in front of her and the beast that was staring at him in mild boredom.

"… Do sit down Fina. You look ridiculous standing there like a fool," she relented after fifteen minutes.

"And I will continue to play the part so long as we continue to be." Said fool, the Eighth Apostle Ancestor, Fina-Blood Svelton bowed deeply with a wry grin on his face before taking his seat and motioning to his charges to proceed with the meal. Within moments, a variety of dishes was spread out in front of them. "So how was Australia? I must admit, it is rather interesting for you to visit this part of the world."

"Peculiar." The red eyed girl replied bluntly, as if the word summarized her trip perfectly for anyone to understand. "The mysteries that originate from this island are a good deal similar to those of the Native Americans, and yet are of a different mold at the same time…"

White Knight Svelton could easily tell that the girl was not in a good mood. "I assume it was rather tiresome to find shelter and sustenance during your travels…"

"Please do remind me of this trip the next time I have the idea to visit another barren wasteland," the half breed pouted slightly as she drank her blood.

"I keep telling you, that is why we have that dusty old Strout," the Privateer grinned, clearly amused. "He doesn't mind a little sun every now and then."

"I'll make sure to let him know you said that the next time I send him off on a task." She was very much aware that her two Knights didn't exactly see eye to eye most of the time. In fact she was quite amused by their bickering more often than not.

The good natured Italian would have snorted, but he had just taken a bite of the steak that had been prepared. As always, it was very rare. Allowing himself a few moments to chew and digest, he gathered his thoughts. "So then, what business is up for discussion tonight? It is not often that you take the time to call me out and visit me on my ship. Much less, so far away from our usual areas of influence."

Most would assume it would be because ships are slow. Others would assume it would because they had some means of communicating over long distances…

While both were correct, the real truth of the matter was something far more embarrassing and thus less known: Altrouge was remarkably susceptible to seasickness. Even a small amount of rocking would cause her pale face to turn a shade of green. The only reason why she tolerated being on his ship now was simply because it was docked and not going anywhere.

"Tatari is dead," his superior stated simply as she placed down her empty glass and request for a refill from one of the soldiers there, who attended to her almost instantly.

"Truly?" The captain would be lying if he said he wasn't surprised. While he was technically higher ranked, Fina doubted more than a small fraction of the Apostle Ancestors were even capable of fighting the Thirteenth, let alone kill him, or more accurately, it. He, admittedly, was not one of them. "How so?"

"It seems that he had the unfortunate fate of manifesting in the city that my sister was dwelling at the time." The girl sighed as if talking about some minor issue, like a lost dollar.

Ah, that explains why she was all the way out here. She was the only one that knew when and where that bizarre phenomenon would show up next… or where he should have showed up in this case. She was making sure that he really was gone for good. Even if they did have a pact, it was always a bit of a chore for her to keep tabs on that one.

"Mmmm. First Chaos, then Roa, now Tatari. Arcruied is certainly managing well recently…" It was an understatement. The previous Tenth and Thirteenth were among the most difficult Ancestors to kill, period. The Pirate could only think of maybe two or three other Ancestors that were a bigger challenge to figure out how to put down permanently as those two, and one of them wasn't even from the planet in the first place.

"We welcomed Chaos' demise since he was Ortenrosse's. However Tatari was a long term investment of mine," the girl stated factually.

"And with dear White Wing's little ritual coming up in a few years, losing any sort of power now would be concerning." The White Knight nodded in understanding. "However I still do not see the purpose of this meeting. As it stands you need more subordinates in positions of power, and while I would gladly throw in a few names…"

He chuckled lightly as he looked at the soldiers at his command.

The issue was that he had never made a Ghoul, Undead, or Apostle in his existence.

"… So then, what sort of show shall I perform for you on this occasion?" He shrugged before placing another minor piece of meat into his mouth and savored the taste. Oh he was certainly thanking his stars for when he came across that culinary and supply unit from France a few decades back.

"We need something to counterbalance this loss of power while White Wing is distracted with his project." The black haired girl summarized. "Something that won't get his attention, but a significant action regardless."

"A fine line indeed. Subtlety but with force behind it. Who do you have in mind?" In inter-Apostle Ancestor matters, the main question was always "who". "What" came much later.

Altrouge's gaze was unflinching, crimson pools that contrasted her pale skin and dark hair perfectly. "We need some new blood in our ranks. This Ash of Miracles that Solomon has sponsored has my curiosity."

Fina blinked a few times in genuine surprise. He had been with his master for centuries and was used to her way of thinking, but even so he was still caught off guard by her decisions sometimes. "Him? Truly? Isn't it rumored that he's young, even by human standards? Even Solomon admits that he is only about as strong as Louvre was…"

All things considered, White Wing's decision to make Louvre an Apostle Ancestor was more of a joke than anything among the other Ancestors. Apostles were immortal yes, but waiting two hundred years for the weakling to finally gain enough power to fulfill his role was still a bit of a stretch. The man was more of a place holder for Ortenrosse to claim that he had one more spot on the list of Twenty Seven under his influence. If it weren't for the fact that coming across powerful and influential Apostles was growing more difficult as time went on, Altrouge would have killed him herself as a reaction to having her pride insulted as such.

"Doesn't that make you all the more curious?" his elder countered casually. "Solomon is all but a traitor to our kind and rarely gets involved in our politics, and yet when it came to this child he willingly took the initiative, something he never does."

"Yes, but aside from that he has been rather mute with excess details. All in all I'd rather focus on the targets that I know of and are against us than ones that seem to not bother getting involved at all," the White Knight pointed out factually. "Other than his title, apparent age, and supposed potential, little is known about him, and I doubt that Crown will change that habit anytime soon." _Much less for us._

He left unsaid that Solomon despised his Master with a burning passion that was only rivaled by Blackmore. It wasn't a secret to anyone and wasn't worth bothering to actually bring it up.

"All the more reason to enlist his aid." Altrouge seemed to be amused by her bodyguard's uncertainty. "An Apostle that no one seems to know about and is capable of hiding even from our gaze. If Solomon of all people put in the effort to place him among our ranks, then there must be something quite special about him. Something that we can use…"

Fina sighed in defeat. He knew that look. It was his Master's way of saying that something had her interest and she would not stop until it was hers. And if he didn't help she would make him miserable. It was a childish habit, and she would deny it to the point of threatening to sick Primate Murder on the accuser, followed by actually following through with it, but all things considered there was little he could do. "What would you have me do milady?"

Surely she didn't actually expect him to just walk up to Crown and ask him where the newcomer was? The Twentieth was many things, but a weakling he was not. All things considered he was one of the most powerful of the Twenty Seven despite his low rank. As strong as the military man was, he did not fancy his odds against the Demon Summoner in a one on one fight.

That wasn't to say that he would lose, far from it, but victory would no doubt come with a heavy cost.

"I didn't take you for being afraid of Crown, Riza." Altrouge smirked, all but reading his neutral expression perfectly.

Apparently she was considering it.

"I am a practical man. I prefer to undertake tasks that are in my favor, as you well know. Clearly there are some additional factors that will work in our favor then?" He chuckled in mild shame that he had been read so openly.

The girl didn't respond instantly as she drank some more of the blood served to her and stared at the glass with a bored fascination. "It appears that our acquaintance has recently taken an interest in that peculiar ritual that Kaleidoscope fabricated in Japan some time ago."

"Japan? Oh, you mean the one invoking alternate forms of… no, no that was in Peru. Ah, the one invoking Heroic Spirits and the Third Magic, right? What was its name again… The Holy Grail War? I had forgotten that was taking place so soon." He had to scratch his head a bit in order to call up the correct information. As great as the Five True Magics were, they rarely actually interested the Twenty Seven… save for Zelretch for obvious reasons. "It would indeed prove to serve as a fine show, but I personally would not be willing to risk… ah."

All things considered, Servants were generally seen as beings on par, or even stronger than the Twenty Seven Apostle Ancestors on average, exceptions such as Primate Murder and ORT excluded for obvious reasons. While the immortal nobles were powerful and did tend to wish to put breaks in the perpetual boredom that accompanied their near limitless lifespans, they were not foolish as to risk their existences on some petty entertainment that would not gain them anything in the process.

Exposing themselves would only result in the War itself being put on hold and being turned into a large scale Apostle Ancestor hunt. Especially with a member of the Church designated as the moderator.

"There are a good number of eyes on this particular ritual. Barthomelloi's dog is a participant and everyone seems to be curious as to what he will do." Despite what others may have assumed, Altrouge was actually quite amused by the Emiya's title as the "Queen's Silver Dog". To her it was akin to small children attempting to get a rise out of her. Knowing the shallow fools at the Clocktower though, it was likely more of an attempt to get the poor boy killed. The fact that Barthomelloi tended to sick said "dog" on Ortenrose's subordinates whenever he hunted Apostles only further entertained her.

Secretly she wondered how much further urging the White Winged Lord would need before he would admit to being a "cat" person.

"Emiya… now there's a name I haven't heard in some time." As a general rule, Fina hated lone assassins and mercenaries by sheer principle. He couldn't stand those that worked by and for themselves. No country. No honor. No pride. Such things left a terrible taste in his mouth. He could never comprehend such reprehensible individuals.

At the same time, he could not deny that the man was a bit of an artist in what he did. As much as he would rather not speak of it, the truth was that even he had learned a few things from the few exploits he had heard about the Magus Killer. The Church and the Magus Association weren't the only ones that had kept their eyes open whenever his name had been uttered.

"Am I to understand that you wish for me to multitask in… what is the location of the Ritual again?" he asked skeptically.

"Fuyuki," His master replied after swallowing more food. "And no. So long as Barthomelloi focuses on Ortenrosse, I see no reason why we should deprive her of her new favorite pet. Simply encountering Solomon will be enough. There is need to antagonize that woman needlessly when we share a mutual target to harass."

"Fair enough. I have enough terrifying females in my life." Fina grinned tauntingly at his Master, earning an irritated glare in response. She did not like being compared to Rita Rozay-en, the Fifteenth Ancestor.

All joking aside, Lorelei Barthomelloi really was one of the few humans on the planet that the other Apostle Ancestors were genuinely wary of to the point that they did not even consider her a human in the first place. To approach her with nothing but utmost caution was a near death sentence. The woman had already single handedly dispatched three Ancestors by herself.

"Don't even try to place blame of the source of your tastes on me, Fina. You had them before I had even turned you," the girl glared as she focused on her meal.

That was more true than most would know. He had been forced to be a privateer for the Spanish Crown after his at the time secret lover, who happened to be one of the lead commanders for the Navy at the time, singled him out for his homosexuality in order to avoid getting caught himself. Essentially, he was banished from his home and country despite all the love and effort he had put into protecting her and her people. It was almost a decade after the event that he had been turned.

He dramatically placed his hand over his heart and gasped. "Me? Blame you? You wound me, my lady! How could you ever assume that I would ever do anything so crass?!"

"Watching you and Strout in the same room is reason enough," she grumbled much like a petulant child, staring at him with accusing eyes.

"That fossil lacks even a single elegant drop of blood in his stale body," the male pouted just as childishly. Just imagining how horrid the man's blood must taste sent shivers down his spine.

"His bladework begs to differ, unlike yours," the elder pointed out factually, knowing that her Black Knight was far more accomplished with his sword than her White Knight. "Now if we are done bickering like mortal children, we can continue with our original discussion."

The somewhat flamboyant man's features hardened as his posture lost the energetic tenseness that it held earlier. "Of course. Now then, since we are speaking of dealing with Solomon, I take it that you have come to deliver some sort of restitution for his cooperation."

Despite his misgivings with dealing with small Ancestor, it wasn't the first time they would deal business with one another. Normally it had something to do with an exchange between Altrouge and the Church in an attempt to cripple Ortenrosse in some way, and with a good deal more talking and back alley meetings in preparation, but in those cases Solomon was usually apathetic to the entire situation… or was sated with a trinket or two to add to his collection.

Now though they were asking him for information, if not a conversation with his pet project, his protégé… dare say even his _friend._ Useless millennia old knick knacks weren't going to sate his urge to spit in their faces.

"Of course. Your toys are fun to play with, but they are not of the sort that Crown would enjoy wasting his time with." The girl nodded her head in agreement, ignoring the small twitch in her Knight's face as she insulted everything he lived for.

Before he could respond though, his master proceeded to whistle several notes in rapid succession.

In response, the tremendous wolf behind her, Primate Murder, The Beast Of Gaia itself, who had been lazily resting on the deck behind her, raised its head up almost instantly.

Unlike his soldiers on the bridge, who had all flinched and stayed clear away from the tremendous monster, some even collapsing under the very change in reality, Fina didn't so much as twitch in the creature's presence. He had spent over a decade restraining this instinctive impulse, the ghost like memories of his past human self screaming and begging him to run and flee with every twitch made by the beast ignored with a will that surpassed anything a normal human could possess.

And at the same time, he swore multiple times in his mind about how he absolutely hated it whenever his Master commanded the monstrosity around on his Ship without prior warning. He nearly lost his vessel the first time she had decided to visit with it unannounced.

… And the Second.

… And the two dozen times after that until he finally wised up and set up a bounded field that warned him whenever the monstrosity was within a five hundred knot radius of the ship.

Every time a paw twice the size of a truck tire landed on the bridge the entire ship trembled as if it was also terrified of the creature walking on it. Slowly, at least for it, Primate Murder sauntered up to the one it deemed as its master and placed its front right paw in arm's reach of her. Strapped onto the tremendous limb was a deceivingly simple looking leather pouch that no doubt held a good deal of items on the inside and was durable enough to withstand being on the monster for an extended period of time.

The girl opened up the flap on top and within moments pulled out a large but simple box with some runes on it that Fina recognized as sequences to preserve delicate and perishable items inside. He stared at it curiously as he had neither seen the box before, nor had any idea of what was inside that could possibly entice Solomon. He was interested in trinkets, not insects or bones or…

His Master opened the box in front of him.

His mind stopped working instantly and his face turned a pale shade.

"This is your first time seeing it, I believe," Altrouge casually mused, enjoying his reaction. "I am somewhat surprised you recognized what it was so quickly."

"… I do not need eyes to recognize the nature of what is in front of me, milady." Fina's boisterous and confident disposition was gone as his voice rose to no greater than a whisper. He licked his lips hesitantly, trying to find the right words and questions to ask for this unexpected development. "I was unaware that… is that by chance all…?"

"A third." Her response was as casual as it could be, as if she was speaking about the weather. "More than enough to serve its purpose should I have need of it. In all honesty, I was getting rather annoyed by the fact that it was serving no purpose other than gathering dust for centuries."

A lump formed in his throat. Oh, mentioning that during negotiations would definitely cause a few tensions at the bargaining table. All things considered, he wouldn't doubt Solomon forgoing subtlety and attempting to murder him with all his might the instant he found out what the Corsair had in his possession, let alone caught a glimpse of it. He had dealt with forbidden treasures over the centuries, but this definitely set the bar. "I did not assume we were in such a dire situation."

As far as she was concerned, Ortenrosse they could manage. Solomon and Blackmoore as well, normally, even if they should attempt to interfere with their goals. All at once, which was likely to happen during the Aylesbury ritual in a couple of years' time, even she was a bit skeptical about, but she was still confident that with her guards that everything would turn out her way.

Having a significant joker in the works that they had next to no information about on while this potential world shaking free for all took place on the other hand…

Her soft voice held a sharp edge, like a serrated fang to the listener's neck. "Solomon has never done something like this before, and the timing is suspicious. Allowing our enemies to gather more strength when the ritual is so close would be foolish. This token is more than enough to prompt him to grant you an audience. If you cannot sway the child to our influence, or unable kill him without significantly risking yourself, gather as much information as possible and ensure his neutrality, if at least for the duration of the ritual. We can deal with him at our leisure afterward."

Essentially, she was stopping a problem before it became a problem. She didn't know how big it was or could be, or even if it was a problem in the first place, but she couldn't afford to overlook it now.

If the cost was some of the golden hair that she stole from her sister, so be it.

o. o. o.

A/N:

(Sitting behind a panel of uber enchanted and fortified glass, videotaped from an undisclosed location.)

… Man if I didn't already know that my fics have such a polarized fanbase I'd be shitting bricks letting this chapter out.

And you guys thought that this chapter would be nothing but simple exposition. Hah!

FYI. I hate exposition chapters so, SO much. Tohe trick you have to fit in is to blow up the characters who didn't know everything's reactions to epic proportions to get anything out of this.

As of now: Rin really hates Luvia. Luvia is tweaked at Shirou and her sister, scared of Rin, and pissed at Sakura. Illya is wary of… pretty much everyone except Saber, and very leery of Sakura. Sakura's the only one that actually doesn't have hard feelings toward anyone… save Marjatta. Saber is more focused on trying to keep Shirou alive. Berserker is… Berserker. Princess Caster is pissed off at Shirou…

Everyone doesn't trust Archer. And likewise everyone is essentially pissed off at Shirou for one reason for another… and Shirou is unconscious. Again. I really have to stop doing that.

Ok. First things first. Fina-Strout Svelton. Eighth Apostle Ancestor. If you look him up on type moon wiki… you'll only find a handful of information on him. I took what was there, and fabricated the character appearing in the story. This is not Cannon! This is only my educated guess as to what his character is given what little we know! Don't bitch to me about it!

Cannon:

He DOES like drinking the blood of young boys, and the name Fina originates from the thirteenth century Italian Saint Fina, so the oldest he can be is around 750. Throw in the uses of Parades (the name of his reality marble) in history combined with the general history of real world pirates...

Using those as the base for his character, I have fabricated what I hope will be a passable character of my design that will fit the part for the duration of the story. It will no doubt be wrong compared to whatever Nasu comes out with, obviously, but again, I'm doing it anyways. Why? … Honestly I don't know, but I felt like it fit the more I thought about the general design so I went with it. It's not like we'll be getting Tsukihime2 in the next decade anyways.

Not Cannon:

Essentially Fina is a homosexual corsair (… or butt pirate for the more crude of humor), his appearance is based off of Oberyn Martel's (Game of Thrones). His personality can be considered flamboyant enough that it is clear he is gay to those that pay attention, but it is not his only notable defining personality trait, nor is it the only thing that pops up when others think of how to describe him. He is very professional when on the job and extremely dedicated to his duty to the point of minor (but not blind) zealotry, despite being kicked out of the Spanish navy and living most of his life as a pirate when he was alive. The only thing that he is more dedicated to than Altrouge is the men and women that he has taken under his wing.

As side hobbies, he enjoys keeping up with the latest fashion trends, watching the occasional soap opera, exercising, wine (and blood) tasting, prolonging international conflicts, spying on world power and their military exercises, and playing the violin. He does not enjoy most forms of current pop music, considering it lazy, inelegant, and an affront to sophisticated ears.

Out of the Twenty Seven, he can be considered "among the bottom half in raw power, but among the most efficient and lethal to mankind overall" which is why he has such a high rank, as opposed to Merem Solomon, who I (Personally) consider to be "among the top half in overall destructive capability". While he has made fun of Louvre in the story, they are roughly the same age (again, something I have made up), which makes him the youngest of Atlrouge's main bodyguards. He is stronger than Louvre simply because Fina is naturally more distorted than him to the point that he has mastered his Reality Marble for centuries already.

Overall he can be considered one of the most social and accepting of the Twenty Seven Apostle Ancestors, and shares many viewpoints with Vam Fem when it comes to humans despite the fact that there is bad blood between them. He is somewhat capable with modern technology and recognizes its worth, but relies on his subordinates for tasks that require more advanced knowledge.

In contrast, Fina is not fond of Magi and members of the Church for reasons and events that stemmed from when he was alive. The former is a bit peculiar as he was born as the inheritor of an at the time reasonably powerful family with a good number of quality circuits that were well suited for his family's field of study.

I will be adding more to his character as more chapters come out.

For Altrouge.. yeah she's pretty much going to be an off screen boss for this fic. Kinda like Barthomelloi only more so in this case. Keep in mind that she doesn't really care one bit about Shirou, Kiritsugu, or anyone named Emiya. She's just keeping her priorities straight. I took some liberties with her personality and such, but not to the level that I'm going with Svelton.

Overall, I'm timing things such that the Grail War takes place roughly six months to a year after the events of Meltyblood… or events that yield the same results as what happened in Meltyblood. I know that Tsukihime happens in 2000, and meltyblood supposedly happens a yearish after that, but I'm being a bit liberal in this case and stretching that time gap a bit more. So sue me.

As for those of you who are confused as to why the hair is important… well, let's just say that Merem Solomon is one of Arucreid's biggest fans… metaphorically speaking.

On a side note though, No. Arucreid, Shiki, and everyone from Tsukihime are not appearing in this fic. They are mentioned at the most.

Shirou's condition turning like that is a bit out of the blue, but there is a reason for it that I was going to put in this chapter but then it got too long.

There are also going to be more scenes coming from the clocktower in the oncoming chapters. Shirou may be out of reach, but someone in particular there is going to be in some real deep shit real soon.

On other news… no one has picked up my challenge yet. BOOO! Go back to the Author Notes two chapters ago and look at it again!

I'm going to give FFD a bit of a break and start working on my Naruto fic again. It's been a while over there and some of the fans are starting to get a bit tweaked.

Um… tv tropes please. More fanart please. FSN anime coming out damn soon. Claymore manga finished. Kenichi manga finished. Naruto manga… still dead to the world as far as anyone's concerned. Tried to speed run fate hollow ataraxia and 100% it but only got to before my job sent me halfway across the country for a month.

Really. I got the project on a Thursday, and the higher ups sent me out on Sunday night to work on Monday. It sucked balls.

Meh. Tired now. Gonna sleep and try to ignore all the curses and rage that will be sent my way by tons of individuals that I won't specify.

So Review! Worship the Log! Never ask Arucreid Brustud for a Haircut! And REVIEW AGAIN!


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